The dangers of a major home renovation

Danger #1: Big slivers. Bob got this doozie pulling the planks from the walls and heaving them out the windows.

Danger #2: The Great Flood. Only Noah wasn't there.

Bob took some family members to the house Dec. 27 to show them the progress. Thanks (?) to Addy's misbehavior — going down the new basement stairs even though she was told not to — he was alerted to lots and lots of standing water. He didn't think he should be hearing splash! under her feet, but it was as good a sign as an olive branch.

Thanks to Diane offering up their spare sump pump and Dick's help setting it up, they got the water pumped out. We're hoping there was no damage to the furnace and that the only damage to the doors we plan to reuse was cosmetic. (They'll be repainted anyway.)

We didn't even think to tell our contractor on Monday ... something about spending all afternoon with Dori at the hospital's urgent care clinic for another respiratory issue made our thinking fuzzy ... but by Tuesday evening Pat and Mark had installed a different pump and more effective piping. Whew.

Pardon me while I put on my wannabe meterologist hat and refer to an NOAA chart for explanation. See the tall blue bar circled above? That's a lot of snow. More than 10 inches, to be specific. Note the blue bar's friends, the other tallish blue bars and the tall green bars. Those are more snow ... and rain ... and all sat upon the ground with little melting in between.

Now see the red spike that's circled? That's a warm, 55-degree day. In December. Heat melts snow. Melted snow is water. Lots and lots of water makes floods.

You'd think we could have figured that out a few hours before the splash. But I was so relieved to see that the huge wind storm the night before hadn't torn shingles from the roof or dumped a tree branch on the porch that we didn't check the basement until after enjoying our lovely holiday dinner.