Saving the Basement

Alright, maybe "saving the basement" is extreme, but we did have to have some work done to the basement walls in order to shore and seal them up. It wasn't a surprise, we knew about all of this when we put our offer on the house and after our inspections. In all reality, the repairs were minor and are extremely common for the area of town that we live in and the age of the house. All we had to have done was to put in 8 vertical supports along the north wall to prevent the wall from moving in any further (the wall had pushed in 2-3 inches) and have some cracks that were leaking epoxy injected (not really sure we had to do the epoxy since we didn't have any more leaks after cleaning out the gutters, but rather safe than sorry).


The most interesting part of basement repairs was who ended up doing them. The name probably won't mean much for most, but one of the guys doing the repairs was Jamar Howard. Jamar played basketball for Wichita State from 2001-2005 and was easily one of the most hated players by Creighton fans (Jessica and my Alma Mater). On the court, Jamar was a good player, a hell of a defender (2003 MVC defensive player of the year), and loved to be the enemy of the crowd. He would yell at us (the crowd), flex his arms after a big play, and even spit his gum into the student section. Not to say that the crowd wasn't always innocent, but just a guy you loved to hate. So, needless to say, I was a little surprised when he walked into my house. My first reaction was to start yelling obscenities at him, but I resisted and instead eased into a conversation that lead to basketball. He ended up being a really nice guy and even admitted that he is a different person on the court.


Jamar Howard:

Basement wall: