After my epic battle with the creepy-crawly-things-that-invade-my-home, I made an epic blunder – I forgot to turn the dehumidifier back on. And while I laid in bed that night, itching dozens of imaginary bugs that I was sure were running across me, I listened to the pouring rains above my head with scant thought of the potential disaster brewing down below. Sure enough, running late yesterday morning I walked downstairs to find an empty dehumidifier and a full basement.
Once again, I am making a mountain out of a mole hill – or more appropriately, a great lake out of a backyard pond. The water only came into the semi-finished portion of the basement (which is about 1/3 of the entire area), and even then didn’t even cover half of the floor. But it wasn’t the tiny puddle of the other week – oh no, this time the water even went splishy-splash when I walked through it. And all that splishing and splashing was to rescue the boxes that had already been rescued, as the rain waters had managed to go far enough to reach their new location. Once again, I found myself tearing apart cardboard with the strength of two or possibly three of middling strength to move my CDs to higher and dryer ground. Ain’t homeownership grand?
Amazingly, by yesterday evening the floor was almost completely clear – which was pretty lucky considering I just lent out my wet/dry vac. That still left me with the unenviable task of clearing out the rest of our home invaders and destroying the damp cardboard that tempted them so. It sure weren’t pretty, but those suckers were no match for my cunning guile and unending supplies of boxes, wooden boards, and metal sticks to throw at them. Cleaning that mess is not something I wish to relive anytime soon.
Now I’m just hoping we can shift the growing ecosystem downstairs back towards an indoor one – preferably nonaquatic. The fact that I found a salamander – yes, A FREAKIN’ SALAMANDER – in my basement tells me that I better take care of this problem before I attempt to really finish that area. I’d rather not be so creeped out while doing the laundry anymore.
wow, seems like you have a slew of creepy, crawling creatures invading your home…something i hope to not experience :p
in other news, my mom found a cochroach (is that how you spell it?) today and decided that it was time to throw a yard sale this weekend. we all just smiled and exited the room asap.
Oh yick. We found a dead salamander skeleton when we took up the carpet in the bathroom a couple of years ago. I assume it’s before they installed the sump pump, which leaves our basement dry and relatively bug free.
Jeff’s also been spraying this home defense stuff around the perimeter which seems to kill them fairly well and deter them from even coming in in the first place. Have you and Lisa considered the cost of a sump pump for your basement? It might be worth the peace of mind.
Holy cow, Thom, where do you live, a swamp?
On a related note, you may want to reconsider relocating your CD’s to a higher floor.