2912-12-12 Missing Mortar

After almost a year we finally decided to tackle the basement.  Though I wish I could say that our reasoning was because we were ready to tackle this project, but it was based on seeing a 4 legged fuzz ball racing across the floor.  On day 1 it took us 8 hours to sort through half of the basement, which included sweeping up mouse droppings, lose concrete and dust from the eroding mortar between the brick foundation then sending everything through into the shop vac.  

On day 2 we added our extra toiletries into 15 shoeboxes we purchased from Walmart for 97 cents each.  I would normally buy the same color lid and bin to keep it cohesive, but I really liked the look of the white lids with the blue transparent boxes.  I wanted to use pretty labels, but for now I have to settle for index cards and scotch tape.  

We were able to clean up most of the mouse droppings and mop up most of the remaining dust, but there is still much work to be done in order to keep the dust from building up again.  Plus, during our clean up we realized that the mortar between the brick foundation was pretty much non-existent and the next major project on our list.  I was told a professional would have to repoint it, so I contacted my handy man who was able to tackle the stair wall Saturday.  It took him 11 hours {2 days} to remorter the wall and fill in the broken and cut out area of concrete on the floor. 

 Here is a small section of the nonexistant mortar in our brick foundation for the side walls that connect to the outside townhomes.   

Here is an upclose of the the holes that some of the mice came through.

Here is a section of concrete that was left open.  My handy man said it looked like their had been a wall here that had been taken down when the city did their renovations prior to the previous owner, who I purchased the townhome from.  This area really needed to be filled in, because it's right in the middle of where I want my workbench and I didn't want to twist my ankle.  there were also a few missing bricks on the floor base that he brought in some extra bricks he had on hand to fill in the space

Now that he's tackeled the hard part, I'll be taking care of painting on the drylock, an estimated 2 coats before it's done and then we can move everything back against the wall and in January work on the other wall.  Between now and then well be dusting up in the ceiling to take care of the dust build up there before we add clear plastic tarts to the ceiling.  We hope that in doing this will be able to keep the dust down and not have to keep everything in plastic tubs to keep it from getting dirty. 

p.s.
I keep forgetting to take after photos.  I will post them sometime next week, as I would like to catch some daylight time maybe Saturday for a better photo without flash since the lighting is not so great.