You are probably thinking to yourself, "he is still posting about this dang flood?" Yes, yes I am.
It has been a pretty big event in the lives of 
After losing our luggage, shoes, Christmas supplies and other various items,
Not wanting to deal with losing stuff again, I was actually on the same page as her with this one. Many of our items are already stored above floor level, but those that aren't, something different needed to happen.
Without much hesitation, I decided to start with the area under our stairs. Because it is closed off, it gives us a good place to stash things like luggage, the vacuum, and holiday decorations.
It is right across the hall from the furnace and sump room though, so it was probably one of the first areas to flood. I started thinking about a way to build shelves or platforms that would keep our items about six inches or so off the floor.
I went over to my buddy's house and as we were sitting by his fireplace drinking I mentioned my plans for building a platform. He immediately brought up the fact that the area under the stairs doesn't have carpet or flooring.
He said that the cement would wick moisture into whatever wood I used, so I needed to make sure I used some Cedar. Apparently, pressure treated lumber would be a no-go because of off-gassing or something like that.
I made a note of his advice knowing that upgrading to cedar lumber would probably increase the cost of my project.
Last Saturday,
As we were walking in, I saw some cement blocks sitting outside the store for $2 a piece or so and my plans immediately shifted.
Instead of spending a bunch of time and money for shelves that pretty much no one was ever going to see, I decided to go the easy route and just do this.
We purchased a total of 5 blocks for about $1.50 a piece and three 2 inch x 6 inch x 8 foot boards and made some really nice risers for all of our tubs and stuff.
I probably should have trimmed these two boards down a little bit, but it had been a long day and I didn't feel like cleaning up all of the sawdust from the floor. It had been a tight fit to even get them in the right position to begin with.
I had cut one of the 2 x 6's in half earlier to run across the back wall of the storage space.
There is a good chance I will end up pulling those two boards out at some point in the future and cut them down to the right size because it is really bugging me that they are too long.
In the end, I am really happy with the way things turned out. Reducing our time and costs on this project will allow me to spend more time on the coat rack that
From now on, our Christmas supplies will be safe and secure from any flooding that hopefully doesn't happen. In fact, I might even add another set of boards and blocks to give us more storage area under the steps.