What would you do in this situation?

[3Gs4Me]

We have planned to be done with consumer debt in the next 15 months at the latest but we have some other issues that have come up.

Our home is 55 years old and the basement still has the original single pained metal windows in it. They condense alot in the winter, get moldy, and make the basement really cold. The grade behind our home is also not right so during heavy rain we get a bit of water into one corner of our unfinished basement. Re-grading could include bringing in a whole lotta dirt, landscaping bricks, and possibly ripping up our deck. It would also make it absolutely needed for the basement windows to be replaced and wells put inso that we can regrade without burying the windows.

So, would you stop paying down on debt for 6-8 months to alleviate these problems or would you put plastic on the windows this winter and just throw some dirt up against the house in the leaking corner to try to deal with the leaking problem for the year. We are really torn because this debt is really weighing heavily on us but on the other hand we are not the type to make shoddy fixes either.

So, what would you do?

[juliebelle]

personally, sounds like a problem i would get fixed immediately. ultimately i think that could cause more damage than some cc debt interest

[Summer]

How long have you been living with it? If it's been a couple of years and you've been coping okay, I'd just follow through on the debt. I have windows that don't close and that leak and I haven't replaced them so my inclination is to let it go. I certainly wouldn't regrade and go through all that just to get rid of what you describe as a little bit of water unless I were planning to sell very soon or unless I had the money in cash to do it.

[herc]

are you planning on turning the basement into usable space for your family? Is the water doing damage to the foundation?

[3Gs4Me]

We have only lived in the house for 16 months. When it rains really really hard in the spring or when alot of snow melts we get a small amount of water in one corner of the basement (maybe a quart to half a gallon of water depending on the precipitation that can be easily blocked and sopped up with 2 bath towels).

[tmrhopkins]

I'd get rid of the mold. My children have mold allergies and do you really want to be breathing in that mold?

Is the basement being used?

Tawnya

[Sandi]

I'd probably habitually spray bleach water down there by the windows - at least once a week, more often in the rainy season, and not worry *so* much about the windows themselves at the moment.

OR - when my Dad's house was broken into through a basement window, he replaced them with glass blocks. It still let the light in, but you couldn't get in or out. That may be a less expensive option.

I don't think the window wells cost very much, either - they're just some kind of corrugated aluminum from what we've seen in new construction the last couple months. They seem that with a small landscaping shovel you could dig out that space and pop one in there yourself quite easily/inexpensively. Of course, that wouldn't solve the window problem, but it would keep some of that junk off the windows themselves. Unless you're talking about egress windows, which is a whole other game.

In the meantime, spray spray spray - treat that mold

[BlueRoseMama]

If that much water is actually coming INTO your house, there is more somewhere in the walls... and with Cyan's rabid mold allergy (we have moved becuase of it before) I wouldn't ever let something like that wait again. But that is just me. Either way, you are putting something off that needs to be done later... so either way, it will be the same amount of time for you to get them both done. My thought is that the basement needs to be fixed "by winter" and the debt will go away whenever... so I would do the basement first.... becuase it actually has a time limit. You know?

Val

[3Gs4Me]

I just put $500 aside today from dh's check and we will probably put double that away each month until June and then get the ball rolling on this. I am going to call and get quotes on the window replacement. They will be a PITA to replace since they are tied into the cinderblock The whole house actually needs new windows but the upstairs will have to wait another year. We don't want to do glass blocks in the basement because our basement is only half under ground in the back. We have large 2.5' by 4 foot windows so they are up to code size to put bedrooms down there when the boys get a bit older (there is also a basement door but that is not enough to be code for bedrooms).

I guess I knew the inevitable but I am just so sick of this debt that I can't stand it and want it gone

Knowing that in the next couple of years we need upstairs windows, new siding, new deck, and will need to completely redo our garage (our garage is over half windows instead of walls and was used as a three season room originally but all the windows are older than dirt) is just so overwhelming on top of everything else we are concerned about financially.

[mamabear]

Yep, I'd do it to. We've waited a year already to fix a similar problem, only ours is quite a bit of water running across the basement floor during heavy rains and spring thaw.

Any water will eventually ruin the foundation...

I'm having similar issues. We thought we were about to start getting ahead and paying down debt with my income increasing but unfortunately we have a bunch of house and infrastructure needs that just can't be put off, that are coming up in the next year to three years. Ugh!