5. Preparations

First order of business was to clean up the basement to get ready for some construction. This is my starting point . . .

Once cleaned, I'm left with this . . .

If you look closely, you'll see that there is a hole in the floor coming off of one of the support poles. This was cut to connect a drain line from the new laundry room I built upstairs.

However, the day following the digging, the hole was full of water, but several inches below the bottom of the basement floor. Turns out it was an underground spring just passing thru. I abandoned the idea of connecting the drain line at this point and ran it overhead instead. I filled the hole with gravel and let it set for 9 months to see if the level of the water would rise. Once I was convinced it would not be a problem, I filled it with cement. End of story.

After spending the first winter in the house, I realized that one long wall and part of another that are exposed to the elements (walkout basement) conduct quite a bit of cold. So I decided I should finish off this section of the basement with insulation and drywall. Here's the load of insulation to be installed, but first I have to do some minor wall repair and seal a few cracks to help prevent water from coming in at these points. That's all for now. Unless I run into problems, the next entry will have the insulation finished and the start of installing the furring strips to support the drywall. Adios, amigos!