Towards the end of last week we got a couple days of rain. Not hard raid, but steady rain. Nothing out of sorts as far as I’m concerned.

On Friday night around 2am I was in the back room of the basement (designated as my little play area) putting some files from my old PC on an external drive to move them to my new PC. All was good.

On Saturday morning, I awakened to the sounds of the kids yelling about the basement being flooded. Usually not a big deal except that we have about 800 square feet of totally finished basement that this has supposedly never happened to in the past. I make my way to the basement and am met with some seriously sloshy carpet. My first thought is, “How the hell did this much water get down here in just 8 hours…and after the rain stopped on Friday evening?”

After a few quick phone calls we checked the sump pump. It appeared to be working fine. There was water in the well, but it never overflowed and the pump was at least keeping pace. Our insurance company apparently doesn’t handle shit on weekends and told us to try to keep the mess to a minimum and an adjuster would call on Monday.

We called the guys who do carpet cleaning and clean-up for my wife at the hotel and they sent someone out immediately. The dude hit the basement and was like, “Whoa!” I think he expected a little leak and we were working our way to indoor pool by noon. He called out some additional help and they got to sucking up water. It turned out to be a futile effort, it seemed to be coming from everywhere and as fast as they sucked it up, more was there. They did the best they could and left late in the afternoon. We spent the rest of the weekend with fans, blowers and a shop vac trying to keep the water to a minimum. At it’s peak, you could step on the carpet and push down with your foot and get a puddle of water to form that covered your shoe.

On Monday we talked to the adjuster and he pretty much wanted to blow us off – kind of like, “You had a leak and your carpet got wet. We’re not paying for new carpet.” But we insisted it was a must-see situation and he agreed to come by and look on Tuesday. We spent Monday evening pulling carpet and pad from the basement and finally started realizing how much water had really come in.

On Tuesday the adjuster showed up and even with half the basement cleared of the sopping wet carpet he took one look around and said, “Whoa! The whole basement is soaked.”

He did his adjusterly duties and left us kind of hanging with no answer or suggestion other than to try our home warranty people. So we called them and they said we might be covered depending on the cause and the damage. They said they’d have a guy out on Thurday. We spent Tuesday night getting the rest of the carpet and pad out and kept up with the fans, blowers and shop wav doing our best to dry it out, but the smell was bad. On Wednesday it was more of the same – trying to air out and dry out the floor walls, doors – everything was damp, musty and generally shitty.

On Thursday the warranty people’s guy showed up and after a lengthy inspection came to no real conclusion beyond a drainpipe or two being less than optimal. He said he’s send his report to the warranty people.

We called the adjuster back and were like, “So what the fuck is going on?”

His reply was that until we figured out what the issue was, he couldn’t say whether we were covered or not. So he said he’d send out some engineeer crew on Friday.

Today those guys showed up and, of everyone we’ve dealt with, they seemed the most knowledgable and useful. After a full basement and outdoor inspection, their conclusion was that they weren’t exactly sure how or why the basement flooded, but the were two drain pipes that were hooked up less than optimally and could have been causing water to collect around the foundation, but that was just process of elimination and they’d send the report to the adjuster and go from there – which could include a reutrn visit to look deeper (read: start ripping walls apart in the basement).

I already know the insurance adjuster doesn’t work on weekends, so I expect nothing before Monday. And since we’re holding off until then with the insurance, we figured we’d give the warranty people until Monday too.

So here we sit almost a full week after the flood with no answers and a basement that up to this point was the kids main hangout and also home to the pinball machine, my podcast setup, all the books we own, my drums, the kids’ computer and toys and stuff like that (luckily we didn’t get around to putting a TV or real furniture down there yet) is now a cold, damp, stinky area with exposed concrete and tack strip with everything piled in the bathroom down there because it was the only place that remained remotely dry (the rest is just piled up here on the first floor) that is mostly unusable and a disappointment.

The walls are damp and staing to get wavy and soft in spots. All of the doors show water damage and have warped to the point that they won’t close correctly. The carpet is long gone. The cement is still damp. The smell of wet still lingers.

Here’s to hearing something good from someone on Monday because if we’re left to repair all of this on our own, it’s going to be a while. And it sure would suck to pay for a whole house and then only be able to use 2/3rds of it.