The State of the Basement
For folks who aren’t on Facebook: When Hurricane Ida arrived on Wednesday, my basement took in 3 inches of water. (The backyard got almost a foot at the deepest part.) Fortunately, Jethrien and I saw it start coming in at 9:30, so we spent the next three hours rushing everything low-lying to higher ground. The water came in, receded, came in again, and then drained again, leaving our carpet destroyed (and swampy) and the bookshelves unstable. I called the flood insurance and filed a claim between the waves and contacted several water/mold remediation companies at the same time.
First thing Thursday morning, I got a storage unit a few blocks away and made phone calls until I managed to get emergency movers for that afternoon to get everything off the shelves from my basement (mostly books, so many books) into it. I also managed to get a mold remediation guy I worked with a few years ago to bump me up his list, so his guys started arriving as the movers were filling boxes. They spent the rest of the day tearing up my carpet and cutting out chunks of walls, but managed to save my futon, sectional sofa, coffee table, and two small bookcases. (The wall of bookcases, including the games cabinet and TV stand, are gone.)
Later investigation revealed that most of my electronics survived, except for the Wii, which had its AC adaptor go into the water. Actually, a Joy-con that went swimming dried out and appears to work fine once more. The washer and drier sat in two inches of water but seem to be fine. When I tallied all of the lost contents for the insurance company, it was only around $2,000, and most of that furniture. (I’m pressing them to pay for the movers and storage, though-if the books had sat in the damp, they’d have molded and we’d have lost so much more.)
The mold guys came back yesterday, collected their equipment and checked everything to pronounce it dry and safe. Today the insurance adjuster came through and we gave him all the pictures and videos we took.
I'll need to get a contractor to replace the drywall and rebuild my closets; one is supposed to come by tomorrow afternoon. Then I’ll need to get the carpet guy in to replace the carpet, then buy new shelves, then get the movers to bring everything back. (I also need to look into potentially getting a pump for the backyard for going forward; and whether I want to get tile or vinyl flooring with area rugs over it instead of a third round of wall-to-wall.) But right now I've reached "nothing will get worse on its own" and I have time to breathe a little, so that's good.
First thing Thursday morning, I got a storage unit a few blocks away and made phone calls until I managed to get emergency movers for that afternoon to get everything off the shelves from my basement (mostly books, so many books) into it. I also managed to get a mold remediation guy I worked with a few years ago to bump me up his list, so his guys started arriving as the movers were filling boxes. They spent the rest of the day tearing up my carpet and cutting out chunks of walls, but managed to save my futon, sectional sofa, coffee table, and two small bookcases. (The wall of bookcases, including the games cabinet and TV stand, are gone.)
Later investigation revealed that most of my electronics survived, except for the Wii, which had its AC adaptor go into the water. Actually, a Joy-con that went swimming dried out and appears to work fine once more. The washer and drier sat in two inches of water but seem to be fine. When I tallied all of the lost contents for the insurance company, it was only around $2,000, and most of that furniture. (I’m pressing them to pay for the movers and storage, though-if the books had sat in the damp, they’d have molded and we’d have lost so much more.)
The mold guys came back yesterday, collected their equipment and checked everything to pronounce it dry and safe. Today the insurance adjuster came through and we gave him all the pictures and videos we took.
I'll need to get a contractor to replace the drywall and rebuild my closets; one is supposed to come by tomorrow afternoon. Then I’ll need to get the carpet guy in to replace the carpet, then buy new shelves, then get the movers to bring everything back. (I also need to look into potentially getting a pump for the backyard for going forward; and whether I want to get tile or vinyl flooring with area rugs over it instead of a third round of wall-to-wall.) But right now I've reached "nothing will get worse on its own" and I have time to breathe a little, so that's good.