You may remember last Fall when I gave
two very large Rhododendrons significant haircuts in preparation for a move this past Spring. Well, mud season came on fast and furious this year so no heavy machinery was recommended in close-quarters with our possibly-piercable pieced-granite foundation.
And our friends who make a living with said heavy machinery
Fat Cod were busy making hay while the sun was shining this summer. So, as Fall rolled around and I made and off-handed query as to availability, I was somewhat taken aback when the answer was, "How about Friday?"
I immediately said, "Um, OK." And the rest was, well, it's still happening, so not quite history, but there's lots to tell! I don't have pics yet of our newly finished and landscaped dooryard featuring all sorts of reclaimed materials pillaged from deep holes and lost corners of woods and barns here at TOPH (coming soon!) But, I will share a couple of the exciting experiments, achievements and milestones.
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Here is the before picture of the large Rhodies, at-grade sills and negative grade on the west side of TOPH. In anything but a passing shower, water regularly ran down the top of the parking area, across the dooryard and into the corner by the backdoor where it combined with the runoff from three roof directions and poured into the basement at a volume that was washing the mortar out from between the stones of our foundation.
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| And here is the pic taken just after the Rhodies were relocated to their new home in the south woods . You can see where the grade has built up to the sills over the years. And where the moss is growing on the siding where the bushes held moisture up against the house. |
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| Here is a sneak peek at the new grading. Although we had a pro from Fat Cod do the big digging , we were able to get in ourselves by hand and dig out up agains the foundation and reset the grade. Stabilizing the drip edge with gravel and slate reclaimed from a mostly-overthatched patio was an afterthought, but proved to be key in the grand scheme. We've had a couple of days of steady rain and the "breach" in our foundation (four feet below that sill cock by the window well) has turned from a firehouse volume to a trickle at the height of a downpour. Huge improvement. I know it sounds wierd, but we can live with trickle! A river (well, maybe a small stream) runs through it. That's par for the course in olds houses like this. |
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| Here you can see a pile of reclaimed granite curbing (for water diversion) at the top of the slope and the beginning of a hardscaping and landscaping plan that had largely been in my head (as translated by Matt Gunn from Fat Cod with some handy pastry flour.) We graded and shaped the walkway area by hand and then added nine tons of stone/gravel for good measure. The walkway is not quite finished, but very, very close. I've only rearranged the bricks four times... (Pics and details soon.) |
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| And then came the big dig. It is our hope that this large rainwater collection area (now downhill from the house where the opposite slope used to be) will suffice to keep greater volumes of water away from the house and foundation, draining off naturally or with the help of suck-up plantings. The alternative is some sort of high-volume French drain or piping system, but the distance that would need to be covered to reach the sufficient grade to achieve positive drainage would make that a much bigger dig, potentially disturbing working grade elsewhere around the house and property. We will cross that bridge when (IF) we come to it. In the meantime we could also supplement this rainwater collection area with a sump pump and hose if it does not drain quickly enough, but so far we have seen it drain more than 2 inches and hour. And it has a capacity of about 2,000 gallons by my estimation. Here's hopin'! |
That's all for now. More pics and details on repurposed treasures when walkway is (really) set and the grass is showing and the base plantings are in. There is even be some bawdiness in the finishes if you are of that mindset.
