Not really bathroom related, but yet another tale for those who love stories about MrG - we are in the process of finishing off the rest of the useable basement (all of it minus the utility) and MrG has reared his ugly head yet again - remember wayyyyy back at the beginning of this adventure when I talked about the wavy concrete floor - OMG. So the rest of the basement is going to be loads of fun. It's out of level over an inch in quick checks - problem being it's too high in those spots - compared to where we will meet at the doorway (now beautifully tiled) to the laundry room. No, I will not let Mr.Hunzi break out and replace the concrete - we all know how that turned out last time, the end result may have been lovely, but the 10yr wait and the 3yr process is just too much for a second round of that sort of fun. ;-) And the future flooring is lovely, not inexpensive heart pine - unless I have to find an alternative to accommodate the Ghost of MrG. For lottery ticket and enduring and nancy who kept me company through the whole saga of bathroom and dirt before - come over and offer your wisdom at the home decorating forum - which is where I thought might fit best for the Studio Pink Babe Cave Adventure!

Alisande, we have a damp basement, too, and, like you said it's a pain to empty it. We have to empty it about twice a day in the wet season. As you might imagine, we're really tired of doing this! We wish we had a floor drain to have it empty into, but we don't since it's an old house. What we're going to try to do--and maybe you can do this, too--is figure out how to get the dehumidifier drain into the laundry sink. In our case, we need to rig some sort of hose for it and figure out a way to raise the dehumidifier to the proper height. But maybe you don't have a sink in your basement... :( Even so, a dehumidifier is worth having. We got ours at Lowes for about $120 and it has been money very well spent. Our basement smells clean and nice, and the items we store down there don't get damp like they did before we were running the dehumidifier. Of course, a dehumidifier can't solve all moisture problems. It definitely sounds like your gutters/etc were causing the problems. You might want to take a look at some books on basement moisture problems. Right now, I have two books out of the library on this subject that are really helping us figure out how to make some simple fixes without calling in the professionals. Home Water and Moisture Problems: Prevention and Solutions by Gary Branson (this one is so good that I'm planning on buying it for friends and family for Christmas!) 5 Steps to a Dry Basement or Crawl Space by Ronald K. Gay I sure hope some of this info is useful. I know how annoying it is to have a wet basement. Good luck!

I have the exact same setup. My living room, built in 1880, is over a fieldstone-walled, dirt-floor basement. I had the same problem when I first bought the house. Prior owners had foam board in places, and it wasn't air sealed, but I'll tell you, mice just LOVED creating homes between the boards and the ceiling of the basement/floor of the living room. It was disgusting. And when one would die, the living room just stank! I took them all down (it was a very, very gross job), cleaned the ceiling using tsp and bleach to sterilize it, and then a friend installed Roxol batting insulation on the ceiling using insulation wires to hold it. Roxol is non-toxic and rodents hate it, which is why I chose it, and it has been fantastic. Whatever you decide, I'd pick something that repels rodents. Foam board they can just chew right through to make a home. Ugh.

I don't have frost in Texas ... and I have an existing concrete base that is split into 4 sections. The problem is with settling and movement, it caused the tiles on top to pop and generally be in terrible condition. So my option is removing the slabs and putting in 1 monolithic slab, then putting on tile or whatever on top of it ... or just building on the removed concrete area (Which is most likely using compacted gravel then a paver area, rather than just setting stones together and hoping for the best). I like this setup, with the seating area, then pebbles, then lawn.