The Big, Bad Basement

I've held off on writing this post because I'm afraid to jinx ourselves. But after a ten month project, I think the basement is finally dry. The initial system that was installed failed catastrophically, ruining our HVAC system and flooding our ductwork. After numerous attempts at fixing it, the company we had employed hired a new operations manager, who tore out the old system and had another one installed. We are three months in and so far so good. However, there is nothing in the basement except our hot water heater, which we intend to move when we remodel our kitchen (someday). We definitely don't trust this new system completely yet. Maybe after a couple of years and a tropical storm or two we'll feel safe storing stuff down there. We also have a shiny new HVAC system and all new ductwork (compliments of the basement waterproofers, see "failed catastrophically" above). Combined with the dehumidifier installed as part of the waterproofing system, the air quality in our house is now fabulous. We love it. We also paid a little extra to have a dual control HVAC installed--it is one system, but has a set of dampers that direct flow to different levels of the house, so we have a thermostat on each floor and can keep the temperature constant throughout. We really love it. Here's hoping our next major house repair/renovate project is far into the future and more fun than this one was!