New York Renovator

I have to say that I have the best kids in the world. Every mom probably says that, but I really mean it! They are working so hard on our drywell project that they make a mom and dad proud.

This exceptionally beautiful, cool, dry weather is perfect for outdoor work. The kids have been digging and digging and they’re at 41 inches deep now! It has not been an easy task. The soil is heavy, wet, compacted clay. Rocks the size of soccerballs are buried in the soil, too.

Here are some photos of our hole.

Here’s our rock group. Believe it or not, we are still finding old bricks in here. I cannot believe all the bricks we constantly find buried on this property. Where did all these buried bricks come from?

This is a definite team effort.

I’d say we have about 8 to 12 inches more to dig down. Here’s hoping we don’t hit water before then. After the hole is done, next project is digging a trench for the outflow pipes. That should be easier. We hope!

Thank God the weather has been so nice. When it finally does rain again, we’ll continue our chimney/water damage repair inside. And soon we plan to take a few days off and do some traveling again!

We are digging a hole outside the house, in an inside corner where two exterior walls meet. The corner is a juncture where two very steep gable roofs meet. During a rainfall, thousands of gallons of water come rushing down the roof right into this inside corner. My old stone foundation can’t handle it anymore, and has begun to cry into the basement.

We cannot install gutters beacuse the fascia (this is the original 1855 fascia) is angled, and the boards are too soft from age now, anyway. The only thing we can do (short of installing new fascia and siding, which is impossible right now) is direct the water. We are making a drywell. But it is an inverted drywell system.

We are digging a 5′ x 3′ hole where the water from the roof falls. Then we will dig a narrow, deep trench from the hole out to the open yard. Once everything is dug, we will insert a large rain barrel with a 4-inch hole in its side toward the bottom. A long perforated pvc pipe will be inserted into this hole and laid into the trench we dug. We will then fill the rain barrel up with the tons of rocks we have around the yard and top these layers off with a few inches of gravel. The trench will be filled in with gravel and dirt.

My theory is that the rain barrel will fill up with roof runoff water. The pvc pipe will direct and disperse the water out into the yard, where the soil will absorb it. Thus, we will direct most of the roof runoff water from this inside corner and away from the foundation.

I looked up drywells online, and found this cool video at ThisOldHouse.com. The only thing is, the homeowner in the video has gutters and is dispersing his water via pipes to a drywell. I am doing it inversely, by collecting water in the barrel first and dispersing it via pipes.

Well, what does all this detailed explaning have to do with buried treasure?

My son found an old 1900 Indian Head penny while digging. It is in very poor shape, but we can read the date and see the Indian head. It is a very exciting find for a youngster.

This is what an Indian Head penny looks like in good condition. My son’s is very worn and discolored.

Discovering treasure is also very helpful for this parent who needs to find ways to constantly motivate her budding PhDs to keep digging. Heh.