Now that the basement wall has had some time to dry out, I decided it was time to start the patching process. I vacuumed and scrubbed the wall to prepare it for the hydraulic cement. Then glopped it into all the holes that were leaking. It dries almost immediately making it rather tricky to work with!
As I was researching basement flooding, one article said “make sure your gutters are all aimed away from your foundation – often this can be the cause of your basement flooding”. Lo and behold, when I got home from work today, I realized that the gutter directly over the leak was pointed straight at the foundation – d’oh!
When I first moved into the condo in 2012, the basement barely got wet during huge, multi-day rain storms. Now our cage starts flooding within 20 minutes of heavy rain fall. I knew the water was coming in somewhere along the wall in the far, right corner of our cage, behind all the shelving.
Earlier this month I ripped the chicken wire off the catio and re-stained it. I also built a sleeping box for the bottom level. Next up was attaching the welded wire I bought from Amazon. The welded wire was so much easier to use than the chicken wire! It lay flat when I rolled it out, it didn’t have stabby edges that cut me or got snagged on my clothes, and it’s welded in 1″ sections which made measuring a breeze.
Last February I stained & waterproofed the top of my girl cave workbench. I only did the top because I didn’t think it would matter if I left the rest natural wood, and I needed the top waterproofed stat, since my stained glassing was leaving ugly waters spots on the MDF. But after living with it for a few months I decided the rest really needed to be stained.
Once the chicken wire was off the catio frame, I realized I could build a little sleeping box for the cats for the catio before my welded wire arrived. I consulted my Dad and he suggested ½” exterior plywood, so I went to Home Depot & bought a half sheet.
I have been debating replacing the chicken wire on the catio with something sleeker & less stabby. I ended up ordering 100′ of galvanized welded wire from Amazon. While I waited for it to arrive, I ripped off all the old chicken wire and re-stained the frame.
One of the items on my 2017 Projects list is to re-stain the front step/stoop which was built in 2014 & which I stained in 2015. It looks so much better!
I actually completed this project 6 weeks ago, but haven’t had time to post about it. The bookcase came from my friend Martha back in May 2015, and I’ve always planned to paint it high-gloss red.
I spent the summer of 2015 building a catio [outdoor cat enclosure] for our cats. I thought I was being thorough by covering the chicken wire seams with strips of luan plywood. But last Fall I noticed the luan was looking a little worse for the wear. The top layer was peeling off, it was warping in places, and was starting to turn colors due to some type of mildew growth.
