Epic Flooding Disaster – Podcast #130
Just a month after sharing a studio tour for 2020, my basement flooded. Within 5 days almost everything about my quilting studio and office has changed. So for this podcast, I decided to share another tour, this time of the entire basement and how much things have changed:
Recovering from the Flood
Josh and I have been running 180 miles per hour to clean up, rip out, and minimize the damage the water could do to our lives and business. But it has definitely rocked our world. In a matter of days, my offices has changed, my sewing space has shrunk dramatically, and my whole schedule thrown out of whack.
But through it all, we have remained positive because it could have been worse.
As it is, we’re going to be renovating for the next several months. I’m learning about epoxy floors and water proof wall coverings. While this has been horrible and deeply disruptive, on the positive side – I will finally get the bright, light studio with beautiful floors that I’ve always wanted!
The downside of course is the cost, time, stress, and sheer overwhelm of this task.
What You Can Do to Help
Please check out our Quilt Shop at LeahDay.com. All orders placed from our store for books, quilting tools, workshops, and machines directly help our family and will help us rebuild.
Consider joining the Quilt Friends Club. Even if you join for only 2-3 months, that is very helpful to us.
I thought it was kind of funny to put our Waterfall Bargello Workshop on sale for $9.99 during this time. Water was the culprit after all! Ordering this downloadable quilting class will help us tremendously and you’ll get to learn how to make a beautiful waterfall wall hanging too.
I hope to continue sharing tutorials and shooting new videos. I’m still planning to share videos on the Dream Big panel starting in March. If I can just get my longarm room cleaned out, I hope to get back to filming soon.
Please help support us during this time so we can recover quickly and be able to continue sharing new videos each week.
Let’s go quilt,
Leah Day
- #129 – Stitching Myself Out of Jail
- #128 – Keep it Simple Sweetie!
- #127 – Crafting Through a Limbo Time
- #126 – What will change in quilting in the next 10 years?
- #125 – Studio Tour 2020!
- #124 – My Word of the Year for 2020
- #123 – Living Without Regrets and Making a Memory Quilt
- #122 – How to Design a Goddess Quilt
- #121 – Experiences vs. Stuff
- #120 – Working Through the Messy Middle
- #119 – Stitching Myself Back Together
- #118 – Pros and Cons of Precuts
- #117 – Make Your Dream Achievements Come True
- #116 – How Much Time Will This Quilt Take?
- #115 – Ten Steps to Finishing Your UFOs
- #114 – Priority is Singular!
- #113 – Celebrating Ten Years in Business!
- #112 – Back from July Vacation
- #111 – Unpacking from Quilt Fantastic
- #110 – The Game of Perfection
Oh I’m so very sorry. I had no idea there was flooding in your area. I will happily help, in any way I can. And, your plans for a Dream Big (workshop ?) sounds really exciting. Wish I lived closer as I’d honestly be happy to come help with flood cleanup and getting you back in the driver’s seat. Big hug, positive thoughts and wishes being sent your way.
Thank you so much! We’re doing more of a Dream Big mini quilt along. I’m going to begin sharing videos on that around March 13th with new designs every Friday until the quilt is filled. That is assuming I can get back to filming sometime soon! LOL! We really appreciate your support.
Sorry for your flood woes. Just a not about basements, We had one when we lived in Va. It was a walkout basement, front below ground and a back walk out. We also lived on a hill, and behind us was a community lake. In 4 years there was never a problem THEN the previous lean water years was reversed and we developed HYDROSTATIC pressure. Only it was 5 years of many floods, water vacuums, digging out to the foundation and coating the front below grade wall before the problem was correctly identified. The water literally was pushed UP the concrete/brick veneer wall and the descended to FLOOD the 2000 sq ft basement (laundry, rec room, and design studio (I am a retired Interior designer) one sons bedroom and garage) . We finally resolved the problem with a dry well AND a sump pump. Only problem then was when we lost electricity, which in a rural area can be too many times. So we purchased a generator, and managed to live somewhat normally till we sold the home about 7 years later. Oh yest the septic lines were in the front of the house because of the Lake, so whenever we got a drenching we also had to have the septic tank pumped out. I mention this because we finally just had it pumped out every February, (after snows and before spring rains.
The point to this story is MAKE SURE the problem s correctly identified and not going to be an ongoing problem. My heart goes out to you, I will do what I can, although I own your books, and have watched all your videos when Blueprint used to be Craftsy. I dont know if you get paid per viewing or what, but I would run them every day if that would help.
Chin up, yes it could be worse, but it is not what you want to be going through when trying to run a business. When we moved to Louisiana and eventually Florida, we swore NO MORE BASEMENTS, and NO more water any where close by. (we are now 8 miles from the ocean and only have to deal with the annual hurricanes.) I also retired 5 years ago.
God Bless you and thanks for all you share with the quilting community. I am administrator of a facebook group, Quilting As You Go Over The Top and I will post your dilemma on our group, (almost 4000 members), hopefully it may help.
You are welcome to join but we do have a no ad policy, however I can post!
Thank you so much for sharing Pat! I agree, figuring out the issue, or multiple issues behind this flood is the key. I think it’s an issue of landscaping combined with our gutters not being big enough for the heaviest rains. Time to pull on my mud boots and get mucky! Thank you for sharing and helping in any way you can!
I’m sure I already have this workshop, but I can’t find it, so happy to buy again as a contribution to The Great Flood Clearup fund. I hope you’re able to fix everything so it’s better and brighter, and that you’ll be able to keep smiling through the chaos of rebuilding
Thank you so much Franni! I really appreciate it!
Our house bathroom flooded one year while my husband was out of town. The water ran from the bathroom to the kitchen & the living room and also a bedroom next to the bathroom. It was a mess for months had to stay in a hotel for a week because the floors were being worked on, stain, buff, sand etc. The carpets were removed and we have cement floors so my husband decided to seal the floors with the sealer used on shower pans. Then we laid down wood floors. You might want to address some type of sealer on the wall or area where the water came in.
Thank you for sharing Dora. I’m planning to rebuild with steel studs and PVC wall board and leave gaps between the brick and wall. That way we can keep an eye on the walls and no longer have any surprises.
Good luck with your renovations.I understand your frustration! Our basement flooded the same day and my sewing/quilting room, husbands weaving room and his wood working shop are in the basement. Like you, we live on a hill and have a walkout basement but the deluge of rain seeped in through the wall at the floor level in three different places. We spent 24 hours with shop vacs dehumidifiers, fans mops and towels. All my machines (2 sergers, two embroidery machines, two regular sewing machines and a long arm thankfully were high enough off the floor and were not damaged. His looms also were not damaged because we were able to move them before the water damaged them. However boxes of books, fabric, patterns, ect that were on the floor did not fair as well. Floors were tile and they survived as well. Only have to replace a few that lifted because the water got underneath them. Everything is dry and no smell. Now to find a contractor to help figure out what to do to keep this from happening again!
Thank you for sharing Gail. We’ve learned that the answer – how to stop this from happening – is both expensive, messy, and going to be a lot more work than we expected. Contact Dry Pro if that is available in your area. We just had an inspection and had a great experience with them. *Sigh* I’m feeling pretty tired of all this chaos now, but I know when we get it all put back, it will be much better than before. I’m so glad you didn’t lose any more machines or looms. Books and patterns are thankfully easy to replace and I have found I can do a lot more with a lot less and have been steadily purging out my collections.