I’m so glad that this space of our house has finally changed from disaster area to finished basement. When we first purchased our house, it was finished with neutral walls, white trim, and laminate flooring. We hadn’t planned on doing anything to the area; it was the one part of the house that was completely move-in ready even according to my paint standards.

This is one of the only photos I have of the basement before the water disaster in the kitchen which caused ceiling damage and then the flooding in the basement after that. (Photo credit: Sarah Nebel)

For my own memory purposes, I’ve put together a timeline of what happened when. Sometimes when I try to remember, it’s all a dark, blurry path I don’t want to travel down.

• Friday, March 8, 3 PM: We closed on the house. After signing the paperwork, we got the keys and began moving the boxes that could fit into our cars. Most of the boxes went into the basement.
• Saturday, March 9: It was a huge painting day! Our mothers came over early in the morning to start. I left to teach my Pilates class at 9 and then rejoined them after that. Also a key role in painting was my best friend Sara who gave up so much of her weekend to help us. Sarah Nebel, another friend, dropped by at 1:30 to do a quick lifestyle shoot with us and our new house. I told her later that I was so extra thankful for those photos because they captured us while we were still in good spirits over our new house, before we had gotten any bad news.
• Sunday, March 10: Sara came over and shampooed all of our carpeting. Bless her heart. While she did that, Kevin & I painted some more.
• Monday, March 11: Kevin had an appointment early in the morning so I came over to the house by myself around 7:45 with a car load of more boxes. I walked in and saw a large pool of water on the kitchen floor. As I walked towards it, I felt water squishing up from underneath the floorboards. The refrigerator valve had leaked everywhere and the damages got worse the further I went. I soon discovered that the water had gone through the floor to the basement ceiling and was leaking downstairs as well. We called insurance, ServPro, and tried to figure out what to do. My parents came over as planned to finish up the painting and also lent their emotional support. ServPro ripped up the kitchen flooring and set up several huge fans and dehumidifiers in the kitchen and the basement to dry things out. The equipment ran for 4 days before it was deemed dry.

• Wednesday, March 13: The first of our new furniture was delivered: a coffee table, end table, and chair for the living room.
• Friday, March 15: We decided to go ahead with the move since we had my family lined up to help and we were both off of work. We didn’t have any appliances, were down to the subfloor in our kitchen, and couldn’t use our basement while we waited for the ceiling repair. We borrowed an ice cooler from my mom for milk, eggs, and cheese and made great use of the Pizzazz.
• Friday, March 22: Despite not having any flooring, we got our appliances delivered knowing that we’d have to move it around when flooring came. We finally had a fridge!!! Oh, the luxury!
• Tuesday, March 26: Our couch was delivered! We finally had a place to sit. Our old living room furniture was in the basement and had to be moved out of the way until the ceiling could be fixed.
• Monday, April 1: After lots of insurance dealings and waiting, we got our new kitchen flooring laid!

• Thursday, April 4: Repair begins on the basement ceiling.
• Wednesday, April 10: We got a new kitchen faucet installed since the other one was leaking. No way were we going to deal with any more leaking business.
• Thursday, April 11: My new desk was delivered, but in the wrong color. They left it for me to use while they ordered another one.
• Friday, April 12: We got our basement back! We hung the TV on the wall, I arranged my desk, the piano was situated, and our furniture was in place.
• Sunday, April 14: I flew to North Carolina for a photography workshop.
• Wednesday, April 17: I was supposed to get back to Iowa around noon, but there were terrible thunderstorms and I got delayed flying out of North Carolina, only to finally get to Chicago to more delays and more delays until finally, all flights cancelled. I met up with some Swedish engineers and a grandmother and we rented a van to drive to Cedar Rapids. It was pouring rain the entire drive and we didn’t get to the Cedar Rapids airport (where our vehicles were) until late at night. I got home and crashed.
• Thursday, April 18: Kevin woke me up around 6 AM to the horrible news that our basement had flooded during the night. We called my parents who immediately came over with a ShopVac and wooden blocks to hoist up the piano and furniture to try to save as much as we could. Another call to our insurance company. Because of the heavy rains, everyone in the area was having problems and ServPro couldn’t come for at least a day. We were stuck with a wet, molding basement.
• Sunday, April 21: By the time ServPro was able to come, a 2-foot flood cut had to be done in the basement.

• Monday, May 6: Reconstruction began in the basement.
• Friday, May 10: My mom came over in the evening and her, Kevin, and I primed and painted the entire basement.
• Wednesday, May 21: Carpeting gets installed in the basement! We decided against laminate like was in there before. Carpeting seemed like a better option in the long run and I’m so glad we did! It makes the entire basement so much warmer and more comfortable!
• Friday, May 24: ServPro came to clean our furniture for the basement and determined that we need to buy new furniture instead. My new desk (the right one, finally) was delivered.
• Friday, June 21: We finally got our basement furniture! The couch and love seat came and we were ecstatic, even though the color looked much different than we had expected.
• Friday, June 31: The piano was salvaged and repaired from the water damage. It had never looked so good!!
• Thursday, July 18: The last piece of furniture arrives: an ottoman for the basement. We finally have a place to kick up our feet.

So after all of that, here’s our basement!!! I’m really so grateful for this space as it has been the most difficult one to deal with since we moved in simply from damage/construction reasons.

This piano was my parents’ and the one I grew up practicing on daily. I am so so so happy to have it. You can tell I wasn’t able to save all my sheet music, but I did try to dry out some of the more special pieces, even if they remain water damaged and wrinkled.

I found these two photos tucked in a box. The one on the left is a photo of my dad (holding the guitar) and is dated Mar 1968. The one in the piano frame is me as a child. Yes, I had blonde hair that now is really dark brunette.

Every time I’ve traveled somewhere, I’ve collected instruments…except that I failed on my European trip. With the exception of the trumpet, all of the instruments are from another country. The tambourine is from Afghanistan, the flute from Israel (from my sister), the little guitar & maraca from Mexico (I also have 2 maracas not on the wall from Puerto Rico), and the dutar is from Uzbekistan.

The corner of the stairs is one of my newest favorite spots. While I failed to get musical instruments in England & France, I did purchase some sketched art. The 8x12s are all from a street vendor in London and the 6x8s are from a street vendor near Notre Dame. I sort of forgot that I had them and discovered them in the move. It took me a while to find frames for them as they are odd sizes, but I finally ordered some online. They came last week and I immediately got to work putting them together and hanging them on the walls.

My husband is a huge Dave Matthews Band fan and he purchased these numbered prints before we moved. I love the way they turned out! They are really cool art pieces by themselves, but it makes it more special that it’s something personal.

This is our ottoman that just came. I can’t tell you how much I adore the print!!!

Something I’ll never get rid of is my complete collection of Childcraft books and encyclopedia set. They are both from my grandma and are so special to me. My parents have newer versions of these that I used to play with as a child so there’s that memory as well as the fact that these were my grandma’s. Hopefully when we have kids, we’ll be able to relive some of my childhood memories by making some arts and crafts from these books. Those kinds of things can’t go out of date.