household disruptions

When we bought our house in 2006 we were assured the basement never leaked. But this spring, when we began taking the fake-wood paneling and Styrofoam insulation off the walls, we found some moisture. It wasn't pouring in, but the walls were definitely damp.
So we brought in some foundation repair contractors to take a look. Most of them told us the same thing - we'd need to excavate the exterior and wrap the foundation in a moisture barrier. Turns out our house was built before such things were required.
This in itself was a big, and expensive, proposal. But since we plan to finish the basement it seemed foolish to frame walls which we knew were damaged. We felt we had little choice but to bite the bullet and sign up to get our two walls excavated and covered.
We went with a company that came recommended - I'll call them Mr. F.
After they dug up about 40 feet around our north-west corner, the company said we had bigger issues than simple moisture leakage. What looks to us like a small gap in the mortar is to them a problem requiring the removal and repair of 15 feet of foundation.
The result is that for almost four months we've had a pit around our house. Mr. F. dithers and stalls - waiting for various engineering reports, crew availability etc. And we're been locked into a contract that doubled from its initial quote.
It's been an exceptionally rainy summer - which understandably slows construction work. But this has also led to a very wet basement here as water leaks in under the foundation and through the exposed cinder-block wall.

And if the pit around our house wasn't enough of a disruption, at the end of July we got robbed. Someone broke into our house and took most of our electronics - computers, recorders, camera, cds and a few other things. They ransacked the bedroom dressers and the dining room buffet, but luckily didn't spend much time looking elsewhere.
Oddly, the also stole one of our cloth diapers and the dirty diaper bag.

So while having a baby is in and of itself quite a significant disruption to a home - we've been given a few extra. But perhaps it's the maternal hormones racing around my body that help keep things in perspective - we're ok, our daughter is healthy and happy. That's what really matters. The rest is just inconvenience.