Waterproofing, sort of.

When we ripped up the old carpet that was in the basement, I noticed it smelled musty in the sections near the basement door to the outside. 

Then, in mid-May, it rained for one straight week.  Our basement floor was covered in muddy water.  The water had come in from underneath the basement door, proving that the drain that is at the bottom is worthless.

My cousin George suggests renting a backhoe, and having another cousin, Ernie, operate the machine because he's trained on it.  A hole would be dug to where a new drain would empty, add stone to make a drain pit, and then refill the hole while grading the earth away from the house.

The backhoe arrived last Saturday.  I'm convinced that the delivery guy was on speed; he was just nuts.  Maybe you have to be nuts to be a delivery guy of heavy machinery... what do I know??

Anyway, Ernie comes over, and I look at him, point to the backhoe, and say, "That is NOT a small backhoe!"  He replied with a grin, "Nah, that's just a baby!  I've seen backhoes with wheels that are 9 feet tall!"  If you're digging the foundation for a skyscraper, you better believe that backhoe has tires that are 9 feet tall!

DJ couldn't keep his eyes off of this thing.  It wasn't as loud as we expected, so DJ tolerated it pretty well.  When Ernie started digging, DJ went and sat on his dresser to look out the window to watch the entire show.  He was GLUED to it.  If I were a 4 year old boy, I'd be glued, too.  How often do you get to watch a backhoe at work from the comfort of your own room???  DJ was fascinated with the whole process!

Digging the hole outside of the basement door.

The "baby" backhoe/front loader.

Another view of the hole.  George is in the foreground.

HI ERNIE!!!!

Backhoe at work!

Meanwhile, Elektra slept through ALL that racket, and they were digging outside of her window!!!

After the whole was dug deep enough, George and Ernie used a jackhammer to crack the concrete at the bottom of the stairs to install the new drain pipe.  They also drilled a hole through the concrete retaining wall for the pipe to exit into the new drain pit.

All of this was too much for DJ.  He couldn't get enough of it all!! 

Hopefully, this coming weekend, George will get the drain installed, the stones will be delivered, and Ernie can finish.  We only have the backhoe until Monday!