French Drains (better late than never)

Posting a check-in on Sunday is going to be difficult.  I work as a couple and family therapist in private practice, and I work most of the day on Sundays seeing clients.  Yesterday, before I left for the office, I helped Alex paint in the basement and right when I got home from the office, we left for dinner at my parents' house.  No excuses, but I'm realizing that I'll need to work on the Sunday post ahead of time so that I can just upload it.

I'll be better this week.  And since I mentioned the basement a few sentences ago, I'll leave everyone with some teaser photographs about where we've been since November of last year with the "basement project"...

Water damage! Seeping under the floors and through the walls for YEARS. Most of the studs in the exterior basement walls were rotted out and the old insulation was full of mold.

So...french drains were installed.  And when I say installed, I mean a two foot trench was jack-hammered and scooped out all the way around the basement.  Then the pipe and rock were laid, and new concrete was poured. This is the view from the corner of the TV room.

Another view of the trench at the bottom of the stairs.

We should have installed the french drains before Alex laid new flooring and built a bar in part of the basement, but installing them late was better than never.  And we've come a LONG way since these photos were taken.  I promise this next week I'll do a better job of 1) posting something cohesive and 2) posting it on time!