Reason #1

Here is the outside door to the basement. When I was a kid, I thought it was so cool that Grampa's house has a "cellar door" just like Dorothy in the Wizard of OZ. Now I know better. Grampa Al put this on after he tore off the north wing of the house (with a HANDSAW -- see, I come by this naturally). That was in the early 1980's, I believe (check with your local Ring Family Historian on that). Obviously, no one has touched it since. The orange seeping out of the corners is Mike's desperate attempt to slow down the wind, mice, and other critters (don't ask) that try to get into the basement (Sorry, Mikeys!) Spray Foam, don't live in an old house without it!

Are You Crazy??

In a word, yes. We've been thinking about fixing the house foundation ever since, well, ever since we moved in 9 years ago. We've done plenty of "big" things to the house, but a new foundation was always just a funny idea, not reality. Oh, and when I say "we", I mean Mike. So far he has:
torn out 3 ceilings,
removed 1 chimney (from the center of a bedroom),
pulled 6 rooms of old carpet,
2 rooms of nasty shag carpet,
took out 1 scary toilet under the stairs, then
took out the stairs,
removed and replaced all the kitchen cabinets,
took down lots and lots of old plaster,
breathed in lots of old mousy poo,
re-caulked, re-spray-foamed, and reinsulated lots of walls,
insulated under the kitchen by crawling into the 3-ft. high space under it,
hung new drywall,
invented 3 new ways to avoid taping the drywall (his least favorite job),
replaced pipes and light fixtures and 2 more toilets,
and generally got very tired.
My job, of course, is to supervise, and say "There you go!" And brainstorm new things to work on before the old projects are finished.
We knew living in this house would be a big project, but one new septic system, one new roof, a new boiler, and 10 new windows later, we've decided to add one more: a new basement! Yeah, we're crazy.