Don't worry, I spared the graphic details. You can ask us about those in person.
My parents came over yesterday to help with the basement. We finished painting the basement bathroom. Touched up some paint spots, and started painting the ceiling in the basement. We also installed the outlets and covers, and did a bunch of small stuff. My dad and brother are making some built-in shelving for the basement so they are really close to finishing that.
The things we had left to do? Install the doors, Install the trim and chair rail, Install the carpet. We also have to paint the shelving that my dad and bro are installing. Then there's the bar. We need to paint and install the cabinets and countertops. And do the flooring in the bathroom and bar area. We also had to install the vanity, sink, toilet and mirror in the bathroom. But essentially we were in the home stretch. Roughly 3 days of work as we were going to pay professionals to install the carpet.
My parents came over yesterday to help with the basement. We finished painting the basement bathroom. Touched up some paint spots, and started painting the ceiling in the basement. We also installed the outlets and covers, and did a bunch of small stuff. My dad and brother are making some built-in shelving for the basement so they are really close to finishing that.
The things we had left to do? Install the doors, Install the trim and chair rail, Install the carpet. We also have to paint the shelving that my dad and bro are installing. Then there's the bar. We need to paint and install the cabinets and countertops. And do the flooring in the bathroom and bar area. We also had to install the vanity, sink, toilet and mirror in the bathroom. But essentially we were in the home stretch. Roughly 3 days of work as we were going to pay professionals to install the carpet.
Here's how it happened.
Mom, Dad and my bro leave our house. C and I decided to order Chinese, so we placed our order and were getting ready to leave the house. I thought something smelled funny in the house, so I followed the smell to the basement, turned on the light, but I didn't see anything. Our washing machine empties into the sump pit, and sometimes the sump pit will smell funny. I just figured I needed to pour more bleach in the pit, which was a "tomorrow problem" so off we went to go pick up the Chinese food.
We came back about 30 minutes later and the smell was MUCH stronger. I knew exactly what happened. I went to the basement and saw a ton of water in the basement. Probably only a few inches, but enough to do some serious damage. I screamed that there is water in the basement, and ran past C to go see why our lift gate (which was inspected 1.5 MAX months ago) did not stop the water. All I know is the man hole had about 2 ft of water in it, and there was no way I was going down there.
April of 2013 when we got the flood, all we had to do to get the lift gate to close was jiggle the handle. So off I went to go find a stick or something long enough to jiggle the rod. Somehow I didn't have shoes on, so here I was running around the yard in socks trying to find something to jiggle the handle. Meanwhile I was frantically calling my parents trying to get them to come back over to the house. Not really sure what they could do, but I still called them. I kept imagining me dropping my phone in the man hole. Thankfully I didn't do that. Anyway, I found a stick, but it was too short. Then I grabbed a hose wand we have, and was able to jiggle the rod a bit. No idea if that helped or not.
Meanwhile, C was in the bathroom, with his foot holding a rag in place where the toilet used to be attempting to stop the water from coming up. It worked, but as soon as he moved his foot, the water would flood back in. So he was stuck where he was. Standing in sewage.
By the time I got down to the basement, the water was not coming up anymore. But by this time the rain had also stopped. The water drained pretty fast, maybe something like 20 minutes later all the water was drained. But the damage was done. Not to mention the smell and the sludge remained.
Of course by this time it was nearing 7 PM on a Saturday. All the insurance companies were closed. Luckily we prepared for this event, and we have double coverage. So reimbursement shouldn't be a problem.
But the cleaner guys will be coming tomorrow. They are going to have to remove 1-2 ft of drywall (insurance companies sometimes require 2 ft removal even though we only got an inch or so of water). And then spray all the studs with a antimicrobial. Then the insurance company should cover replacing the drywall. But I'm not sure about mudding or taping the drywall, painting, nor replacing the interior doors.
We easily are delayed about a month. Insurance companies NEVER pay people quickly.
When the plumbers came out a month ago or so, they said our lift gate was fine, the pipes were fine, and there should be no problems, however we should pay 8k to upgrade our flood protection to a better, newer technology.
Well, I bet you can guess what we are doing now. We have some savings. We were going to go on a vacation this fall to celebrate our 1 year anniversary, but that wont be happening any time soon. I really wanted to go to Tuscany. But shit happens.... (pun intended) I also plan to call the plumbers on Monday to bitch to them. Seriously, this should NOT have happened.
Side note: I did finally get ahold of my parents, and my Dad left their house immediately to come to our house. After he surveyed the damage in the basement Dad and C went to Lowes to get some supplies to plug the toilet so it wont happen again any time soon. Luckily, Dad and C have a great sense of humor so all throughout Lowes they were making poop jokes. Shit happens, Such a shitty day. I don't know the details as I wasn't there, but they had a ton of fun. Hah.
I blame myself for not going to investigate further where the smell was coming from. C blames himself for taking the toilet out yesterday. Perhaps that extra head (engineer term) would have helped prevent backflow.
I know hindsight is 20/20, but this blows.
