Battle for the Basement Part 1 - Water, water, everywhere 05.08.11

We bought our "beautiful" home in February 2008, six months after relocating to Oklahoma, six months of searching and numerous rejections, "fall throughs" and disappointments.  This home was different.  I fell in love as soon as I walked throught the door.  There were no compromises; this home had EVERYTHING we were looking for and it felt like home!  Our first summer was exciting; we could envision summers to come as we patiently waited for our above ground pool and composite deck to be built.  It was going to be awesome!  The house has three stories, one of which is a walkout finished basement.  My favorite room, and the place I knew we would enjoy the most in the summer, especially with the pool and deck a few steps from the patio doors.  I could not wait.  But I knew I would have to.  The pool didn't get installed until August of 2008; and we had to wait until October for the deck.  It wasn't long before the summer of 2009 rolled around and we could start to really enjoy our home.  The highlight of the summer was the cookout we hosted in July for my Toastmaster friends and work colleagues.  I say work "colleagues" because, still, after a year with the Postal Service in Tulsa, I really didn't know my colleagues who worked throughout the city; I only knew one or two people.  I decided to throw caution to the wind and invited all the managers and supervisors who worked for USPS in Tulsa to my home for a summer cookout.  The party turned out to be a huge success.  Everyone told me they had a good time and I made some new friends.  I decided that this would be an annual event.  Until the fall of 2009.
Sometime in September, or October, 2009 there was, what seemed to be, a never-ending torrent of rainfall.  It actually lasted for three days; and it was a solid downpouring.  I had never seen so much rain.  There were floods everywhere.  To me, this was just one more reason not to like Oklahoma (this list also consisted of the ice storm of 2008, the high crime, and my horrible job).  I didn't like the idea of not being familiar with a place and not knowing which street I could, or could not for fear of getting caught in the flood, drive down.  I was not at all familiar with the place as my two years of living here thus far had consisted merely of driving to and from work. 
Never, in my wildest dreams, did it cross my mind that the rain would affect me more than just being a hindrance to getting around a town I didn't even want to get around. Until, I went down into the basement on the third night of the rain and stepped off the last step into an inch of water.  The water blanketed the whole basement floor.  All 1000 square feet of it.  It was only an inch, but an inch of water can do a whole lot of damage.  I could have cried, but I didn't, as my heart sank.  There were cardboard boxes on the floor.  Ruined, as the water seeped up the sides.  Cardboard boxes of memories.  Ruined.  I yelled to Bill and frantically started to save what I could...photos, framed pictures, books, tapes; all the things you carefully pack for a move but take a lifetime to unpack just as they had taken a lifetime to collect.  The carpet which covered a third of the basement: destroyed.  Water seeped up the drywall, ruining every one of the rooms in my precious, once beautiful, basement.