April showers bring......flooded basements

In April, we experienced one of the true joys of home-ownership. Our sump-pump failed over Easter weekend, resulting in a completely flooded basement (did I mention that our basement is 100% finished??) We had the water-mitigation guys out to dry out our basement. They had to saw out about 2 feet of drywall all the way around the entire basement. The carpet was also completely destroyed. It was so waterlogged that it had to be replaced (it was old and nasty, anyhow - I didn't feel that bad about the carpet ;-)). They then had to dry everything out with these gigantic fans and de-humidifiers and they put down some anti-mold chemicals all over. Then came the joy of putting it all back together. We hired a contractor to do the work and decided that while we were at it, we would turn the large utility room downstairs into a fabulous laundry room. It was better than I could have imagined it! It was perfect! I loved it - for exactly one week. Seven days after the brand new carpet was laid there was ANOTHER flood. This time it was in another part of the basement; my brand new laundry room. It was a significant amount of water - not the slow seepage that occurs when rainwater is raising the watertable into your basement floor. We panicked - and called the water-mitigation guys to come in again. This time we caught it quickly enough to save the carpet (but not the pad) and I begged them to not saw the drywall underneath my carefully chosen, beautifully applied wall-color. He agreed to put extra fans and dehumidifers to avoid the dreaded sheetrock saw. We got everything dried out and were once again left picking up the mess. We replaced the pad and had the carpet re-tacked. We also had a fancy plumber guy come out and assure us that the second flood was likely due to a non-functioning water softener that one of our well-intentioned workmen plugged in. It was a relief to know that there wasn't something terribly wrong with the pipes or drain-tiles under our house.

So, today was a BIG day. We FINALLY got everything put back together from the second flood! The trim is on, the toys are put away, and my laundry room is put back together. We are so excited, and PRAY that our flooding days are behind us!