Water Water Everywhere

I've previously mentioned our "moat." Basically, anytime it rained water collected everywhere. There are definite drainage issues ALL over the neighborhood - believe me we walked around and checked things out. There are plenty of drains and soggy yards all over the place. But it really didn't make us feel any better to discover just how bad things were at our house.



Oooh - and the window wells? So yucky. I'm sure it had been this way for MANY years, but I sure can't understand why the previous owners thought this was ok! Different priorities I guess.
I am happy to report that we have not had any water get into our basement. Well, to be honest, water's getting in but the sump pump and drain tile are handling it. The previous owners had a dry basement system put in. It's a good thing too, but we knew there was plenty we could do on the outside to help these issues. So we put together a moat abatement plan!

• cut back trees away from house
  
• clean gutters
• repair cracked downspouts
  
• remove yews
• bring in dirt and regrade entire yard
• install downspout drains
• install french drain on south side

I am also happy to report that as of today, we have finished all of these things. Well when I say "we" I mean a network of professionals, and family we conned into helping us. Dave (Aaron's dad) had the pleasant task of cleaning the sludge from all the gutters (and believe me, it was SLUDGE). My mom repaired or replaced cracked downspouts (and also cleaned out even more sludge from inside them). We paid to have everything else done thanks to our first time homeowners credit. We just need to add "install dry creek bed" to that list. We plan to do that in our back yard.

Pics of our total yard transformation to come...it's pretty amazing!