The Housing Report: June 19

On my way back into town today, I decided to drive by the house to check on its progress. What I found was a flooded basement and a neighborhood that looked as though a twister had ripped through it. And because we didn't have any power, nothing could be done with the 8 inches of water that bubbled in our newly framed basement.

I suppose if you want to look on the bright side, there was no drywall installed, so the lower level was just cement and boards. However, I of course, have been focused on the "now what?" all day. Specifically, "Why did this happen?" and "What's going to stop if from happening again?"

The flooding has exposed a few possible, critical missteps on the part of either our contractor or architect. For example, "Why was an extractor pump removed from the plans by the city without anybody telling us?" Sure, it has nothing to do with pumping sewer water out of the basement, but it's deletion would have brought to our attention the need for flooding protection as we thought an extractor pump was just another name for a sump pump. So we would have asked. They would have told us the difference. And my next question would have been, "Then what's going to keep the basement from flooding?"

And if any work would have needed to be done on the new sewer line to the street to keep water from rushing back into the house, it should have been done the first time we spent over $7K to dig up the front yard. Because if they now tell us we need to revisit the sewer line, and it's going to cost more money, I've got a few choice words prepared.

So on Monday, I'm getting to the bottom of it. Somebody will take ownership and it won't be us.