We've got a 1920s Chicago bungalow. We've found lots of odd stuff. Maybe not treasure, but... We found an old 1950s metal horse . He's a stallion - which I find humorous as I think he was a child's toy. He's wearing a western saddle and bridle. About a foot high and long. Weighs quite a bit. Also up in the attic is an old 48 star flag. The previous owner was a WWII vet. The flag has seen better days. We're not sure what to do with it. Great for us but not very "exciting" is the quarter round trim we found up there. The front three rooms (family room, dining room, bedroom) had all been carpeted. We spent weeks pulling up old carpet and padding and then had the floors refinished to the original golden oak color. The POs had taken the time to pull up the quarter round at the bottom of the trim. Rather than throw it away they stuck it in the attic. They even bundled it by room, all neatly labeled. Gotta love POs like that! Nothing was cleaned out of the garage. Tons of old heavy gardening tools, shovels and rakes generally. The rafters of the garage are filled with scrap wood. We've been pulling it down bit by bit. Some of it is old 2x4s. The true 2" x 4" kind. We're hanging on to those as we hope to do some remodeling at some point and they might come in handy. Found an old (1950s?) kids sled up there. We also had a mystery box. Finally pulled it down earlier this spring. Ended up, it was filled with potato sacks. ?? I've kept them as some have really cool graphics on them. I'm guessing their 1940s or 50s. I need to find a way to clean them up a bit though. Also found a cool piece of a glass window with the word LUNCH engraved in it. It's quite big and heavy, must have come from a restaurant (maybe that explains the potato sacks?) It's broken on either end. I'd like to take a stained glass class to see if I can fix it up. It would look really cool hanging in the kitchen.

That makes sense the water is going to the sewer drain and not a sewer line! I'm surprised the concrete is the expensive part--- maybe you're in a difficult location where it would be hard to get the concrete there? In our case the expensive part is the sheer overwhelming physical labor of it all. The contractor came back today and I had done some digging above the old coal on the outside as well as inside it (in the basement) and had an unpleasant surprise (are there any pleasant surprises with this house?). Apparently, like everything else with this house, they cob-jobbed the coal chute closed by throwing bricks into it and pouring a thin slab on top. I don't know what caused the avalanche of dirt (and insulation) on the bottom inside the basement, but I do know that there is no concrete floor under it like there is in the rest of the basement! We assumed it was concrete and that the dirt avalanche could just be shoveled out. Course not. We had a lot of rain a few days ago and as I shoveled up some dirt inside the basement, expecting to see a concrete floor, instead it was just more dirt and a growing pool of water. The contractor thinks there is water coming up from the ground as well as through the wall. So that changed our plan a bit since they're going to have to excavate down outside the house to the basement floor level, pour a footer, build a cinderblock wall to properly seal off the stupid coal chute, and then do some waterproofing inside (clean out dirt, install drain in floor into sump pump which is fortunately only about a foot away, pour clean gravel on top, cover with encapsulating material). On the exterior he thinks it should just be graded away with dirt and with a hardscape/mulch/rocks/something, no plantings. The total is now up to $8500. I'm a little shocked that it's that inexpensive, for all the work they'd be doing (pouring a footer sounds like it would be exorbitantly expensive, right?). He also isn't going to be doing the concrete on the other side of the deck (under the kitchen window) since he thinks the water on that side is also coming up from the ground (sheesh) and it wouldn't do much good. So they're just going to grade the ground there with dirt. I asked him about a door at the bottom of the stairs and he said he could put up some of that encapsulating material and have it hang down over the opening, which would be better than nothing since an actual door isn't feasible. It sounds like you did more than your due diligence with getting bids and planning, so I really hope it works out for you! It's got to help somewhat, at least, if not get rid of the water 100%. If your water table is high (like it is here, apparently) then the french drains won't be 100%, but you'd probably know that by now. My husband is still digesting all this information, but if all goes well we'll be having it done early September probably. Good luck with everything!!

Continuos run ridgeventing coupled with continous soffit/eave venting with radiant barrier stapled to the underside of the rafters of the trusses or framed rafters, 3" from the eave venting, continuing up to the ridgeventing is a good way to keep your attic cooler in the summer. The heat from the roof is trapped between the roof sheathing and the radiant barrier with the hot air being pushed up and out the ridgeventing by way of the soffit/eave venting. Radiant barrier rolls of 50" x 1000' are relatively inexpensive and is something you can easily d.i.y. Here's a link where we got ours. He leaves his phone # on his website for a reason. I've had many questions concerning our build and the use of radiant for heat retention, and Mr. Ed Sumpolec was extremely helpful. Here is a link that might be useful: radiant barrier

An 18 inch auger drill bit allows you to drill in the middle of a stud despite an angled entry from the rest of the drywall. A 3 inch strip of drywall is enough to run receptacles around a room. For vertical work you can cut about 6 inches below the wall ceiling joint, drill through the top plat, and then fish from the opening ion the ceiling. Worst can you open the ceiling 5 inches from the wall and work from there. Inside corners take more time to repair than flat work, so avoid damaging them.