Calgon take me away!

I could have used an escape from my life this past week...or at least on Wednesday. Our hot water heater conked out and started spewing hot water in our basement. Not good. Our basement isn't exactly your typical unfinished storage area type basement. It's completely finished. It has our family room (which includes our office area and Jesse's therapy space), a large 1/2 bath with a laundry closet, and a large storage room. Even though there wasn't a ton of water, and the flood was caught relatively early, there was still a fair bit of damage. All the flooring has to go, except for the storage are (that remains to be seen). The aspenite that was damaged needs to be replaced, and some of the dry wall has to go as well. The basement needs to be repainted throughout.

While we were planning on redoing the basement with new flooring and paint within the next year, we weren't planning on it this soon. Luckily, insurance will cover all but a $500 deductible. But they'll only pay to replace what was here, or something comparable in cost. So that means carpet and vinyl flooring. We were hoping for something like hardwood or cork and ceramic tile. But that's just not going to be in the card, cost-wise. So the flooring guy who showed up today suggested we go with laminate for the family room (a high quality laminate, that is...it really does look a lot like hardwood) and fiberfloor for the bathroom. Fiberfloor is apparently made of fiberglass. It's good in that it's affordable, easy to install, doesn't require glue, and is nearly indestructible. I'm having a difficult time finding info on its safety profile though.

***sigh***

I so wish I could go with hardwood and tile.

As for paint, I'm determined to go with no/low-VOC paint. I haven't heard great things about durability, however. Hopefully we'll find something that works out well.

On a positive note, I'm hoping this will help us kick off our home renos that we've been planning on doing for a while now.