More Drainage

Here's a follow up to the outside drains Mike has been putting under the driveway (in preparation for the blacktop)

I didn't have final photos for the electrical connection into the garage, so here's that:








Then there was the drainage near the Well House.  In addition to the drain Mike had going near the arbor, Mike also tied in the well house gutters...

And then ran the piping under the fence & driveway so it will drain into the field.



A last drain he decided to add to a section of yard behind the pump house, where some water had been pooling when we get big storms.










This also had to run across the driveway to drain into the field.



Mike also rounded out a section of the driveway that someone (can't imagine who- haha!) kept going off into the grass every morning when backing the car up.  It's now much easier to turn around!

Yesterday Mike went to the town office to see what permits we needed, etc.  Happily, they gave us the green light to proceed!
The driveway guy is scheduled to come on Friday!!!

The Big Dig

Labor Day Weekend Project #1...

We've been in the process of getting estimates for blacktopping the driveway.

Back half of the driveway

The weeds/grass growing in the gravel is driving me crazy.  Plus, it'll be nice to have a surface for the kids to easily ride their bikes & scooters on... and they'll be too big to find riding back & forth on the driveway exciting if we wait much longer!

BUT, that means we had to quickly get moving on a couple of items:
-Mike wanted to add two more drains to divert the downspout water away from the house & well house.
-We want to run electric to our garage.

Both of these items required digging ditches (extra deep for the electrical one) across the driveway and putting PVC pipe across. Better to do this now, than after we've blacktopped!


Here's the gutter/drain work Mike did >>>
The little piece jutting to the right is capped, but will eventually connect to the kitchen gutters.

He also needed to remove a big bush that was right at the corner of the house. (I didn't get the chance to take a "before" photo)












 He transplanted the bush up to the back driveway (where we have our bus stop bench).

<<<Next was the trench for the electric, and cutting the hole in the side of the garage






Since we aren't doing the electrical yet, we put a rope inside the tubing and capped it.









Lastly, was the drainage near the well house....  Water has been pooling right under the gate when it rains, so Mike is installing a drain and running it across to empty in the field.

As of this morning...
The drain closest to the house is finished.
The electrical tube to the garage is finished.
The drain by the gate needs one more PVC part, and Mike is going to shorten the swinging gates a little.

The rest of the photos are in this post!

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!