Two weeks ago, overnight from Saturday June 22 into Sunday June 23, our house flooded. We live in a rural village in central/northern Ontario in Canada and, as such, our house relies on a well and sump pump to both pull our water in, and push water out. The well for the former, the pump for the latter (it’s for pumping rainwater away from the weeping tiles that are meant to protect your house).
Unfortunately, we had such a storm that the water coming in was faster than what the pump could push out. Result - a flooded basement. Here’s what that looked like after we had already pumped half the water out.
Because we live in a bungalow, it’s meant a lot of rearranging living situations.
My 14-year old son’s bedroom is downstairs as is “the media room” (doubles as the family movie night room and my son’s video game room)
my wife’s office is downstairs
the laundry room is downstairs
the indoor “gym” is downstairs (doubles as a rec room)
and there’s a storage room as well as a shower room
So, taking all that away (especially for my son whose life (when not outside with his friends) is essentially downstairs, and my wife - since that’s her workplace as she also works full-time from home - has made for a lot of challenges.
So, for now, everyone is upstairs - my son’s sleeping on an air mattress in the front room, and living out of boxes for his clothes. My wife has commandeered our 12-year old daughter’s room for work, which impacts our daughter and her privacy. And we now have to manoeuvre around one bathroom/shower/bath, which is always fun. 🤓
And then there’s the noise. After we contacted our insurers and reported everything, they sent a team out to move damaged stuff from the basement and then get the rest of the water out (they found even more once the floors had been ripped up). Following that, they installed 6 industrial dehumidifiers and 30 industrial dryers, which were then left running 24/7 for 10 days. So you can imagine the sleep deprivation we’ve all had to endure, which has made the temporary living arrangements even more fun.
Thankfully, we finally had the dryers removed on Friday afternoon, so that is one small mercy.
Which brings me to the title of this post, how do you podcast when your basement gets flooded. The simple answer? You don’t. At least, if you’re like me and don’t really have anywhere else to record (since my office is also my recording room).
I’ve had to rearrange 5 podcast interviews, as well as take a couple of work calls while the dryers were still here in the basement. Thankfully, the people on the other end of the calls were very understanding, but still not ideal.
Now, to be 100% clear, I know I am fortunate that the flooding didn’t impact the top half of the house, and disruption to me is minimal compared to my wife and kids. And if I could switch any of the circumstances, especially for our son, I would.
From a selfish podcaster point of view - hey now, please don’t judge, haha! - it has sucked not being able to do the things I don’t even give a second thought to.
recording
chatting with guests
production and editing, etc
Now that the dryers are gone, though, I have a little bit of leeway before the renovation crew come in to work on the drywall that was damaged, re-install our floors, and generally get our basement ready for our replacement furniture, etc. So, I’m guessing that’ll be a fresh batch of noise to deal with.
But that’s a future problem. For now, best get to work. 😎
PS - Oh, quick heads up, if you missed it I recently launched a fun new podcast called 5 Random Questions, where I use a random question generator to come up with questions for my guest on each episode. None of us know what’s about to be asked, and this has led to a really enjoyable 30 minutes every week. Check the first three episodes out below if you’re looking for something new to listen to.
Oh my goodness, this is absolutely insane!! I can't imagine dealing with the dryers and the dehumidifiers for 10 days.
I've had a similar situation a few years ago. My basement is also where my studio is and one of these days the pump was blocked from leaves and debris with enabled the water to seep into the basement from under the door and I didn't discover this till the next day.
Luckily since we have vinyl flooring in the basement the and lots of removable rugs It absorbed water in the other areas of the house. But it affected some elements in the studio space, luckily I have most of the items above ground in book shelves etc.
Keeping the drain clear of debris is my top priority, another thing that I did was to put an industrial grade rubber mat which has quarter size holes to keep that water flowing even under the mat and to the drain.
I'm glad it's all behind you now.