French Drain

The 125 year old basement is, not surprisingly, a bit damp. Well OK, Let's just admit that it's been downright juicy at times. Much of this problem is attributed to lack of gutters- and it should be said that houses don't necessarily need gutters. What makes us point our fingers at gutterlessness in this particular instance is that several roof peaks all meet in this one location, causing most of the roof rainwater to spill down into this location.

Some of this will be alleviated by installation of gutters.

However, and even better solution (and more fun 'cuz it involves digging a 6 foot deep hole, and you know how much we LOVE digging holes...digging them, digging ourselves into them, etcetera). Ladies and Gentlemen: the French Drain.

This is such an incredibly interesting theory. You dig a hole. You punch a bunch of holes into the bottom of a plastic garbage can. You insert garbage can into the hole, fill it with gravel, fill the whole hole with gravel and sand, and voila, water is collected and diverted away from your foundation. Well, OK, so maybe there's more involved...but that's really the gist of it. Check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_drain