I thought I would enjoy a cup of coffee in bed before I checked damage from a night of torrential rainfall. This is another area I am extremely experienced in .... that is, cleaning up water in a leaky basement. This began with the previous owners claiming the unfinished basement water seepage was 'only about a half cup a year' ... which a plumber once translated for me by saying 'they must have meant a 55 gallon drum'.
So before knowing that, during our move in period (16 days prior to Darling Son's birth 5/26/97), we had the basement 'finished'.
In our world, the basement area finished/or not was the deal breaker in our house purchase because we were in desperate need of a bunker to store Darling Daughter's many toys and most importantly have a contained area for this wildly energetic child to play. We decided not to wait...remodel NOW... I was set... whoo- hoo...
I immediately turned the room into a darling carpeted pre-school... bright alphabet letters framed the room and her favorite, Sesame Street decals on the wall - learning posters everywhere... couldn't have been cuter (really) ... Once I proudly showed this new space to the previous owner (she was picking up curtains I told her she could have back) and I remember how quiet and pale she became w/ a quick exit... I stupidly thought she must be remorseful at selling her home with such potential a 'vision' she couldn't have imagined as a way of expanding the living space.
So that fateful October rainy night when my intuition told me to check the basement at 1:30 am I was even more horrified (if that's possible) to find a room of floating toys, stuffed animals and books waiting for me.
It was one of those nights imprinted on my brain. I quietly salvaged what I could (things like the indestructible Little Tikes kitchen etc.) piled things in our new dining room. At the time, I didn't know what a sump pump was or where it was...after all, we had carpeted over the floor drain.
My 'equipment' for clean up was a mini-car vacuum for water collection and after hauling at least 75 buckets of water upstairs to the kitchen sink...my work was done... and my workout for the next 5 years was complete.... Good Sport Husband was shocked when Darling Daughter woke him up at 5 am (the usual time then) to find this mess - just shocked (it was a noted occasion) the beginning of our new reality where nothing would surprise either one of us again. :)
xo
The International Laundress
While I was picking BB's out of my kitchen garbage disposal it occurred to me that my Darling Son needs to find a new hobby and I don't think it's this one. I was less than enthusiastic that Good Sport Husband (who used to 'shoot' as a kid) recently bought him a Daisy Red Rider air gun (yes, the kind that will 'put your eye out') it was something they had been talking about for a while - you know, male bonding. I knew it had to be a grand idea to pry his fingers off the X Box 360 controls, so after several outside 'lessons' with safety glasses and ground rules he was in our back area shooting plastic water-filled bottles in a matter of days. It is now a fenced target range so neighbors beware! I had been warming up to the idea of having him do something that involved being outside - quite a change from the underground video game life he has been living. In usual hyper-focused fashion Darling Son can sometimes now be found practicing in his new 'target-range' at 5 am....fortunately, it's quiet for an outside activity... unlike trombone playing... 
