Home Ownership with all it's suckitude

A while ago, we noticed the basement seemed a little more damp than usual. Then, water stains started appearing on the baseboards in my office. This is one of those things you just don't want to know. If you investigate, you know it's going to cost some mucho dinero. Finally, though, we felt we had to get to the bottom of it.

In my office is a gorgeous wood shelf that was placed inside an alcove. Well, there WAS a shelf. I had to rip it out piece by piece since that seemed to be the focal point of the water stains. Once that was done, we had someone stop by to give us an estimate. After looking at my demolition work, he thought there might not be a crack in the foundation at all, it might be coming over the top of the wall somehow. Oh how I hoepd he was right. Alas, no. Today's rains showed water emanating from a hole in the middle of the wall. One leak found.

While looking outside, I noticed another crack in the foundation that seemed significant. Its location could not be worse. 1 foot to the left and it's in the unfinished basement. 1 foot to the right and it's accessible by a drop ceiling. Unfortunately, it's right where our ceiling had to be built around an I-Beam. So, more demolition for me as soon as I figure out how to put the computers somewhere functional. I'm not going to live without my computers damnit!