Rob Emerges From the Basement...and Starts the Next Dirty Job

I was concerned that Rob would spend the entire summer in the basement, but as the temperatures rose to record highs, he probably wished his basement projects had taken a little longer!

By mid-summer 2012 our former home still had not sold, so we were limited to relatively inexpensive projects.  Not a problem since there seems to be an infinite supply of those!  We decided to tackle the grade on the north side of the house.

Over the years there must have been some issues with moisture in the basement.  Attempts to solve those issues led to some odd choices.  Window wells had been added at some point, then later filled with concrete.  And while grades can rise gradually over time, we are fairly certain that soil was added.  The window sills were buried under 8 inches of dirt, and the most recent window screens didn't fully cover the lower portion of the windows since the dirt was so high.  While the sills are stone, the window frames are wood and all that dirt burying the frames led to rot and termites.  So you can see the importance of lowering the grade to free the lower portions of the windows.

The window closest to the fence shows the severe rot and you can see the short screen in the nearest window.

While shoveling and moving countless wheelbarrows of dirt, we took the opportunity to connect the downspouts to the cistern and to run an overflow for the cistern to the street.  We also placed a French drain above the pipe to the cistern to properly solve any potential moisture issues.  I say "we," but certainly Rob did the lion's share of the digging and wheeling.

While deep, this isn't the deepest part of the trench!

Here, the pipe connecting the downspouts to the cistern is visible under the future location of the French drain.

As a civil engineer, Rob understands how pipes must be laid to carry water in the desired directions.  This involved some careful surveying, and while I was most comfortable just holding the rod, I did learn to read measurements with the level as well.

Of course, this project wasn't as simple as it might seem.  Once the grade was lowered next to the house, the dilemma was how to handle the dirt closer to the property line since the neighbor's grade is also high.  We opted to leave the high grade for about 2 feet from the property line and construct a limestone retaining wall to create a raised area for planting.  Along the side of the house, I planted approximately 8 hostas, and between the hostas and the retaining wall, we placed stepping stones.  The area around the hostas and stepping stones was filled in with pea gravel, providing great drainage right down to the French drain!

This shows the wall in progress.  You can see the landscape fabric covering the french drain system.  To the right of the drain, we still had a bit more digging to do before applying more fabric and the pea gravel.

The finished project...which took several weeks when Lang Stone ran out of our chosen product before we finished the wall!

Brick pavers abound!  Many were forming paths along the side of the house where we were working.  Most have been set aside for future projects and will need to be inventoried at some point.  And the neighbor's "privacy" fence will be replaced by a new one containing less defects.  Hostas await spring under the pots on the right.