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!