Houselopnik

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Finally started ripping into the basement of the new house. After purchase I found some funky wiring and dead(?) shop lights in half of the finished basement. Then went on vacation. Then came home and there was water on the basement floor. Hmmm.

The water came from behind here. There are no pipes behind or above so it is likely ground water. Yay. Outside above the lawn is the back deck. That could make things... interesting.

So seeing that I had to pull down the ceiling anyways to re-do the wiring, I also will be pulling down the lovely wood paneled wall where the water seems to have come from.

Funny thing is, we’ve never had water there before. Or since. And it didn’t even rain much while we were gone. Can’t wait to see what I find back there....

So first I began removing ceiling tiles.

Ah, there’s the lights I want to re-purpose in the garage

Whoever wired and insulated this basement needs to have their toenails ripped out with a pliers

I’m guessing the answer as to why the lights do not work is in here...

But then... I smelled it. And saw it. And smelled it some more. Then it started to rain...

Illustration for article titled Houselopnik

MOUSE TURDS.

AND MICE >:(

I got as far as I wanted to go but now have a ton more clean-up to do, especially if they got into the insulation. Ugh. At least I’m that much closer to finding the phantom water leak....

You can see some water damage to the bottom of the panelling where the toe board was hiding it behind all the scrap wood the house came with