1) Hydraulic cement may work. Or if this is an active water source, you 'll have better luck with a polyurethane or epoxy injection repair. These are the preferred systems used by many new home builders. 2) Watertite by Zinsser can be tinted, so you don't need to paint twice.

Sorry so slow to update, been working! As far as permit goes, we're in small township/non-city, no permit for what we're doing. Things would be different if in the city, I'm quite sure. If we ever sell, I think we'll add something on the stairs though. Got most the flooring in today, and finally tried the piano, and the sound is just fine, actually kind of "concert hall" like, my students will love it, especially since I'll be holding recitals in here. Moving the piano and organ around has been interesting, luckily we've got strong teenagers to help us! Didn't get all the floor done, as it rained & our saw was outside, so will have to finish tomorrow. We found some fun carpet for the stairs.

I have several 1920 and 1950 era duplex homes in Cleveland Ohio area where Basements are known for there dampness and disfunctioning footer drains. Digging up around house is just about impossible due to close proximity of houses to each other. Personally I Have removed as much previous applied paint as possible, clean walls with a disinfectant, applied muratic acid to etch, rinse then used fiberglass wall straps drilled into slab and sill board and epoxy to prevent wall movement 4in straps 4’oc. 12” wide straps if walls are not cinder block but old clay tile block. Sealed bad spots with water plug. Then applied a layer of Ames block and wall. Just like blue max but I think it is more adhesive and well white in color. Then ensuring down spots and gutters take water away from foundation and slope soil or flower beds away from home and use a visqueen (impervious plastic membrane under flower beds and souls against house typ. 4’ from house if possible) under slopped soil. This has always dried up basements for me. Have renovated over 20 pre wwII homes own 7 rental units. But since I am a state registered professional structural engineer I would also say eliminating any hydrostatic pressure from walls is indeed best but sometimes not possible and in that senerio the above has worked well for me.

Looks like a very fun lower level! Just a couple of thoughts: I think the bar area will be popular and it will be fun to sit or stand there, so I'd do an L shape at bar height instead of 4 bar stools and a love seat. Think about your poker friends and whether they'd rather sit at the bar or together on a love seat. Also I think you could get more people at the bar than on the love seat. You might want a closet in the game area (for cards, board games, ping pong paddles and balls, etc.) Try sketching up the exercise room closet in the lower left corner of that room backing up to the theater room, and a closet on the ping pong side of that wall also backing up to the theater room. That will provide some sound barrier, if someone wants to watch a movie and someone else wants to work out or hang by the bar with music or the TV on. (You could split one of the closets so that part of it opens to the theater room, and that could be storage for your AV stuff.) Your drink ledge could be in an L shape from the exercise room doors to the outdoor doors. As for the doors, the French doors take a lot of floor space, and I think are harder to lock (for the exterior doors.) How about sliders that have the divided windows to look like French doors? What will your flooring be? If carpet throughout, will that make it hard to play ping pong? Or will you be doing some kind of tile, wood, or other hard floor with area rugs? Just something to think about. I see the question on your drawing about an entertainment center for a TV behind the bar. A couple of my friends have bars with TVs built into the mirrors. You don't really know it's a TV if it's not on; looks like a fairly regular mirror. Something to check into. You have room to make the bathroom a bit bigger. It might be nice to have a shower in there for after a workout, or if you ever add a sleeper sofa for overnight guests. It looks like this will be a very fun area for your family!