Driveway Drainage Problems Solved (we hope!)

So there were a few troublesome things going on beside the driveway, most of which involved water draining off the roof and driveway directly into the window well, through the basement window, and into the basement. I have chronicled several attempts to fix this problem so far. I think we finally got it done right: we asked the professionals to look at it. Here is the completed project:

This beautiful site is the result of several improvements. Part of the problem was with the gutter, which first had to be lowered. Even at its proper height and pitch, however, the gutter was way too long to be draining into only one downspout. It's a LONG run -- 36 feet or so -- and a lot of roof, so it was difficult for it to keep up with the water flow. The guys suggested adding a second downspout, which seemed like a great idea. So now there's one on either end. Here's the new one up front:

[They left us some extra lengths of downspout, since we're not sure where exactly we want the water to shoot out. Right now it's set up to run into the garden area beside the house. If this results in water in the basement through the front foundation area, we can re-route it onto the driveway.]

The next part of the problem was that the driveway drain frequently backed up, leaving a massive puddle that then ran into the window well due to that nasty little force called gravity. One part of the solution was to improve upon our drain cover. You can see our previous solution in this earlier post. Here's the new one:
With a drain that is flush with the concrete, there's less chance that stuff will build up in there, and when it does get covered with gunk, it will be easier to just clean off than it was before (when we had to dig down in there through the muck and water).

Of course, there is still a chance that the drain will get filled with gunk from the driveway ("tree poop" and such), and in the winter, that drain can freeze up. So there will still, occasionally, be water sitting in this area, and this water will want to seek out our window well. This is why we also had the window well itself fixed. Regular readers will recall seeing (and perhaps laughing at) some of my previous attempts here and also here to solve this problem; I am sure you will enjoy the professional job that was finally done here. I must tell you that there was a jackhammer involved, which is, of course, the reason why I couldn't do it myself. There is no way I should have jackhammer privileges. Once they had dug down though the inches of concrete, going about two inches below the window well and into the dirt, they put in the metal window well. That is sealed in there with concrete, so now water won't run into the well. I put the old piece of plexi on top of the whole thing for the rain that falls off the roof. [I think we'll cut the plexi down to a more reasonable size.] So check it out, our complete window well solution:



Finally, all that water puddling on and splashing off the driveway also did some damage to our wood siding in that area, so the guys also removed and replaced a section of shingles with these new ones. Once they were painted, we couldn't tell the difference. It looks great!



That's all for today, and in fact, that's probably all for the month of July. 83 Durant is about to go on yet another hiatus while we head south for family visits. We'll be back in August with exciting updates on whether all this drainage fixage actually worked, as well as new projects like drywalling and painting the spare bedroom!

Outdoor Maintenance Project

Our roofing guys came last Thursday and fixed the fascia board on the driveway side of the house. They also took down and re-installed the gutter. Unfortunately, it's still not right. It's way too high for a slate roof (the snow will hit it) and it's not pitched far enough (water puddles in the front end). They should be back Tuesday to finish the job. They should also be finishing (or starting, really) the replacement of a section of cedar shingles on the wall beside the driveway. They're rotting from a combination of the water (compliments of the window-well puddling) and the heat (compliments of the driveway). It's not a huge section, but once it is done, hopefully the house will be completely weather-tight!

Here's what it looks like under those shingles:


Hopefully the wood underneath (the sill) isn't damaged by rot or bugs. If so, there will be some extra wood to replace. Further updates tomorrow if I have time.

Garden Edition, Issue 6

Here's the current state of things:


Tomatoes are starting to show themselves on the tomato plants, but not too many:


These little grape tomatoes are looking pretty good -- I detect a note of orange!


Check out our hydrangeas! Rose cut off all the dead stuff on them, and they're looking terrific! She also did a lot of weeding for us. Thanks, Rose!


The rose bushes are looking a bit rough. Any advice from our faithful readers on how much we should cut off and when?



John also fixed the broken picket on the fence out front. Check out his awesome contraption for holding the thing in place while the glue dried:

Thanks, John!

We've seen some other lovely things popping up. These are right in front of the house, beside the front door, in both pink and white:

Masters of Electricity and Plumbing

We've had a lot of help around the house lately here at 83 Durant! Check out the updates:

Ernie installed an awesome dimmer switch for the sconce lighting fixtures in the dining room. Who needs complicated 3-way switch installation instructions when you have Ernie! Thanks, Ernie! Here's the man in action:






















John (with assistance from Jake) installed our new utility sink. Unfortunately, they worked so fast, I didn't get a chance to record them in action, but here's the finished product:


Yes, they cut those special legs for it themselves, as we bought a sink that didn't have any of its own. It's a pretty sturdy set-up. And with the addition of some plumber's putty, it doesn't even leak! Awesome!

And as you may have noticed, beside that sink, you can see our FREEZER!! This Freezer Rules! Well, it's not plugged in yet, but upon our return from July travels, we will plug it in and start filling it with garden bounty! Woo hoo!

We need more insulation

I know, I know, it's hard to believe, but we need more insulation. Jake, John, and Rose have installed all the R-19 and all the R-13 available, so their work here is done (at least, John and Rose's work is done!). The room looks great!
Here's the wall between the bathroom and the bedroom, all R-13 insulated!



This wall needs some more R-13, but it's not critical, since this is mostly in on the wall between the two bedrooms, and on the chimney, and in the closet, which is on the other side of another closet.


Thanks so much to our guest workers, John and Rose, who came all the way here from Washington state only to get put to work. Thanks!!!

We'll be trying to fill the last few bays soon. Our drywallers arrive on August 6th to put in real walls! Woo hoo! It's nice to think about painting the room and not having to see all this insulation!

The Insulation Team Continues their conquest of the spare bedroom

Jake, John, and Rose were at it again this morning, installing insulation in the spare room. It's looking great!

And they're officially out of R-19. I can't believe it. We still have the R-13 for the interior walls, but we're trying to figure out if we should buy more R-19 to finish up the outside wall:



This afternoon's project will feature our Master Plumber, John, who will be installing a new utility sink in the basement. There was one there before, but it was busted up and pretty gnarly looking. We bought at new one at the ReStore, but we haven't felt brave enough to take on another plumbing project on our own. Here you can see the place where the old sink was. That black tube that runs into the drain actually comes from the upstairs dishwasher. Strange.

Insulation!

Jake, John, and Rose installed the insulation in the slanted part of the ceiling this morning. They did a great job with the R-19 and staple gun. Here are Jake and John, hard at work:


And here's Rose, taking out nails in the wall so that our drywallers can do their jobs.

And here it is, the slanty ceiling all finished (except for drywall):


In the world outside, the workers succeeded in adding wood to fill the gap in the fascia boards, so we can no longer see outside from inside (even without the insulation in there!). Here's a sample of the little view to the outside world from destruction day in June (it might be hard to tell, but that's the neighbor's house and windows you're seeing through the crack in the middle):

And here it is now:




Also on the outside, they started taking off the section of rotten shingles on the driveway side of the house. Check out the mess:


That's all for today, since we had to let our guests out to play for a while. We'll get them back to work tomorrow morning, no doubt.

The work continues

This morning at 7:30, my slumbers were disturbed by the sound of a pry bar and saw taking on the gutter and fascia board problems at 83 Durant. While this isn't my favorite way to be awakened, it does mean that another project is underway at 83 Durant, and that always pleases me. The carpenter arrived, and they are taking down the very poorly installed metal gutter, adding new wood to the undersized fascia board (that gap where we can see out to the neighbor's house through the spare room), and re-installing the gutter in the correct manner. This is good.

After some discussions with the carpenter about some of the other issues on the driveway side of the house, he suggested several solutions:
1) for the drain in the driveway, he can install a flat metal cover so that it won't get clogged up so easily.
2) for the leaky window well, he suggests a metal edging, sealed with cement caulk, and then digging out the concrete and putting in stones. This would be the best way to fix this problem, so once he gets us an estimate, we'll decide if we want to do that, or go with one of our home-grown do-it-ourselves ideas
3) he's going to replace a section of the wooden shingles beside the driveway that have rotted out (mostly because of the splashback and moisture off of the driveway). Once he gets those shingles off, he'll be able to see how much damage there is to the wood underneath and to the sill of the house. This might warrant further repairs and wood replacement, which is a bit scary. But we're glad that we will at least find out a bit more about the state of the house.

Other indoor projects -- insulation and plumbing -- will soon be underway since we have John and Rose here. Updates to follow!

...and we're back

We're back from a restful and fun week in Vermont, and were pleased to find things in quite reasonable condition upon our return. The garden is indeed a bit overgrown with weeds:



Thanks to alert readers (check out the comments) we figured out that one of our weeds was actually only an overgrown radish -- a joke radish in bloom. HA! They have even bloomed tiny white flowers (see below). But we pulled one up, and indeed, it was/is a radish. Also, in the picture below, you will see that our lettuce has bolted. Suggestions, dear readers? Can we trim it back and hope to get decent lettuce out of it, or is this the kind of thing we should just pull up and be done with?



The tomatoes are not looking very tall or productive, with the exception of the one in the far left corner (we thought it was an "early girl" but now maybe something else).

It's clear from the state of the garden that we got some rain while we were away, which is wonderful. What is less than wonderful is the water in the basement, which, as usual, made its entrance via the window well off the driveway, as said driveway's drain was filled with gunk. Sigh. Piles of towels to dry again. We really need to get to that little masonry job very soon.

Other than that all is well at 83 Durant. We need to do some weeding and mowing of grass, but we're very happy to be home.