"Have You Ever Seen the Rain?"......Well our basement has!

One of the major things we wanted to do prior to even thinking about finishing our basement was to waterproof. We consistently get water in our basement every time it rains and we knew we needed to address that before even thinking about renovating our basement later down the road. Since we were already going to be excavating for the mudroom footers, we decided to just continue with the excavation and waterproof the back side of the house now while the yard is still ruined. (Front side of the house will get waterproofed when we re-do the front porch, Phase 4).

In addition to excavating the mudroom area and the back of the house, we are also excavating the basement stairs and rebuilding them so that they will fit under the new deck. 
The weather has been pretty mild for December, so we've been able to keep moving along.

Old Exterior Basement Staircase - We are removing this and building new

Basement Stairs Removed

Excavated the side of the house

Gas lines exposed

Backside of the house excavated

Some have been asking us if we expected such a big renovation. The answer is Yes and No. We've always expected a big job, but I think this was the point that I realized this was so much bigger then I thought. BUT it should be worth it in the end. We're NEVER MOVING!!!! Unless someone gives me the right offer ; )