Minds in the Gutter

Okay, more like "minds ON the gutter... AND the drains... and keeping the water OUT of the basement"!

Mike has been doing a lot of re-grading around the foundation, and it's helped tremendously with the dampness in the basement- Irene & Lee really put it to the test!  (And although we still got some water, it wasn't nearly as bad as it was the first week we moved in.)

The biggest part of the project involved creating a drainage system on the East side of the house.

Water kept flowing under the basement door, so Mike got a drain to go on the outside of the threshold.  (And looking at this photo, I need to get out there with a scrub brush, pronto!)

Anyways, that drain then combines it with the gutter drains from the roof, along with the sump pump drain that comes out from the basement under the front porch--->

<--- Check it out!  Three sources into one pipe that will drain on the opposite side of our driveway (so it won't create a sheet of ice across the top of the driveway in the winter- like it would have if we left it!). 

Of course, this meant digging a trench across the driveway... between hauling out that buried bathtub, pulling out shrubs, and digging this trench, that tractor is starting to pay for itself!

After testing the water flow, Mike buried the pipes, added gravel on the path, and we were finally ready to make it look pretty!

We re-cut some old slate that had been found in random places through the yard.  These were used to create a path to the basement door. 

We lined the path & the flowerbeds with big rocks that had been dug up from around the yard.  We'll work on planting the flowerbeds next spring.

On the "To Do" List:  I'd like to get some moss to fill in the cracks between the slates, as long as that won't interfere with drainage.

The part I'm most looking forward to will be paving the driveway.  The boys will have so much fun riding their bikes, using chalk, & playing basketball on it!  But we have to wait until the kitchen addition is complete- no sense in doing the driveway until the heavy equipment is out of here. 

The upside for waiting- it'll give us a season to make sure the new drainage system is working like a charm!