Concrete floors

As I mentioned a few posts ago, last week was the week for the concrete floors to be finished! How wonderful it felt to have people working here every day, first grinding with a large floor grinding machine, then moving to a smaller hand-held tool to get the edges and corners, and then even a tiny detailer around the inlay of the slice of the maple tree:

When they were done with just the grinding, the floors already looked amazingly better than just raw concrete! (And that's not just because we got all the construction junk cleaned out!)

By Friday, they had stained once, then twice, and applied the sealer, so this is what we see when we look out there now! Looks like a real floor! It's not super clear in the photo, but there is a lovely mottling to the color that's caused by a natural reaction between the acid stain and the soupy part of the concrete. Lots of fun, and the color is comparable to the mid-tone oak floors in the original part of the house. (The tree slice that Leah's standing by still needs a little bit of work, and still has plastic taped over it...)

So, we're running high last week - things are moving, and seemingly quickly! After all, when do you EVER have a contractor come and take a look on a Friday and be mobilized to start on Monday? (Felt a little differently about the rain this year than we did a year ago! This time around it pushed our schedule forward a bit!)

And then Sunday rolled around. And Matt went out to put screen on in the basement so we can better air it out (the sealer STINKS!) and...realized...that someone working on the house last week unplugged the sump pump.

Gulp.

That sump pump is a critical piece of the keeping-water-out-of-the-house system! And, sure enough, when Matt check in the sump basket, the water was 4" below the rim, which means it was 2" above the tops of the footings. Which means it's over the bottom plate of our wood foundation walls. Yuck.

That's why you use treated lumber, AND why Matt decided rather last minute to use fiberglass batt insulation in the basement walls instead of blown-in cellulose. And wow are we ever glad we made that change! Because fiberglass gets wet, but it will dry (after Matt removes the lower panels of (thankfully not yet taped and mudded!) sheet rock and slices open the vapor barrier).

Deep breath.

And so grateful for what we went over in Sunday School just that morning (before we knew what was going on down in the basement!). For some reason what we were talking about that morning (Exodus chapter 14) was hitting me such that I was jotting crib notes down on a scrap of paper of things I wanted to talk about with Matt about later in the day. Without any commentary, here are a few of the notes I had scribbled on my pink scrap of paper:

God deliberately puts us in situations that will bring trouble (camp @ Red Sea) so that he can display his glory to 1) us and 2) others as he delivers. (Another reason to rejoice in our suffering!)

dry ground  1) God doesn't just move "enough" water, but all of the water and 2) dry means that chariots can/will follow

When Sunday evening came and Matt came back from the addition with news about the water, it was so good to be able to read these (and a few other) reminders. It even made me smile right then and there that the situation in Exodus dealt with water just like we were dealing with water. Being reminded of both the way God is so complete in what he does - he's not a God of "just enough to squeak by" - and the way that he deliberately brings things into our lives that are difficult because he's interested in showing us how incredible he is helps us keep our focus on him and not on the problems that arise.

Isn't he good??



P.S. on Wednesday when I'm finally getting this post wrapped up to publish - Matt's talked with the concrete finishing people, and has opened up a few spots in the basement, and so far, it doesn't look as bad as we were expecting. Either the place he could see on Sunday was the worst spot, or else it's already drying out through the "smart" vapor barrier we used (which is supposed to let some water vapor pass back and forth. I don't quite get it), but whatever the reason, all we could see in the places he looked was signs of water wicked up the outer plywood. We're going to let it sit a few days and then check a few more places as well as the places he's opened up, and we'll make a decision there about what more he does or doesn't have to do...