The guys finished the basement on Wednesday and Thursday, including the new wall in the garage. School was out in Ne City on Friday, so we took Matthew's new buddy home and he helped us scrub the mold off the studs in the bedrooms. No simple task there. Plus, it was so cold in there that we could hardly move! We snagged a couple small heaters from my dad and kept plugging away. 
My cousin told me about a mold killer, disinfectant and mold barrier all in one, so we found that, but it was supposed to be attached to the end of a garden hose. Since we don't have water hooked up, we got a chemical sprayer and mixed a little with water and saturated, scrubbed, then rinsed with the same stuff. It smelled like about half bleach, so I'm trusting it will do the job!! About the time I was exhausted and dizzy, I started getting phone calls and had to stop to organize all the different crews and plans. When I came back, the boys had it all done! Talk about timing!!
We also now have a door on the basement leading out, but no top door yet. Please pray for moisture to hold off so it won't fill the new basement! We are also on a standstill until the back yard dries up a bit. The basement stairway out isn't long enough for the staircase, so we need the back to dry up so they can get some trucks in there to extend it. This isn't the kind of thing that happens in the spring, so much prayer will be needed for that to proceed. Going back over there today to see about some holes getting filled that we found while cleaning. No wonder it was so cold in the bedrooms!!
Well, the snow stopped the wonderful progress! Last week was so perfect for pouring concrete that the guys had to get one more project in Thursday. So, Matthew and I took the opportunity to get a little early burning in!
We certainly had a lot of overgrowth this summer. There also seems to be a ton of spiders. No love lost torching those!!
The Friday rains also brought a muddy back yard and the cement truck couldn't get to the basement to pour the new floors. The weekend snow didn't really help, either! They're planning on building a chute to take it in through the garage tomorrow. Sure hope that works. I'm really anxious to keep going. I never expected it to take this long and can't believe how far we still have to go.
The SBA called with progress on the loan. Which is little. We'll get a small chunk sometime next week, but lots more paperwork before it can really move. I am happy to say that the money does seem to come in as the bills do. It's just too bad that it's only a LOAN! But it's a better loan than our current mortgage, so we are just calling ourselves blessed and moving on with things. It's so hard to deal with everything and just be so unsettled at the same time. Michael had to come to me looking for light bulbs tonight. I couldn't even tell him where to find them! Our lives right now are just hither and yon and no one really knows where anything is!
One day...
Anyway, we continue to praise God through the storm and the rebuilding. I can't see His plan at the moment, but I will forever believe that He is in control, and that none of this is my home anyway! Thanks to those who continue to pray for us and send help our way. We all pray that we will be able to pay it forward in the future.
Well, I thought I was waiting for indoor floors, but instead I have a new garage floor! It wasn't in the plan at all, and actually added about $3000 to the project, which we did NOT need!!! However, we just had so many problems compounding on each other that there really didn't seem to be any choice in the matter.
I'm a little surprised I have this picture, but I know why I took it. It was one of those times where I wondered how they were going to do that. The new basement wall didn't line up with the old upper wall, so there was nowhere for the bedroom/garage wall to set. Originally, they were going to carve about 4ft into the garage concrete so the new basement wall would be under the original wall, but the footings were some 8ft thick, so they didn't go all the way. Not a clue what the plan was, but I see why they couldn't go there! So now there was going to have to be some kind of flat concrete pad laid to build a new wall where the old one had been.
We were also looking at some problems outside to the west. We raised the house 2ft, but you can't really bring the garage floor up. That leaves a lot of room for water to travel around and do the very same damage we're trying to repair and divert! By bringing the floor up with this concrete pad, then sloping the entire floor, we could solve both problems! Again, a rather pricey solution!
We were also quite pleased that it solved yet two more problems on the other side of the garage. There wasn't going to be enough space for steps into the mudroom without affecting a walkthrough garage door to the east. With this raised floor, we eliminated the need for the extra step that would have extended to the middle of the walkthrough door. It also met up with the new concrete that was going on outside and allowed our walkthrough door to swing freely over it. We were having severe problems with that door catching on the sidewalk anytime the weather changed.
The guys finished the basement on Wednesday and Thursday, including the new wall in the garage. School was out in Ne City on Friday, so we took Matthew's new buddy home and he helped us scrub the mold off the studs in the bedrooms. No simple task there. Plus, it was so cold in there that we could hardly move! We snagged a couple small heaters from my dad and kept plugging away. 
My cousin told me about a mold killer, disinfectant and mold barrier all in one, so we found that, but it was supposed to be attached to the end of a garden hose. Since we don't have water hooked up, we got a chemical sprayer and mixed a little with water and saturated, scrubbed, then rinsed with the same stuff. It smelled like about half bleach, so I'm trusting it will do the job!! About the time I was exhausted and dizzy, I started getting phone calls and had to stop to organize all the different crews and plans. When I came back, the boys had it all done! Talk about timing!!
