It’s the simple things in life that you wouldn’t realized was important to you until you didn’t have it. For me it was hot running water, a single working toliet and a cemented basement.
When we first moved in the water had been turned off for a few years. in addition to no water run through the pipes it also included NO working water heater.But we were lucky enough to have two non working water heaters that were still unfortunely hooked up to the homes water pipes full of red/rusty looking water inside them. the largest one appeared to be from the 1950-60’s. Both needed to be drained completely to be removed.
With a good friends help on a very Hot and Humid sunday in July the boys got to cleaning out and lifting up the nasty water heaters out of the cellar door. In addition to having this strong back our good friend also helped us install the new water heater, whole house water filter and a water softner system. This was a huge help in the “old house but modern convenience” to help us funtion as a modern family and my 1 st world problems! Hot soft water CHECK
Did I mention the single working toliet? Yes that is right, in this huge house we have only 1 working toliet and shower……in a tiny bathroom….. for 4 people. One night a month after we moved in the one working toliet broke…. thats right it broke….. fear /anixety then came over me. A “What did we do moment! ” To move into a 1860’s brick non working toliet home when we had a left a 1993 home with 3 toliets before. If one was broke NO PROBLEM we had two more to spare…… Aw I still miss this luxury!(some day soon I will have my 3 toliets:) Oh and that broken toliet was replaced with in 2-3 hours. Thank you Lowes for your late hours! Panic subsided plus I needed to remember our two seated outhouse in our old shop. You know if worst came to worst! lol ONLY Toliet fixed CHECK ,CHECK
The last issue I couldn’t handle was the smell and moisture of the dirt basement under the old harness shop part of the house( now is the kitchen and dining room). If we had alot of rain or heat/humidty….. I could smell it…… the Earth/OLD dirt smell. Running two humifiders still never lifted the smell completely. Plus the YEARS of damage it was doing to the wood beams and floorboards make be nervous for the foundation. Not to mention A very real concern living in Iowa is the randon and we needed to have the basement cemented and sealed to install a migration system. ALL these reasons made this a need to fix.
The basement was one we had debated and fought over since we moved in. I wanted it done asap but the rain water coming in through the leaking chimneys became our first priority. Without a roof we would have no house left to fix. This put the basement on the back burner.
We also thought about doing this cement work ourselves because it seems so easy on YOUTUBE right??? WRONG. This is work only for the professionals.
The basement took about 2-3 weeks to get completed. The guys at Reihmann’s Concrete Construction did a great job! New posts, new drain more effective drains installed and a new sump pump pit also installed. These pictures really do speak for themsleves. Cemented and sealed basement…CHECK,CHECK and CHECK
stone wall but a brick opening – it was suppose to be a cooling shelf – but I still believe a tunnel entrance ( Don’t ruin my dreams! )
Our Amana Home 