So far the new house has been awesome! It feels so good to wake up and go to sleep in our own home (well, the bank owns a good part too). Things are coming along nicely and it’s really starting to look like home.
Then we got a surprise. Seems we had an indoor pool and didn’t even know about it. After a hard rain we discovered we had some flooding in our basement. Major shock! So on top of doing everything else around the house we have to look into basement waterproofing. You can guess it’s not cheap. Sigh… Caveat emptor or so they say. (If anyone has any advice on leaky basements I’m all ears!)
Anyway, here are some great personal finance links to read up on…
The Pros and Cons of Online Savings Accounts at Rainy-Day Saver.
Want to Retire? Ask These People First from Realm of Prosperity.
Buying A House by Sustainable Life Blog.
Is Financing a Car An Effective Way to Build Your Credit? at Studenomics.
What Tax Bracket Am I In? 2010 Tax Brackets from Oblivious Investor.
Save on Groceries with Non-Profit Food Networks by Tight Fisted Miser.
Textbook Ripoffs: Why college leaves kids in debt at Funny about Money.
How Your Credit Score Impacts Interest Rates from Money Smart Life.
The Siren’s Call of Passive Income by Money Smarts Blog.
Should I Go with a Fixed or Variable Rate Mortgage? at Invest It Wisely.
Square Foot Gardening Update: Patience is a Virtue from Family Balance Sheet.
Saving Money On A Cruise by Wisdom Journal.
23 Ways to Save Money Building Your Dream Home at Good Financial Cents.
Managing Joint Accounts in a Relationship from Ace of Wealth.
Automate Your Savings Accounts by Moolanomy.
Four Mutual Fund Metrics That Hurt YOUR Returns at Amateur Asset Allocator.
Why Common Advice is Useless from The Online Investing AI Blog.
How Banks Make Money at Cash Money Life.
REDUCE STRESS; Get Rid of Dysfunctional Money Behaviors – Part 3 from Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance.
How To Make Your Small Business More Successful by Wealth Pilgrim.
2 Years of Unemployment Insurance – How Much is Too Much? at Darwin’s Money.
Download My Free eBook: Invest Like a Pro from Generation X Finance.
How Much Are You Really Saving with the Mortgage Interest Deduction?by No Debt Plan.
New Student Loan Forgiveness Program at My Dollar Plan.
How To Invest In Shares of Common Stock from Digerati Life.
Internet Savings: Why it Will Dominate the Future of Personal Savings by PT Money.
Save Money On Hefty Hospital Bills Simply By Requesting A Discount at Smart On Money.
Start an dividend portfolio with only $5,000 from Intelligent Speculator.
Roth IRA Withdrawal Rules by Bible Money Matters.
3 questions you need to ask before accepting a new job at Green Panda Treehouse.
Beware of exotic funds from Monevator.
Everything you need to be a better investor by Personal Dividends.
“New Normal” math: How your investing plans must change at Pop Economics.
Simplify your Mortgage Refinance with these Seven Questions from Simple Financial Lifestyle.
And now for the carnivals Free From Broke has been in…
Carnival of Money Stories – Signs of Summer Edition
Carnival of Personal Finance | Funny about Money
Yakezie Alexa Challenge Carnival
Yakezie Carnival | Ultimate Money Blog- Save Green and Live Green!
Enjoy your reading!
{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
It will be costly. If you can check CL for contractors that can fox it on the cheap and DO NOT tell your insurance co as they will jack your rates the next period.
Definitely not telling insurance! Damage isn’t so bad that we would need to anyway.
We’ve already had a few estimates. We want it fixed but we need it done right and to code.
ffb, best way to keep water from basement is to keep it away from foundation.
1. sloping landscape
2. gutters clean (means weekly sometimes in my area MN)
3. add 10 ft extender to down spout carry off
I’ve been basement dry since attending to details.
good luck
I’ve already done a couple of small extensions to the downspouts. So far no more water but I don’t know yet if it’s because of the extensions or that it hasn’t rained hard enough yet. It’s a weird thing to want to hope for a hard rain to see the trouble spots and see if what you’ve done worked.
We have someone coming to clean the gutters in a couple of days. I’ve also been considering ways I can get the landscape further away from the house. Hopefully these things work and I don’t need a drain in the basement.
Thanks for the tips.
Thank you for including my post!
As a lifetime renter, I have precisely zero useful advice on the leaking basement. :-/ I hope it ends up not being as costly as you’re expecting.
Umm, thanks?
The estimates are expensive but not as bad as we imagined they could be. We’ll see (fingers crossed).
Thanks for including my links. How everything works out with the basement.
Thanks B!
I’ve got a post on my site a while back from when our basement foundation was leaking a little bit. It wasn’t anything major, just enough to cause some mold. In the end we had to have someone come out and plug the leak in the foundation, and then it was a matter of keeping the water away from the house after that. That means we had to re-landscape a bit outside, sloping the dirt/rock away from the house to channel the water away from the corner where it was getting in. Sorry to hear about the leak – hope it’s an easy fix!
I remember that article!
I hope it’s an easy fix too. We’re going to try the least expensive methods first before we go forth with a big investment.
So far as we can tell this isn’t one specific crack that can be fixed. We’re being told it’s hydrostatic pressure from the foundations and the water is coming up from underneath and perhaps where the wall meets the floor. I suspect getting some of the water away from the foundation around the house will help though.
Ah, the basement pool! We had this about a year ago. Apparently the sump pump gave up the ghost. Cost us pretty penny to have it replaced. Hopefully, it is not that bad for you. Congrats on the new house though!
And thanks for including the post.
Do you have a drain inside the house? Is the sump pump inside? This is what’s been suggested for us. Of course that also means drilling a trench in the basement as well which is why it’s expensive and why we aren’t so keen on that route.
Ahhh, Murphy’s Law is flexing his muscles again. Sorry to hear about the basement flooding.
We’ve had a couple of floods over the 6 years we’ve owned our home. The worst was about 8 inches! Anyway, the best solution is probably a french drain and sump pump system. We just had a sump pump put in last month, but we balked at the price of the full french drain.
So you had the drain but not the pump or the pump and not the drain?
Glad to hear it’s working. We’re still trying some other options first but a french drain might ultimately be the answer.
We had them put in the pump but not the french drain, which is the trench that goes all around the basement. That would have cost us a small fortune.
Yes, it IS a small fortune!
Damn, that sucks. I am so sorry to hear about it. We discovered a major problem after a heavy night of rain when we moved into our previous house too.
Yup, it does suck. What was the issue you had? How did you resolve it?
We just ignore our “indoor pool”.
HA! We’d love to do that. Do you get moisture/mold problems though? We don’t want to have to worry about mold as well so we need resolution ASAP to our water.
It’s not too bad – the basement is completely unfinished and we have 3 dehumidifiers running.
Three dehumidifiers?!? That would drive me bonkers. How’s the electric bill on that? We have a dehumidifier (probably too small) and an air purifier running now.
Thanks for including my post! Sounds pretty stressful, I hope everything works out. When I read the post title I was like, whoa indoor pool how fancy. Then I read the post =/ Best of luck to you!
Yeah, not exactly a good indoor pool. Thanks for the good wishes.
Thank you for including My Dysfunctional Money post in the round up!
You’re very welcome Barb.
Great set of articles! I really enjoyed the ways to save while cruising and building your dream home. I hope your dream home is soon flood free
Thanks for including me.
My pleasure Jeff!