Tag Archive | "drywell"

Spring Time Chores

Monday, May 4, 2009

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As we Northeasterners have been crawling out of our hibernation, spring slowly arrives. My spring flowers are now blooming. Spring came early this year for Upstate New York– i.e., no snow in April! Usually, we don’t allow those sporadic 70-80 degree days to fool us. We know a snowstorm could (and has) happened. But this [...]

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Installing a French Drain

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

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Old houses often have water problems. Mine sure does. Last year, the kids and I worked all summer on building a huge drywell area, to lead rainwater runoff from the roof away from the foundation of the house. You can read more about it here and here and here. It has helped our water situation, [...]

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It’s Done!

Saturday, July 28, 2007

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Our drywell project is completed! We sweated it out on one of the hottest days of the summer to finish it. I’ll keep the narrative brief, with photos: Below: Filling with rocks. We elimated our “rock pile” with this project. Our rock pile was a collection of various rocks, bricks, broken asphalt, and broken cinder [...]

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A Smashing Job

Monday, July 23, 2007

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Today we progressed more on our drywell project. The hardest of the project is behind us! Last week, I bought a very large plastic garbage barrel (I could not find a regular rain barrel) and drilled a 4-inch hole in the bottom side. The kids laid about a foot’s depth of rocks at the bottom [...]

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Progress!

Saturday, July 14, 2007

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We’ve been really pushing ourselves, working all day on our projects (and eating nothing but leftovers, too). We have two teams going: one group is out in the trench for our drywell (the Outside Crew), the other is inside working on the plaster/lathe removal and wall/chimney repair (the Inside Crew). Here’s some great progress we’ve [...]

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One Man’s Junk…

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

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…is another man’s treasure? We have only just begun digging our trench, and the kids are going wild after finding one man’s…well, you tell me what you think this is: That’s a multitude of broken clam shells, iron nails (from the 1800s), old ham and chicken bones, lots of broken glass and potteryware, an old [...]

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Can You Dig It

Saturday, June 30, 2007

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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 [...]

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Buried Treasure

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

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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, [...]

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