Several years ago, my neighbour asked me to come look at his basement. Water was leaking in all along one wall and had soaked through the drywall that was already installed when he bought the house.

I suggested he rip all of the soggy drywall out and toss it in a dumpster. He wanted an easier solution.

I told him that the water was not likely to stop coming in. He said he already knew the problem. The water, he said, was coming in because the grade along that wall had eroded and when it rained the water ran toward the house.

I think I blinked a couple of times.

He said he was going to get a load of fill and spread it out along the wall. He wanted to know if I could fix the drywall.

I told him I can install drywall, but the stuff on the wall had to go.

He didn’t like that idea. He pointed out the brown, wood-grain paneling on the walls throughout and said he wanted drywall over that. I said, “You want drywall put on over the paneling?”

“Yes,” he said, “It’s too dark and old-looking.”

I mentioned that that stuff used to be everywhere, as it was the go-to home renovation material of the 1970s and early 80s. I went over and pushed on it. It didn’t move.

“Oh, there’s drywall behind it,” he said.

“Why not take it off, then?” I asked.

He looked confused. I don’t know why he looked confused. He said, “Then paint the drywall? What about all the nail holes?”

“Fill them,” I said. He shook his head.

“Ok,” I said, “Why don’t you just paint this paneling?”

“You can paint this?”

“You can paint anything.”

“No,” he said, “I want it to look good, you know. So, new drywall and a good paint job.”

“Ok,” I said. I left it at that. Close to the last thing I wanted to be doing at the time was installing drywall in his basement.

A few weeks later, he had his load of dirt spread out against the wall of his house and had a stack of drywall in his driveway. He had to cut each piece in half in order to get it down the stairs (I had to do the same thing in my house). I don’t really know how the work progressed from there except, a week later, a handyman showed up and spent three weeks in his basement.

Winter came and went. Spring arrived and so did a dumpster and a crew of basement waterproofing specialists. The dumpster was loaded up with soaking wet drywall and the basement waterproofing specialists spent a couple of weeks doing whatever it is they do. They installed a pump that poured the water out onto the ground from a pipe they put through the wall. Then the handyman came back and a week or so of drywalling began. A month or so later, some different waterproofing specialists came and the pipe disappeared and they did something different in there. Another week of handyman service followed. I’m sure everything looked good after that.

I was happy not to be involved.

He sold the house a year later.