Saturday started out fun.  Avery came for a playdate and the kids had fun running wild downstairs.  With it being SO FREAKIN’ COLD out, the kids have been caged animals all week.  I’m sure the daycare teachers have lost a few hairs, or gained a few gray ones, since they haven’t had an energy outlet for the little houligans.

One of the nice things about having an unfinished basement is that they can ride their tricycles in the wintertime.  We have a small ball pit, 2 tents with a crawl tunnel in between and their new kitchen in the basement, in addition to their tricycles and scooters.  Avery brought over her new bike she got for Christmas to have her inaugural ride on it.  The kids had such a good time.  So much so that Avery through quite the temper tantrum when her mom told her it was time to leave.  I noticed just how similar the two of them are during that episode!

While I spoke to Avery’s mom I noticed a potential problem in the basement.  There appeared to be some white stuff around the edges.  I was hoping it wasn’t what I thought it might be…but after they left I gave it all a closer look.  Yep…mold.  Something happened to our sump pump piping where it was clogged…again.  The sump pump basin was FULL.  I started taking buckets of water upstairs and dumping them down the drain, and after doing about 20 of them with no change in the level of the water I started to get a little mad.  Brian was at a poker thing so I called and told him what was wrong and he came home shortly thereafter. 

He tried to see if the problem was outside with the pipe to the street and stood out in the frigid weather trying to get to the pipe.  After all that work, it didn’t seem to be the problem.  Meanwhile I was still dumping water…still no change in the water level.  (So…just how much water can be under a 2700 sq. ft. basement???)  Brian went out to the-place-we-spend-a-lot-of-money (aka Home Depot), and bought another pump.  It took the water out of the holding basin through a garden hose all the way upstairs into our kitchen sink.  It took a good two hours to get the water level down.  No wonder we have some mold in our basement…I wonder just how much water was underneath the drain tile. 

The pump is still broke (well, I should say the piping is clogged somewhere), so now we will be spending Superbowl Sunday fixing that and taking a bucket of hot water and bleach around the perimeter of the basement to get the mold cleaned up. 

I know, it sounds like so much fun you wish you could join in!

I really hope that some day we can finish our basement but things like this make me wonder if it is possible.  We have visions of a recreation room, a fireplace and a spare bedroom.  The piping is in for a bathroom  and there is a chimney that is ready for a fireplace.  Oh, the dreams we have!  For right now it is a good place f1or the kids to play (when there isn’t mold to step in that is), and hopefully we can figure out how to get control of the moisture. 

Apparently we need to go down there more and pay a little bit of attention to our sump basin.  Of course, if I had kept up on my exercise resolutions I would have been down there more and noticed what was happening… Dang it, busted on that!  Of course, I have paid for it now.  I’m sure that you can imagine, but my body is just a little bit sore after carrying 30-40 buckets of water up the stairs.  Fun stuff!