So the first roadblock has been encountered – well two really.  The less tangible one was that I got hit by the sickness that has been knocked down everyone in the family by me so badly that I could hardly breathe, let alone work, for a few days.  Thankfully, that seems to have cleared up in the last two days and we’re back on track.  The more significant issue is water.

So the basement has been entirely dry since the day we’ve moved in.  After the grinding and crack filling of last time, I continued on to follow the current suggestion by the American Building Sciences institute of the best way to insulate and finish a basement.  This involves fixing extruded polystyrene to the foundation wall and completely sealing in the cement from cold joint to sill cap.  Done … until the rain came.  On Monday of this week the temperature jumped to 50+ and the rain came pouring down.  Unfortunately, you can see what happened near the soil stack exit.  The hydraulic cement was not sufficient to keep the ground water out because of poor drainage!  As my sister would say, “Francis Mahoney!”

This raises a whole lot of problems.  The obvious answer (and I knew this), was that the drainage near here needs to be solved.  If I dig down 4-5 feet and lay some slates, tar around the pipe, and then put a square of insulation above it, that should take care of the problem.  Right?  The problem is this: I won’t know if it took care of the problem until the next major rainstorm or until the Spring.  This leaves me in a bind.  How can I continue on this section of the basement knowing that there might end up being a leak behind my new wall.  This is a definite setback … no smile this week.

A day late!  Can you believe it?  I’m posting this on Tuesday instead of Monday.  🙂

Since there was no loud and resounding opinion as to whether I should be doing the basement myself or not after the last post, I’ve decided that just to spite you all, I will attempt this monstrous project by myself.  Hopefully this will lead to lots more updated posts as I slowly progress through the pain, frustration and excitement of actually making something happen.  I figure if I can build a halfpipe or two, I should be able to finish as basement – minus the electrical work only.  I’m also toying with the idea of having a professional to come in and do the mudding, but I’ll make that decision as I get closer to the date.

First off … I’ve done the budget and planning part and right now my costs come in looking pretty good.  I’m going to keep track of every screw and nail and I’ll let you know how much I went under or over at the end.  Let’s just say that we’re looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 2x4s and 130 sheets of drywall.  Does that give you an idea of the scope?  What are we looking at?  Something like this …

http://www.floorplanner.com/projects/19021530-basement/p6l417

So the first steps are already done.  I’ve cleaned the entire space in preparation for the project and finished my “waterproofing”.  I use the term waterproofing lightly because I didn’t actually go to the trouble of installing a below-foundation closed drainage system (although I did have someone come in for an estimate).  As the basement is dry as a bone after four years and it’s a walk-out with a slope away from the house, I’m guessing that the french drains in place already will keep us dry.  Time will tell.  In the meantime, I used a grinder to grind out all the hairline cracks (from foundation shrinkage) and fill them with filler and hydraulic cement.  Let me tell you, cement dust stinks.  I also used a polyurethane expanding foam to fill in the cold joint.  Waterproofing?  Check.

We’re on our way.  Smile!  🙂

Well first of all, the big news around here is that our little Ellie Belle has decided to go mobile.  It just happens to be the forearm crawl, but it means that pennies and poisons need to be kept up off the floor.  I guess it also means that a little more vigilance is in order around stairs and small objects.  With the newfound mobility comes exploration and the unwillingness to be picked up for even a second.  It also results in Thing 2 yelling, “Ellie!!  NO!!!”

Thanksgiving has come and gone and Thing #1 has turned five years old.   Birthdays are a big thing around here and T1 not only loves the planning and excitement, but he wants to call everyone and sing them Happy Birthday as well.  Happy Birthday Jakey!

Jake’s birthday and Thanksgiving means two more things – winter and SNOW!  We’ve had our first two storms now and the boys have found the absolute magic once more of sliding on tubes and playing in the snow.  The first snowman has yet to be built, but you can be rest assured that there are many prayers for “sticky snow”.  For now, the green grass has been transformed into a winter wonderland.

Lastly, the Hudson News reports that there is great dilemma in the Allan household.  While there was much planning and hoping to finish the basement for guest quarters, the contractor quotes brought a little sticker shock.  The question for you all is this: should they outsource the work and contribute to local Hudson employment, or should half-pipes be replaced by basements and the project be tackled by Danny.  Comments are very welcome!! 🙂

In July, we had one house. In August we had two … and today, we’re back to one again. While I wouldn’t wish a move on anyone, it does force you to go through everything you own and determine what you want to keep and what you don’t. The first 90% of your things are nicely boxed up and labeled appropriately, and the last 10% are simply thrown in the closest available box and sent on their merry way. Fun fun fun! For those of you who look for us on Thurstons Dr, you won’t find us there anymore. We’ve moved … 🙂

So the sunshine has finally broken here in Hudson after 26 straight days of rain.  Obviously, this requires us to be outside for all waking hours as we renew our levels of Vitamin D.  I know that there is rain in the forecast for tomorrow and the next day, but I can live with that as long as there is sunshine too.

Saturday found us down in Wakefield, MA where we were able to relax for the 8th largest Fourth of July parade in the United States.  My only complaint?  While there were lots of marching bands, clowns and fire engines, it was completely lacking in bagpipes.  There was not one bagpipe in the entire 2 hour parade.  It just wasn’t a real parade in my books … Apparently, they replace bagpipe bands with American muscle cars.  Oh yes, I have a second complaint – candy.  No one was throwing out candy.  Give me a parade on Foord street anytime.  Regardless, the boys had lots of fun and Jake happily blew his one note trumpet with all the bands as they went by. Smile! 🙂

Considering that it has been raining for a month straight here in Hudson, I decided that I would spend some time redesigning the site.  It seems like I go through this every two years or so.  In fact, if you go back to the very first post I still have from 2000, you will see that I was … doing a redesign.  Speaking of going back to 2000, you should note that I was blogging long before this.  I just happened to edit the front page each week, and didn’t keep my past content.  (It would have been static HTML pages.) I’ve thought about asking Carleton if they have a data backup of my first site in 1996, but I doubt they still would after 13 years.

As redesigns go, this one was pretty simple.  I decided to go the easy route and only slightly customized a nice simple WordPress PHP application.  This marks the first shift for me away from ASP and Microsoft technologies.

Enough about that.  Does anyone really care?

So it’s been raining here in Hudson for a month straight and everyone is going a little crazy.  Even Ellie, who was doing so well after our trip to the Outer Banks, has reverted to her less cheerful ways.  The last few nights have been pretty rough on both Heidi and I – probably more so on Heidi.  Can someone please send us some sunshine?  It will cause us to smile.  🙂

Another year and the crazy travel months of March, April and May are behind us.  This year witnessed a reduction in travel because of little Ellie, but I still managed to make it to London, San Francisco and Las Vegas twice in a four week period.  Thankfully, that is all behind us.

We’ve just finished up a week long vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina where we were able to unwind, wiggle our toes in the sand, and visit with family.  The boys had an absolute blast playing with cousins and swimming in the pool, while Daddy enjoyed his yearly swim with the sharks.  Mommy was able to sit by the pool and soak up the sun … hopefully recovering from the three longs months of little Ellie crying from noon through night. ‘Twas wonderful …

So it’s done – I’m now fully cave certified.  In the last week, I racked up some pretty high numbers: 17 dives, spending slightly more than 20 hours under water, and swimming in the neighborhood of 19 to 20 miles.  Nothing like a lot of bottom time to build muscle memory.

I had two purposes for the course: improving diving discipline (especially bouyancy) and reel skills.  I have to say I was a bit nervous in starting out because I fully admit to being claustrophobic, and I once saw an IMAX on cave diving that just made me shake my head.  Of course I knew the scenery would be cool, but that was just an added bonus of the course.

My instructor sat me down on the first day and asked me to describe a mountain.  I used words like “majestic”, “inspiring”, “challenging”, “rewarding” and “breath-taking”.  When he asked me to describe caves, I used three words – dark, restrictive and wet.  He explained that this was the problem.  Most people have seen mountains and have an appreciation for their grandeur.  Almost no one refers to a mountain as “scary”.  The opposite is true of caves.  Less than 1% of people have spent any kind of time in caves, and their perception of the environment was entirely negative.  When people ask him what he sees in caves, he always responds, “A lot of water, and a lot or rock.”  When they ask him why he has been diving them for 35+ years and over 7000+ dives, his response is that, “You won’t know, unless you go.”  He was right.

While I did feel like I learned more in one week than I have in the five years I have been diving, the caves were beyond description.  I think they were more beautiful than almost anything else I’ve ever seen.  This might be because one grows used to mountains and oceans and sunsets and canyons over the years, but the caves were unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.  Fashioned by a Master Designer …  I wasn’t there to take pictures so I couldn’t take my own camera on any of the dives, but I asked my instructor and he took his on the last day for some photos.  Unfortunately, the cave system on the last day is the oldest in the area and didn’t even come close to some of the dives during the week.  Still, I’m glad to have some kind of snapshot …

First of all, let me describe some of the places I dove including Dos Ojos, Chac Mool, Dos Palmos, Vaca Ha, Tortugas, Caracol, Calimba, Bosh Chen, Pet Cemetary, the Blue Abyss, Dark Side of the Moon, and the Car Wash.  Some of these places, like Vaca Ha and Tortuga, were nothing more than a puddle in the Mayan jungle.  I’m not kidding.  You drive out a dirt road into the middle of no where and come to a puddle about six feet around.  Take Tortugas for example.  Jumping into a puddle no more than 10 feet in diameter (it used to just be a well), you would drop down a steep embankment underground to about 60 feet and … BAM … you were in a room that was 60-70 feet high, 100-200 feet wide and more than 1000 feet long.  You couldn’t even hope to see from end to end.  Massive pillars stretched from floor to ceiling.  Stalactites 30 feet high would hang from the ceiling and stalagmites 40 feet high would reach from the floor.  Unbelievable!  Other places like Chan Hol (Small Hole) started with a small 5 foot puddle about 2-3 feet deep, and you would swim under a rock ledge (on your belly) into the most gorgeous cave system.  In this cave, and in others, were human remains which (supposedly) are dated at 1000s of years old before the cave systems were flooded.

The best of all dives was the Blue Abyss and the Dark Side of the Moon (you can find them on this map).  The Blue Abyss was about 40 minutes in – through one giant cavern area, beautifully decorated tunnels and rooms and two pretty tight restrictions.  Then you hit it.  A giant abyss!  One minute you’re swimming through a beautiful (and small) cave passage at a depth of only 20-30 feet, and then suddenly you swim out over a massive … nothing … a perfectly circular underground room more than 100 feet across and that has perfectly vertical walls to a depth of 240 feet.  You hang suspended, in the middle, with water so clear you think it’s air.  Surrounding you on every side are the most incredible formations you can imagine.  It cannot be described.  The next dive that same day took us to the Dark Side of the Moon.  Running several jump reels, we hit the end of the line in an area of the most incredible decorations I saw over the course of the week.  Untouched!  I still had my safety reel (sometimes you carry as many as 5 or 6 reels) and I actually laid 150ft of new line past that point to a place where no one has ever been before.  Those formations were the most incredible of anyplace I’ve ever seen.  The song, “How Great Thou Art” echoed through my head the entire dive.