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twilight33I have to admit great relief at the downgrading of the snow forecast from the potential to as bad as the Christmas 1996 storm to around half a foot instead. The previous owner of our house noted the 96 storm brought between 2-3 feet of snow that rapidly melted and flooded the basement. We don't think of our basement as such because it is completely finished, with carpeting right up to the door. We have already had a flood from a broken pipe before we went to Europe, and never want to relive that experience again.
Preparations began last night with getting a snow shovel, industrial strength garbage bags, tons of duct tape, and filling a bunch of gallon OJ containers with water & setting them out to freeze. After Kieran went down for his nap this morning, I built a lovely OJ & garbage bag barricade sealed with duct tape at the top of the basement stairwell.
The hope is that will keep the backyard runoff from rushing down the stairs & through the basement door. The snow shovel is ready next to the kitchen door, which leads out to a deck just above the basement door. There is a small drain at the bottom of the stairwell, but it apparently can't handle mass quantities of water. I started sealing the bottom of the basement door with another garbage bag & more duct tape, until I looked down at my hand and realized I was dripping blood from a nasty scrape against the concrete that I didn't feel because my fingers were frozen. Ryan's finishing that job up now that we've done our work/home transition.
Hopefully that will be enough to keep runoff at bay, we also have all our spare towels against the inside of the basement door just in case. I'm nervous about class tonight, but hopefully the snow won't start falling until I'm home. Any other night I'd say screw it & stay home, but this is the first class of the quarter and I don't want to risk getting dropped.
Preparations began last night with getting a snow shovel, industrial strength garbage bags, tons of duct tape, and filling a bunch of gallon OJ containers with water & setting them out to freeze. After Kieran went down for his nap this morning, I built a lovely OJ & garbage bag barricade sealed with duct tape at the top of the basement stairwell.
The hope is that will keep the backyard runoff from rushing down the stairs & through the basement door. The snow shovel is ready next to the kitchen door, which leads out to a deck just above the basement door. There is a small drain at the bottom of the stairwell, but it apparently can't handle mass quantities of water. I started sealing the bottom of the basement door with another garbage bag & more duct tape, until I looked down at my hand and realized I was dripping blood from a nasty scrape against the concrete that I didn't feel because my fingers were frozen. Ryan's finishing that job up now that we've done our work/home transition.
Hopefully that will be enough to keep runoff at bay, we also have all our spare towels against the inside of the basement door just in case. I'm nervous about class tonight, but hopefully the snow won't start falling until I'm home. Any other night I'd say screw it & stay home, but this is the first class of the quarter and I don't want to risk getting dropped.
