Me & Water

So…water has followed me everywhere I’ve lived, beginning when I was four years old. At the time, we lived at the Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan. Point of interest: the island of Okinawa can get hit with seven or eight typhoons a year, while the mainland may only get hit by two or three.

I spent a portion of my childhood standing on our couch with water lapping at my toes due to typhoons. Where we lived on the Base, the drainage system, designed for large amounts of storm water to flow through, would get clogged. My father would have to wade out and dislodge whatever was blocking the system. The water moved at such a force that we didn’t know we had a clog until the living room filled up with water.

Many years later, I lived in Washington, D.C., in an “English Basement” whatever that means. In reality, it was a basement with tiny windows and an even tinier living space. The owner had recently had some work done on the back stairway. The construction company had moved a pipe which unfortunately allowed muddy water to drain through the pipe to our below grade entrance. Well…it clogged up and I came home to a very wet “English Basement.”

Years later, a house we owned in New England, had water issues as well. Getting the drift of this story line now?

When we were doing our home inspection here in Albany, there was a tiny amount of water in the basement. When asked, the owner said that water appeared now and then over the five years she had lived there, but it was not a big deal. It went away with the use of a dehumidifier.

Two weeks after moving into our house it rained and there wasn’t a lot of water, but I wouldn’t describe it as “a tiny amount of water” either. I had to move our unpacked moving boxes away from the water, which was disconcerting.

I had hired a handyman to do some work around our house. He told me he had experience in masonry work, so I had him patch the area where the water was coming in. All he did was make matters worse, and with the next big rain, the wet area increased in size. The end result of his attempting to fix our “wet basement” is that I had to hire someone with real masonry experience to correct the situation. Oh, the price of home ownership.

Side Bar: Recently, a house near us had a serious basement issue. The entire rear wall collapsed in the middle of the night. The house had to be demolished later that day with all the owner’s belongings (furniture, appliances, etc.) because the foundation was dangerously unsafe. What I’m having to pay for fixing our basement isn’t a big deal after all. Especially if it means we won’t be awakened in the night with the rear wall of our basement gone.

Oh, by the way, does Albany ever get typhons?