No need

Since we cut a hole in the cement wall to connect the two basements we desided that we had no need for the stairs that were for the old part of the basement. we took out the stairs and turned that area into a storage area in the basement and a little broom closet up stairs.

breaking down walls

While we are doing work in the basement, we desided to connect the two basements. For those of you that don't know we had the new basement which was a finished basement it is the one where the wall were caving in and there was an old basement that was a cement basement that had a spare room and storage. Where i wanted to put the hole to connect the basements we had to move the water heater, the chimney and the central vac. Lorne and Ken came up to help me take out the chimney. I was able to get a small hole in the chimney before they got here. Jay was the one that cut the hole in the cement wall, and he ened up calling Ken up for some extra help. It was a foot thick and it took three different saws and a lot of hard dirty work to get it done but it is worth it

Blue Skin

Once we had all the dirt dug out it was time for the blueskin membrane. Before we could put it on we had to scrape the dirt off the walls with a wire brush. We spent Saturday working on the walls and adding gravel to the dirt in the trench so harden it up. We had it all ready to put the membrane up on Sunday. Jay and I cut it all first and then when Lorne and Ken came up we were ready to put it on. Ken used a roller and painted the primer on the walls and Lorne and Jay put the sheets of membrane on. After the first few sheets and they figured out the best way to put in on it went fairly fast. They finished putting on the membrane and then stopped for lunch. After the break we started to put in the weeping tile and drain rock. we had to use five gallon pails to haul some of the drain rock to where it needed to go. By supper time we had the drain rock put down around the house except for the last 10 feet or so where Jay had to tie the weeping tile into the sump pump. (It was still to muddy to do that). We also filled in the trench along the side of the house, see previous post.

One Week

We started working digging out the dirt between the house and garage last Sunday. We started by using a mini backhoe but the machine could not reach the whole way that needed to be dug out. We still had to dig out about a 5 foot section down six feet by hand. On Wed Lorne came out and started digging with a spade. He made it down about 4 feet the whole five foot section before he left for the day. Jay went out after supper and the next moring and finished digging out the last couple of feet. On Sat we scraped down the walls with a wire brush to get it ready for the water proof membrane. By the end of Sun we had the hole filled back up again almost to the end. We used wheelbarrow and shovels to fill the hole back in. Lorne and Ken came up to help on Sun with this job.

Pushing It

Once dug out all the dirt we had to come up with a way to push the walls back out so they were straight and we could brace them. Duane came up with the idea of using a jack all and some 4x4's. It was not the safest set up but it worked really well.

Here are a couple of before and after pics of the walls. the pic on bottom right has a yellow rope on the ground to show where the 4x4's were sitting from the before pic.

Digging up Dirt

Jay started to dig out the dirt with a little backhoe, on the left, it wasn't doing the job so he took it back and got the next size up. It worked better but he could not get down as far as he needed to and it as taking a long time, at the rate he was going it would take him several days to get it done. These pic are what he got done before we called in a full size backhoe.

The boys had fun watching the backhoe digging up the dirt along the back of the house. They were not to sure what to think when they could feel the house shake every once and a while.

It got a little stressful when the backhoe was digging around the gas line with the big tree branch underneath it. I am so glad everything turned out ok. The one tree branch was as big as Jay's arm and it pushed up against the house for several feet ( the same place that the 2x6's were broken on the inside)

What we found

Once we got rid of all the water, we had to start the clean up. We had to rip up all the carpet (that we just put down the year before) and the flooring in Embers room. We tore down the dry wall and found that the insulation was wet for about 4 feet up the wall. Behind the drywall we were able to see what kind of shape our walls were in. we found out it was worse than we thought and knew we had a lot of work a head of us.

The top pic is part of the north wall. The previous owners had built a second wall over top of the 4x4 's. Some of the broken 2x6 's were pushing up against the 4x4's ( it didn't show up very well in my other pics) The second pic is part of the west wall. The south wall also had some 2x6's that were broken but not as bad as these ones. In order to fix the walls we have to dig all the dirt from around the three walls, so we can take some of the pressure off of the walls in order to straighten them out. once we get them straighten we are adding more braces in. The walls were built with 2x6 every 16 inches. We are adding a 2x6 on each side of the 2x6 that are all ready there.

The Start of it all

In June our basement was flooded. I used the shop vac and haul out over a 100 gallons of water out of Embers room and the storage room before Jay brought home a pump. We took a day or two pump out the water. Here are a couple of pics of the water in the basement.

It has been a while

Things have been busy around here lately, but I guess that is not new. We have been busy with work and then trying to fix the house up. I will be posting pics of what is going on with the house, a lot of changes.

New Hat

Zane was getting tired of sitting in the van with nothing to do. He desided he needed a new hat.

Public Speaking

Each 4H member has to do public speaking at the club level but they have the option to compete if they want. Ember thought it might be fun to compete this year, so she wrote a speach and has been practicing a lot. Last night she had to compete aganist the other 4H members in rouleau, to see who would best repesent the 4H club at the next level of competition. Ember's practicing paid off and she was chosen to go the second round, on March 7. Ember went to the second round and she did a very good job but she placed 4th out of six. I am so proud of her for getting up and talking infront of fifty people. She is already thinking of what she might want to talk about next year.

Hurt

Zane had a rash on his belly and it was bothering him. He said his belly hurt and I tried to put some cream on it but it still did not feel much better. He went and played for a little bit, and then he came back to tell me that his belly didn't hurt anymore, and then he lifted his shirt to show me that the band aids made it feel better. (9 band aids in total)

First Tournament

Zander had his first hockey tournament last weekend. There were a total of six teams and Zander played three games. It was a long day, but it went very well. Zander did very well, and manged playing all the games with out getting to tired. Thier team lost all of thier games, but none of the kids were upset, everyone just had fun playing the game. Zander was so excited when he got a medal at the end of the day.

Four

We went down to Weyburn and had a party for Zane. It was on the same day as Uncle Ken's birthday so they shared the day.

Zane was so happy that he got more hot wheels and tracks for them. He also got a game and some clothes. He had a fun day. We also had a little party on his actual birthday.