Keeping Water Out Of The Basement

We don't have a basement in this house, which makes me a bit nervous during tornado season. There was that one time in Wisconsin when a tornado went through our town...

While we don't have anywhere safe (besides our downstairs bathroom) to go in the event of a tornado, at least we don't have to worry about water in the basement. Some of the people in our neighborhood have some serious puddles in their yards when it rains, so I can just imagine what a basement might look like.

If you have a basement, you may find the following information useful.

If you walk downstairs and notice standing water in the basement, then you know that you have a problem. There are a few reasons as to why you would have water in the basement. If it's rained recently, then water could seep into the room under a door that doesn't meet the floor all the way. There could be a leak from the ceiling. You need to find the source of how the water is entering the basement as soon as possible and repair it before waterproofing the room. If there is any mold or mildew or any structural damage, you need to get these issues fixed before you begin waterproofing.

A basement waterproofing Erie PA company has the tools and supplies needed to keep water out of your basement if you don't want to worry about the work. There are a few things that you can do on your own if you want to tackle the job with the assistance of a waterproofing company. The first thing that you need to do is look around the basement to find any holes or cracks. These need to be filled in with cement so that there isn't a way for water to get into the basement.

Once the source of how water is getting inside is fixed, you need to apply a thin coat of masonry cement to the walls. Make sure it's waterproof cement so that it helps to keep water from getting inside the room. Examine the outside of the home. Attach gutters or extensions at the basement so that water has somewhere to go away from the home instead of settling around the base or getting inside the house. Another option would be to dig a trench around the basement. Put a plastic pipe that's about four inches round in the trench. This will also help to direct water away from the basement and other areas of the home so that there isn't as much of a risk for flooding. Examine the ceiling of the basement, applying a layer of masonry cement to this area as well. Fix any leaks that are present in the ceiling before the cement is applied.

We never had issues with water in our basement in Wisconsin, except for the occasional wet spot on one wall after a rain. We had our contractor come and do some kind of waterproofing, and we never had a problem after that. Oh, and there was the time they were removing the old siding from the house after the tornado and pulled the outside faucet loose - causing water to pour into the basement. Yeah, that was fun. Thankfully it was all clean water, and after some shop vacs, fans, and dehumidifiers, everything was as good as new.

Last Year This Time

Today is not just our wedding anniversary. It's the one-year anniversary of the Eagle Tornado.  Yes, last year we celebrated our anniversary by having a nice dinner on the deck, and then later a tornado roared through our neighborhood and left a path of destruction.

Last year this time, we were walking around in the dark, checking to see if our neighbors were OK, just beginning to get an idea of that destruction.  It wasn't until the morning came that we really got a chance to see the damage.  (Eagle Tornado, the Morning After)
 

All the pics - here.

Today and tonight we've had plenty of wind and rain, lightning and thunder - but thankfully no tornado this year!  We'll be happy never to have another one of those.

When a Tornado Comes to Your Neighborhood

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

I still can't get over the devastation of the tornadoes that have ravaged the Midwest, especially the one that hit Joplin, Missouri.  We had our own tornado last June, and when it hit our neighborhood, we were amazed at the damage.  But, compared to the Joplin tornado, ours was a baby - a mere EF2.  Still, when it hits your neighborhood, it doesn't really matter how 'weak' it is.  It's still important to you and all your neighbors.

So I understand a bit about what the people of Joplin are going through.  We had damage, and we had houses destroyed, but  most thankfully, no one was killed here. I am extremely thankful our tornado wasn't any worse than it was.  Seeing all these tornadoes that have hit this Spring, I know it definitely could have been worse.  The more I see the news coverage from Joplin, the more I realize how much worse it could have been, and the more my heart breaks for all those people who have been affected.

Almost a year later, things here are pretty much back to normal.  I think it's going to take longer for Joplin to recover.  There are many more houses that need rebuilt, a hospital that will need repaired, and so much more for life to get back any semblance of normalcy.  Food, clothing, medical supplies, cars, houses - so many things will need to be replaced and rebuilt. They will come through it and be stronger for it in the end - nothing brings a community closer than going through a disaster together -  but right now it just hurts.

Related articles

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• Joplin tornado death toll rises to 132 (globaltvbc.com)
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I Hope There's Not a Next Time

We went to Best Buy Saturday night with some friends.  He was getting a new cell phone, which takes a while, so we were just waiting, talking, etc.  (After we got the movies we went for - Burlesque, Bambi, Megamind, and pre-orders of The Fighter and The King's Speech)  One of the employees there got to talking about living in Florida and going through hurricanes.  I can't remember exactly how we got on that subject, maybe mentioning the tornado we had this summer, and our friends had a tornado go through their town a few years ago, which thankfully didn't do any damage to their house.  They had a flood later on, but that's another story.

 Anyway, all the talk about hurricanes made me think tornadoes aren't all that bad.  I mean, yes, they are destructive, and I don't want one to come through our neighborhood ever again, but at least they're over quickly.  And the damage isn't quite as widespread.  He said one time they were without power for more than two weeks after a hurricane went through.  After our tornado, they got the power on within a few days, but if the damage had been to a wider area, I'm sure it would have taken longer.  Even a few days is difficult, but thankfully our friends at Generac came around and loaned out generac generators to anyone who needed them.  We put one in the front yard and ran extension cords to our house and to the neighbors next door.  It was good to be able to plug the refrigerator in!  And make my coffee in the mornings.  It's nice having a manufacturer of generators in the community!

Generac offered to let us keep the generator at a discounted price, and we really thought about it but decided not to.  Next time the power goes out, we may regret that decision, but I'm hoping the power company did a really good job fixing the power lines - and it's not like there are any tree limbs left to fall on them!  Now, if we lived in hurricane territory and there was a possibility of losing power for 2 weeks, we'd definitely want one.  The Best Buy employee (I wish I could remember his name; calling him the Best Buy employee seems rude) said that after having to go without power for that long, he went and bought a generator, so they'd be ready for the next time.  I'm just hoping we don't have a next time - at least nothing as serious as a tornado - and I'm definitely not planning to move anywhere that has hurricanes.

Before and After

Our house is finally done - new roof, new siding, new gutters, new trim, new garage door, new lights on the front of the garage. It's like a brand new house!

Here's what it looked like before:

If you don't look too closely, you can't really see too much tornado damage.  It just gives you an idea of what the house looked like before.

And now: (No photo editing involved - unlike those ads for weight loss supplements showing an overweight before and a fit, trim, toned, bikini-wearing after.)
 

It's green!

And, from the back:

We really like the way it turned out and how the colors go together.  What do you think?

Filing an Insurance Claim

The work is almost done on the house, and we got the 2nd check from the insurance company yesterday, so we'll be able to pay our contractor for putting our house back in shape.

We never had to make an insurance claim before (Thankfully!) so it's been educational seeing how it works.  First the adjuster came out and looked at everything, took pictures, made notes, and then he submitted everything to the office.  Then they had to go over everything and determine how much they thought it should cost us to get everything on the list fixed, and they sent us a check for that amount - minus a certain amount that they held back until we actually got the work done.

In the meantime, we got quotes from several contractors and found out that the amount the insurance company said it should cost and the amount it would actually cost to get things fixed, were not the same.  And that is the contractor's job - to work with the insurance company to get to a number that they both can agree on.  So we chose a contractor, and he worked with the insurance company and got everything approved.  And this second check is the rest of the money we need to pay for the actual repairs.

Of course, we have to pay the deductible and for the windows that we chose to replace, but the insurance company is paying to repair all the damages from the tornado.  Which is why we have insurance in the first place.  We hope to never actually have to use it, but we need to have it just in case - just in case a tornado comes through!

The same goes for life insurance.  It's something we never want to actually use, and many people avoid altogether.  It's almost like we feel that just looking at individual life insurance rate quotes is inviting trouble.  We don't feel that way about other kinds of insurance, like homeowners or car insurance.  I wonder why life insurance is different?  All I know is that we don't want to use it and hope never to need it, but I feel better knowing we have it.

Soon, It'll Be Good as New

It looks like we're getting close to getting all the insurance numbers matched up with the contractor's numbers, so we'll be able to start moving on the house.  That means we'll be picking colors for the shingles and the siding, probably this week.  We've been keeping an eye on all the houses in the neighborhood on our morning walks, getting some ideas about what we might and might not want.  I still think we're going to stay pretty close to the colors we have now, but we're thinking of going with a different style of siding.  And all the shingles are better than we had.  After having a tornado go through, everyone is wanting the shingles with a much higher wind rating!

Thankfully we didn't have any serious damage to our house, but it's been two months since the tornado, and we're ready to get things fixed.  The garage door groans more and more every time it's opened or closed.  We just didn't want to get started until we knew exactly what the home insurance was going to cover, and how much.  We've only had to file auto insurance claims in the past, for things like somebody hitting a deer or a coyote, and those were fairly simple - just take the car to the shop, get it fixed, pay the deductible, and the rest was taken care of.  Filing a home insurance claim for tornado damage is a little more complicated (just a little) so it takes a little longer to get things taken care of.   And in the end it's all good, and our house will be just as good as new, or better.

New Windows?

While we're getting our roof shingled and new siding on our house, we're thinking we ought to go ahead and put new windows in.  It's really the best time to do it, since the siding will all have to come off, making installation easier, and if we get the right energy efficient windows we can get the 30% tax credit, too.   It's hard to imagine not doing it.  There just won't be a better time.

The insurance will pay for Cory's window because it got broken and the back patio door that got scratched up, but we'll have to pay for the rest ourselves.  It would be a no-brainer if we knew we were going to be staying in this house for quite a while.  The energy savings are definitely worth it, but it takes quite a few years for the windows to pay for themselves in energy savings.  But, we don't know how long we'll be here.  I'm not saying we're ready to start looking at Wilmington NC real estate or anything.  More likely we'll be looking at Dallas if Jeffrey moves up with Dean Foods.  He's interviewed for a couple jobs there, but they haven't made any decisions yet.  We're just kind of waiting to see what happens.

The question is will the windows pay for themselves if we have to sell the house sometime soon?  Probably not, but still - it's the perfect time to replace them.  It's also probably a good selling point to have all new windows, and siding, and roof, whether here, in the Wilmington NC real estate market, or anywhere else.

Also, I'd hate to not get the new windows and then find out that we won't be looking at any Wilmington NC real estate listings (Though some of those North Carolina houses look really nice! Yes, I did a search, just because - they make it so easy.), or Dallas listings or real estate anywhere else, and that we get to stay here.  Then we'd want to/have to do it before too long anyway, and the installation would cost more, and the tax credits probably won't be available anymore, and it will end up costing us more.

All the Pretty Colors

Since we had the tornado go through our neighborhood, a lot of the houses are getting new shingles and siding.  Several of the houses have already been done, and we're noticing that colors are changing.  We had our house built, so we chose all our colors to begin with, but a lot of people didn't have that option.  They bought their houses from the original owners and just had to take the colors that were already on the houses.  Now they're getting to choose the colors they want. 

There's a house behind us.  It's a big, two-story house that used to be blue.  Now some people like blue.  Actually, I like blue, too.  I just don't think it should be on the outside of a house, at least not a light sky-blue color.  There are some houses in the neighborhood that are a dusky gray-blue color that isn't too bad, but this house was the light blue.  It was not pretty.  Why do they even make siding in that color?  If it wasn't available, people couldn't choose it, and they'd never even know the difference.

Anyway, thankfully the owners chose to go with a very nice green color, and the house is looking so much better now. Several of the other neighbors around us are planning to change colors, too.  We're planning to stay pretty close to our current colors, because we still like them.  Unless the contractor we choose brings out a sample that I just can't resist...

Looking at the Sky on Friday - 64

I’m so glad there’s a meme like Looking at the Sky on Friday, because it means all the time I spend looking at the sky, and taking pictures of it, has a purpose! Click the badge for more info.

We’re sitting in the basement right now, while thunderstorms keep rolling by.  We’ve been down here all evening.  Luckily they’ve passed us by, but several tornadoes have been sighted in the area tonight.  This Wisconsin weather has been strange this summer with all the tornadoes.  You don’t normally think of tornadoes when you think of Wisconsin.  And it’s not just tornadoes tonight, it’s flooding too, and a sinkhole that swallowed a car.  I bet the owner of that vehicle is going to look in the Robern Medicine cabinet to find something for that headache as soon as he gets home.  It just doesn’t stop!

Beth was upset because Tim was over at his boss’s house after work, and they saw two funnel clouds drop out of the clouds in the field next to the house.  Beth has always wanted to see a tornado, maybe be a storm chaser.  I wonder what she’d do if she really saw one.

Me, I’d rather see blue sky and white puffy clouds like this:

Maybe tomorrow, because you know what they say about Wisconsin weather – if you don’t like it, just wait and it’ll change.  (or something like that)

If you enjoy skies as much as I do, be sure to check out Looking at the Sky on Friday.

Aerial Pictures of Tornado Damage

A friend sent me an email with these aerial pictures of the tornado damage in Eagle.  I've seen most of this from ground level, but these shots from the air give a whole different perspective.

This first is Old World Wisconsin, which I've mentioned in previous posts.  All those trees are just, down.  From what I understand, none of the restored buildings were seriously damaged.  The trees here were along the entry drive and through the parking area.

Then the tornado moved on and knocked down trees, scattered debris, and ripped the roof off this house.  Most of it had been torn down when Jeffrey and I walked by this morning.  I expect it will all be down in the morning.

More damage.  I haven't actually seen this, but just WOW.  Check out all those trees just laid over, pulled up by the roots.

This big pole barn was completely destroyed.  The houses in the upper right are part of our subdivision.

This was our fire chief's house.  I've walked by there.  I knew it was completely destroyed, but I didn't get the full impact of what that meant until I saw this picture.  There's the basement, and then there's the whole house just smashed and scattered.

The street in this next picture?  The one in middle running left to right?  That's our street.

Thankfully, the street curves before it gets to our house, and the tornado didn't exactly follow the curve.  Our house is in this next pic - in the upper right corner where you see 3 driveways to the left of the street, our house is the middle one.

The cul-de-sac on the bottom there is the one in the picture w/ the destroyed pole barn.

Our house is in this next one, too - on the far right.  You can just see our driveway and a couple windows.

I'm not sure who took these pictures, but I just had to share.

Some Things Can't be Replaced

Since the tornado, this house has been sitting on its corner, missing a garage, pushed off the foundation, leaning at an unnatural angle.  Yesterday, they brought in the big equipment and demolished it, loading everything into a big dumpster to be hauled away.  I found myself crying while I watched.  Just thinking about it now makes me cry.

I don't know why.  I don't know the people who lived there.  I don't know anything about them, but every time we walk by there I keep wondering if they had a chance to get into the house to see if they could salvage anything, hoping they weren't told it wasn't safe and they couldn't even try.  Most things can be replaced, like furniture and books and knick knacks. An inogen oxygen concentrator can be replaced, and even computers, digital cameras, and TVs - but what about the important stuff?  What about wedding pictures and baby pictures and pictures from all those vacations?  Those are the kinds of things that can't be replaced.  I hope they got a chance to save some of those.

Where'd the Mailboxes Go?

Jeffrey and I were walking this morning, when the paper delivery man pulled into a driveway in front of us, and his helper tossed the newspaper into the driveway.  Normally he can just drive down the street and put the papers into the paper boxes which are attached to everybody's mailboxes, but there are quite a few of those missing. After a tornado, even simple things like delivering the newspaper get a little harder.

In our neighborhood, the mailboxes are all on one side of the street, two boxes to a pole.  Our boxes are on our side of the street, at the end of our driveway.  Our mailbox survived intact, while the neighbors' box was blown off the pole.  These are the same neighbors who live across the street, who had the end of their house and garage torn off - as well as the gas leak, several broken windows, a broken water line, and I don't know what else.  It's almost like adding insult to injury that the mailbox was also blown away!  It was found and returned to them the next day, though, and Jeffrey helped him put it back up yesterday - so at least they'll be able to get mail, even if they can't live in the house for the next few months.  (It's the little things.)

Some of the other neighbors might not be so lucky.  Their mailboxes may never be found, and they'll have to get new residential mailboxes - along with new carpeting, new siding, new roofs, new furniture...

Looking at the Sky on Friday - 60

I’m so glad there’s a meme like Looking at the Sky on Friday, because it means all the time I spend looking at the sky, and taking pictures of it, has a purpose! Click the badge for more info.

We’ve been the center of attention this week.  All day Tuesday, these guys were circling, at least one for every local station, I think.

The thing about a natural disaster is that even a small town like ours can make the news – but nobody’s got power so we can’t watch!  And everyone’s too busy cleaning up to have time to watch anyway, even if we’d known that the best buy we could have made ahead of time was a generator!

If you enjoy skies as much as I do, be sure to check out Looking at the Sky on Friday.

Eagle Tornado, the Morning After

The morning after the tornado, after checking out our own house, we walked around the neighborhood to start checking out the damage.  The more we saw, the more we realized how minor our damage was and how much worse it could have been.  We only walked partially down our street and didn't even see the worst of the damage.  What we did see was bad enough.

To give you an idea of where these houses are in relation to ours, I've tried circling some of them on this map.  Our house is circled in yellow.

The house directly across the street from ours: (circled in red)


and then on the street behind that house:  (left: turquoise, right: green)


A little ways down our street, looking down the first cross street: (left: orange, right: green)


That last house there (circled in green) was completely moved off the foundation, and right across the street from it, where it says 300 on the map, that house belonged to our fire chief, and it was totally destroyed - no house left, just a basement in the ground and a bunch of debris.

You can see the rest of the pics on Flickr.  Start here with the house across the street, and scroll to the left through the photo stream.  I did not continue circling houses, but basically we walked down the street just looking at both sides of the street and being totally shocked by what we saw.

The good news is - no one was killed, and there was only one minor injury.  Houses can be rebuilt, roofs can be repaired, pond fountains can be replaced, trees will eventually grow again, but people can't be replaced.  Journal Sentinel article with some more info about the tornado can be found here.

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After the Tornado: Our House

First things first – assess damage to our house and take pictures.

Drywall inside our bedroom:

Front door:

Cory’s window, screen ripped and the outer glass broken:

Side of the garage by the front door, missing soffit:

Front of garage, covered with debris.  Something hit it and dented it, though it’s hard to see in the pic.  Also, the missing soffit allowed debris to get into the garage where it coated the cars and motorcycle, and probably everything else, too.

Our basketball hoop was in the ditch:

Debris all over the front of the house:

Missing soffit and fascia on the other side of the garage:

 

Broken deck railing.  That blue thing in the 2nd pic is not ours.  Some of our deck furniture ended up in the yard, but luckily did not go far and did not sustain any damage except for some broken tiles.  Also, luckily the wheels on the grill weren’t locked, so it ended up rolling across the deck and lodging against the table, where it stayed without falling over.

Missing shingles in the back of the house:

Downed tree branches and my tomato plants:

Our poor trees:

Both these trees were here when we moved into the house, along with a third one which was destroyed by wind several years ago.  Jeffrey has been talking about getting rid of one of them for a while now, because they’re really too close to one another.  Now it looks like both of them will be going.

There used to be a plant here, and mulch too:

Some of that mulch ended up all over the house.  Also, we don’t know what it was, but something hit the end of our house.  This is where the drywall in our bedroom got punched in.  There was other damage to the siding all over this wall.

Missing shingles here and there and a bunch of debris in the yard, but it’s still standing, and it still looks like our house:

It could have been so much worse.  For a lot of families in the neighborhood, it was, which you will see when we tour part of the neighborhood in my next post.

Tornado in Eagle

A little after 9pm on Monday, June 21, a tornado came through our neighborhood.  They were telling us on TV that some severe weather was coming, but they say that all the time and often tend to over exaggerate, so we weren’t paying that much attention.  We got some amazing lightning and really loud claps of thunder, along with some rain.  Cory and I were watching the lightning from the garage and then from the back door.  Then it pretty much let up, and we thought it was over – until the wind really starting picking up.  Chairs on the deck started falling over, and the grill started rolling the other way.  Rain started whipping in the windows, and Cory’s fan blew out of his.  So we started running around closing windows, and Jeffrey went to close the garage door.  And then the power went out, and he yelled, “Get to the basement!”  I grabbed my computer (I have my priorities), and Cory and I went down the pitch-dark stairs to the basement – but Jeffrey didn’t come, because he was still closing the garage door.  Finally he came down, and we just listened to the wind whip around outside.

When it was over, we came back upstairs, but couldn’t really see much since it was dark.  The neighbors across the street had a gas leak, so they came over to get away from our house, and we tried to flag down a fire truck or somebody to get the gas turned off.  There were several emergency vehicles going by and already about a block over.  They finally got one stopped, and once they were aware of the leak, the officials told us we had to evacuate the neighborhood.  We were supposed to go to the fire station, but we came across downed trees and power lines and couldn’t get there.  Finally we found someone who said to go to the Village Hall and that it was safe to walk that direction.  There was a tree completely blocking the street, but we could get around it by walking up someone’s driveway and between their vehicles.  There were branches and other debris in the streets the rest of the way, but nothing major and no power lines, so we made it safely to the Village Hall where they had a generator set up to run a couple lights.  We were there for a little while, until they told us the gas had been turned off, and we could go home.  On the way home we found that the tree that had been blocking the street had already been cleared.

There were so many people out in the streets, going from house to house, checking on all the neighbors.  The fire department was going through, also going from house to house making sure everyone was accounted for.  Several news crews were in town and fire trucks and police cars from every surrounding community.  My friend Mary called me about the time we were walking home from the Village Hall and said she’d heard that 6 houses had been destroyed.  In the dark, though, it was hard to really assess the damage and get an idea of how bad it was.  The neighbors across the street, the ones who’d had the gas leak, had the side of their house and garage ripped off as well as several broken windows.  They had to have some friends come pick them up, because they couldn’t even get their cars out of the garage.   Our house seemed fine - Cory’s window was broken, but only the outer glass, and something hit the end of the house and punched into the drywall in our bedroom, but not all the way through – so we didn’t have to go anywhere and eventually got to bed. 

First thing Tuesday morning, the news helicopters began circling, and it was time to really assess the damage…

Safety in the Inner Bank

Image via WikipediaDid you see the video of that huge tornado in Colorado last week? Tornadoes really scare me. Beth keeps saying she wants to see one, but I will be perfectly happy if I never do. I'm also very, very thankful that I have a basement - just in case. I won't be seeing that tornado. I will be hiding in the basement. Other people can see them and take the pictures for me to see later.

I think it was that tornado in Colorado that destroyed a daycare center. All the kids were safe because they took them across the street to the bank and into the bank vault. All the kids were much safer there than they would have been in that daycare center. We've got a daycare center here in town, in the same building as the bank. I hope they remember that bank vault if there's ever a tornado coming through.

Update: A tornado did go through on June 21, 2010.  It was 9:00 at night, so it was dark, and we didn't see it.  And I was in the basement.

The Morning After (Photo credit: bcmom)