Finally Friday

Thank goodness. I survived the week. The basement is drying out. I extracted the water with the shopvac and then set fans all over the place (6 in total) and have the dehumidfier running. When I started it was at 75% it's down to 55% humidity. The windows are open and well, the smell is going away.

You may be asking, how or why did you do this? Our deductible on our homeowners insurance is not high, but it's not low. I received 2 estimates, the first one brought me to tears, this quote came from a nationally known fire & water damage company and he said that is would be $2600. I waited for the next guy to come, he was a small locally owned company. He came in and walked around (of course there are toys stacked and stuff everywhere) and he said it's really not that bad and based on what your deductible is you're going to be right there. He told me what I would need to do if I was going to try and do it myself. I listened attentively and followed his directions. He called me later in the day and gave me a quote of $1300. Wow, what a difference. However, I only had to buy 2 fans for $20, borrowed 2, owned 2 and have a dehumidifier and of course a commercial shopvac. The basement is almost completely dry and I'm going to have someone come in and steam and sanitize the carpet for about $150. Cost me much less than the professional companies and I didn't have to deal with workers in my house for 3-5 days.

Now what about mold and mildew. The first guy tested the walls and they were very dry with a few spots that were damp, fans blowing on them and the dehumidifier will dry them out pretty quickly. And our carpet is a glued down carpet, not having padding makes it much easier/quicker to dry and less chance of mold growing. I'm also going to be taking one extra step and washing the walls down with a bleach/water mix to make sure that I kill anything that might be there.

The smell has almost disappeared and I think that once the carpet is cleaned and sanitized it will be much better.

Have a great weekend!!