Busy! and Basement Drama

I've gotten pretty bad about updating my blog since going back to work 1 month ago.  But I'm SO busy.  There isn't that much extra time in the day to spend on the internet.  In the morning, we have a pretty good routine to get out the door.  I shower while my husband eats breakfast with the toddler.  Then the baby wakes up and I feed and dress her.  Then I take both kids to daycare and my husband gets ready for work after we leave.  At night, my husband picks up the kids from daycare.  We have dinner and get the toddler to bed around 8 pm.  The baby usually falls asleep around 8:45 or 9 pm after nursing and then wakes one more time to nurse before going to bed for the night.  But we can't just relax on the couch.  We have to do dishes and make lunches for the next day and I have to prep Sammy's bottles for daycare.  By the time we finally relax, I try to watch TV but usually end up falling asleep on the couch.  But as busy and hectic as it is, I love it.  I love my family and this is my reward:

And now for the bad news.  Our basement did not survive Hurricane Irene intact.  We have always thought that we had a dry house.  Last year when the neighbors across the street had 1 foot of water in their basement and our next-door-neighbor's sump pump was pumping like crazy, we were high fiving each other because our basement was dry.  Or was it?  This year, we had Hurricane Irene blow through on Sunday.  We thought everything was fine and went about our business as usual.  Then, when I went to work in my home office on Wednesday (because I typically work from home on Wednesdays), I noticed that the pergo floor in our basement was buckling up.  My stomach dropped when I saw that because I knew that it was water damage.  (I had ruined the first pergo floor in our basement the DAY after we moved in when the toilet overflowed and water got in underneath it.)  So I started looking around and noticed that the brick on the floor near the fireplace was damp.  I called my husband and had him come home from work immediately to start ripping up the floor.  I didn't want the water spreading further and into the back rooms of the basement we had JUST finished.

So we ripped up the pergo floor, revealing once again the horrible brown and beige checkered asbestos tiles on the basement floor (which were now popping up more than ever).  And we weren't 100% sure where the water had come from because the water had dried by the time we realized we had an issue.  But then came this past week, where it rained non-stop for 3 days.  And on day 3, I peeked into our furnace room, and sure enough, it was wet in the corner.  So that actually made me feel better because at least we knew where the water was coming from (and it didn't involve the chimney, which we had originally suspected because of the wet brick).

To make a long story short, we're going to spend a lot of money to fix up our basement.  First we are ripping out the asbestos tile (which requires hiring an asbestos abatement company).  Then we have to call the oil company to replace the copper oil line that will be in the way of some of the other work we need to do.  Then the basement waterproofing experts can do their thing - drilling through our foundation floor and installing french drains and a sump pump.  And then we have to put the finishing touches on - removing the dry wall that got wet, installing new dry wall and painting.  And we have chosen to install ceramic tile as our new flooring.  I'm exhausted just getting quotes for this work and over-thinking every single decision.  But I just don't want to mess around with this again.