Flooding update

Just a quick update here...

Fortunately, the heavy rains stopped on Monday evening, and since then, our basement has been drying out. We were able to confine the flooding to the laundry-room, office, and the landing at the bottom of the basement stairs, so only perhaps 15 or 20 square feet of carpeting plus a nice area rug was damaged (the rest of it was concrete floor). Unfortunately, that carpet is currently stinking up our house. We've got fans and heaters on it, but a most unpleasant, moldy, "old" smell is invading our basement and wafting its way upstairs - UGH.

We are going to have to replace the carpet, and since it's the same (30 year old) carpet throughout the entire basement, we will probably have to re-do the whole basement. That's going to cost us a pretty penny, so we'll have to see when we do it. I think we're going to put in vinyl or marmoleum flooring in the laundry/office area, because we just might get another flood some time. (sigh)

However, the Home Depot guy showed me a concrete sealing product that he said may help with future problems. After Christmas, when things aren't so crazy, we'll do that, and put flooring on top of it. Fingers crossed that such a simple problem works, because the alternative (French drains) would run us about $10,000 and we are not prepared for that kind of cost.

And in other news...

I leave tomorrow for a Genentech advisory board. I was going to spend a night with Carolyn and family, but poor Zach has both the stomach flu AND strep throat, and unfortunately I don't have the guts to risk getting either of those illnesses, especially when I'm out of town and it's the holidays. Darn it! I was looking forward to hanging out with their family. Anyway, unless I delay my trip by a day, I'll be gone Thurs-Sun (though I may be able to change flights; I'm waiting to talk to my reps to see what they advise tomorrow).

Love to all - I'm off to bed.

Flooding

Well, today could have been better. Of course, it could have been worse, but it definitely could have been better.

Today it is pouring rain in Seattle. Not your average misty Seattle style rain, but really coming down in buckets, without letting up. (This is also not average for Seattle; even on a rainy day there are usually periods of clearing.) The ground is so saturated that the ground water has nowhere to go...except into our basement.

Since about 8am, Ryan has been using the wet and dry vac on our basement floors, primarily in the laundry room and office aka kitchenette downstairs (originally a MIL kitchen, we use it for an office). The water has been coming in as fast as we can bail it out, which has been frustrating and back-breaking work. (Ryan calculates that the wet and dry vac holds about 100 pounds of water, which he has been lifting into the utility sink to drain it out many times per hour.) I borrowed a smaller vac from the Hisatomi's, and tried to do my share, while keeping up with Tessa, etc.

Ugh.

Ryan had to use a vacation day to do this work - what a drag!

Hopefully tomorrow will be better. It's not raining at the moment and so we're hoping for a reprieve....