ICE.......and a bit of Mud

Back in February, we had a weekend with 40 degree temps.  While we thought that this was a good thing at the time, we didn't realize that some of that snow would melt and come into our basement door.  The problem was that the weather turned so quickly in the fall, that they never graded a pile of stone outside the basement door.  This caused the melting snow to flow into the basement, covering a large portion of the floor with about 2 inches of ice.  I say ice, because the water quickly
turned to ice as the temps plummeted to freezing again!

We knew that we needed to take care of this small ice rink in our basement before everything thawed out for good.  As soon as we turned the heat on, it started to thaw.  One of our contractors thought it would be a good idea to break up the ice as it became soft. Then shovel it out the door instead of waiting for it to become water and push it down the drain.  It ended up being a ton of work, but a good way to get rid of it.

A couple of the contractors started the job that morning, but the heat wasn't melting the ice as fast as we thought.  So, Ethan and I went out that afternoon to start chipping away at it.  Kevin, our framer, helped, Michael came out when he had a break from work, and Aaron came after school.  It took several hours, but we shoveled it all out.  With the heat on, the rest of the dampness on the floor dried up within a couple of days.

In many places the ice was almost 2 inches thick!

Ethan chipping away!

Our pile going out the door.

Almost done!

Kevin "sweeping"ice!

While we worked, Isaac had some fun with his four-wheeler.  A little too much fun.  I have a feeling my washing machine is going to get a workout this spring.

Just so you know, he is standing on the pile of ice from the basement. This was taken right outside the basement door.  Back inside, things are happening..........stay tuned!