The basement is dry!

I have been waiting to post these pics because I wanted to end it by taking pics of what it looks like now. Unfortunately, I can't seem to make that happen so before I lose these pics of the Thrasher demo and redo I will just post what I have.

On the Monday after Thanksgiving, Thrasher came to our house and settled in for two weeks to replace two walls of our foundation and to stabilize the other two.

Here's one of the original problems...

 Thrasher came in two teams. This first team demo'd the entire basement. They tore out all the walls and made a ginormous mess. They were pretty good about cleaning up each night but the dust was horrible!

Here you can see the leaning walls. After they tore everything out and I saw what was happening I couldn't believe that the old window didn't just slip right off the wall.

 They put these posts in all around the basement. They are tightened over time and straighten the wall.

 On two of the walls they put rebar in and then sprayed on 10 inches of concrete.

 The plywood is where the egress window will go.

 Here's the sprayed concrete. This took about 4 hours and was so loud I had to leave the house. When I came back, there was a haze of dust all through the living room and dining room.

 I had to call a plumber to move these pipes so they could concrete the walls.

 Under the steps leading from the backyard, downstairs. I'm guessing this is where many of our mice family members came in before the added concrete.

 Looking from the other side under the steps. 

 Thrasher dug a trench all around the basement floor. This is the sump and dehumidifier. The basement now smells awesome.

 The second team finished the trench and put the waterproof walls on.

 The first team came back and cut the egresss window and put in the window well. The weather held out- it was a gorgeous two weeks. 

 The egress is huge! At code, a fireman with all his gear has to be able to get in and out the window. We are set with that. I told Elise we could turn it into a window bench. It is so nice with the light that it lets in during the day.

And here's our new living area. Eliot and Elise love hanging out on the couch watching tv or playing xbox. As soon as Thrasher was done, we had an electrician come in and spent some time replacing the original knob and tube wiring. We still have more wiring to replace, but we ran out of money. And also patience. The day before New Years Eve the electrician finally finished up. We had extra people, equipment and mess in my house every day except Christmas day. I was done with that!

I hope to take some pics of the rough, but clean, dry and functional basement soon!