Kamen Writer Reviews: The Collection Part 3: Fall and Rise

Welcome to the third and for now, the final part of the collection.

As I stated previously, right after December is when the issues began...Although that's only partly true. We had minor issues before, even before the air duct problem occasionally there would be water around the patio door during a rain. First small, then over time became more and more. Our initial assumption was that it was coming around the door, it was after all, very old. However, after replacing the door it soon became clear the problem was far worse. It was decided that the best course of action would be to rip out a part of the wall and see what was going on behind there, as it was the only thing we could think of.

As it had turned out, this little white baseboard was meant to be the method of keeping water out. As you can see, it's gross as fuck and failed over time. You may also notice the sheer idiocy of the wall paneling setting close to the moister and thus rotting.

I ended up spending many nights when it rained constantly with towels, trying desperately to prevent the water from spreading. A cycle of rinse, spin, dry and replace while using a wet vac at three in the morning. Obviously, if the rest of the walls were coming down, I couldn't stay in such an environment, so once again, I packed everything up.

Thankfully I had a proper room this time, but it was frankly like living in storage.

Still beats a couch.

After meeting with a foundation specialist and getting an estimate, a date was set to get a French drain system put in. But it would be a ways away, almost a month, and I would have to deal with many more nights of water. We got a break when they moved us up a week ahead and began work.

It took a mere three days of their work. And it couldn't have been anymore timely. When the day came of the original scheduling, it rained for nearly two weeks straight. I have little doubt that had we not gotten the date cut down, the entirety of the basement would have been covered.

But, that was only the beginning. The basement no longer was a flooded mess, but it wasn't exactly livable and the protective walls that guide water seepage into the drain was rather tacky- not to mention I couldn't exactly hang my posters. This began the next phase of the renovation.

Materials in the wee hours of the morning.

Construction began on building out frames for the new sheet rock walls. Building the walls out meant that I would generally be losing about 3" of room, but that's a small price for no water and much nicer looking walls. So every weekend, frames would go up.

Additionally two closets were added, one for the sump pump and the other for my roommate.

The reno-job was horribly stressful. Aside from the usual stuff, there was a lot of family drama going on. I won't get into that, but it sure as shit didn't help.

Another opportunity taken was redoing the bar. Ripping out the weird padding that looked like a cat picked it and adding a new top.

One issue we did run into was a slight bit of moister around the door and fireplace. This wasn't actually a problem with the system, just the results of how concrete does transfer water ever so slightly. It never really became more than very very mild dampness and discoloration even during downpours. So the solution to this was to simply cover it with tile, which worked and looks quite nice if I do say so myself.

Hectic as this was, I did enjoy picking out my own paint and tile. Adding a more personal touch to my room.

I never really cared for the natural rock look and it always looked perpetually dirty due to them not being sealed.

A shelf was added to the new wall attached to the bar. I had both Black and White paint, so why not have a bit of fun with it?

Normalcy began to take hold. Everything was painted- even the doors, there was new significantly better wiring, the ceiling got re-adjusted. But we still had one more thing to take care of and that was the floor. Just to have one more hiccup, the day that the carpet was supposed to be installed they realized the tacks wouldn't take hold because of the tile being loose.

*sigh* So we had to- at the very least, remove the tiles around the parameter and re-schedule. Then Finally the room was done.

All that was left was to move everything back in.

As with last time, I took the opportunity to improve the layout and acquire some new furniture and decor, most notably a glass display cabinet for my figuarts.

If anyone is curious, the shelf is by Coaster homes. I...can't entirely recommend the shelf because mine did have a QC issue with one of the threads coming out of the post. I was able to finagle with it by putting that end on the top. I could have returned it but this fucking thing weighs 200lbs. and I'm not dragging that into the UPS store. That being said, it is nice with the lights installed. I plan on adding a couple more once I make an extension.