The third project was by far the largest, and the most important to the life of the house. Water was running to the house, getting under it, and not moving.
This picture is of the old
driveway. Water would come down the road, spill down the driveway, and run up
against that front corner of the house. According to the previous occupant,
in one year about two inches of soil was eroded from under the picket fence.
I considered many water managemant possibilities, but it became much easier when I decided I didn't need to keep the driveway. There was a large parking area next to the driveway, and thats where I tended to park anyway. So I tore up the old driveway, dammed and bermed the end of it by the road, then leveled and graveled the parking space. Here are picture taken in 2001 to show the changes. The second picture is taken from near the house, looking back up toward the road where the driveway used to be.
Here is a sideview of the change, before and after. In the "before" picture the picket fence has been removed and is sitting up on the parking area. Our plan is to do something similar, and run a fence along the front of the property, then curve it around the parking area with a gate at the top of the stairs.
But wait, there's more. In front of the house, there used to be a cement slab patio. It was cracked, and it was only a few inches below the wood siding on the house. Furthermore, both the lawn and the slab slanted towards the house. The slab was removed and the ground in front of the house was regraded away from the house. A swale was cut in to carry water around to the sides of the house and then down the hill. There is lots of river rock around the area, and we plan to cover much of the steeply sloped areas, as well as the drop from the lawn to the swale in river rock, such as we have done for part of it already. (More on landscaping in project 5.)
Here are a few more pictures of the results of the grading. That curve in front of the house is picked up again on the other side of the ex-driveway, leaving the old garage slab as a nicely located little patio.
Here's a shot looking back up towards the road from further down the property.
