What Went Down, May Come Back Up

After many discussions between myself and Nat about what to do with the eaves trough problem, it was decided that our landscaper had to be called. Along with inviting Mike over for a look see, we also called our contractor, Simon, for yet another opinion. I’m now praying that one of these heads will come up with a brilliant idea to solve this never-ending headache. The garage floor has been flooded, the eaves trough has been frozen, the downspout has been frozen, and our new patio bricks are looking as if they’ve taken a dive – the frozen tundra (our front lawn) has lifted the patio bricks enough to notice that the walkway now slants downward toward the wall of the garage.

Our breaking point came on what seemed a freaky warm Sunday a week or so ago after this area received a lot of rain. Nat immediately noticed that the new walkway was starting to flood where the snow remained along the wall of the garage. The rain was also gathering in the corner by the exit door for the garage and underneath the office window. He tried to push the excess water away from the house with his roof broom with long wiper-blade. I soon took over this job as he began to disconnect the downspout to see why the water wasn’t draining away from the house properly. He soon discovered the whole system in that corner (downspout and eaves trough) were frozen solid. After pouring a bucket of hot water down the spout, the ice was soon dislodged. You could have filled a huge vat with the chunks that were removed. We were both amazed and now understood what the hell was going on. As I kept pushing water away from the house, Nat began to re-assemble the downspout and now clear eaves, but left the downspout disconnected from the underground line that runs to the front ditch. In order to keep an eye on things, Nat laid the bottom portion of the downspout across the front walkway allowing it to drip on the lawn whenever the rains or melting snow began again.

Once our landscaper had a chance to look things over, it became apparent that the freezing temperatures had shifted or raised a portion of our front lawn enough to slant the walkway towards the house, but not enough to disturb any of the newly laid bricks. (Good job, Mike!!) I left the two men alone as they discussed varying ideas on what to do, including possibly having to lift a portion (or egads the entire walkway itself) in order to solve our dilemma. At this point I told Nat I didn’t care what had to be done, as long as this whole problem was fixed and he could rest easy again – or at least have one less worry on his mind. Simon (our contractor) came around a few days later and, again, the two men talked out front as they perused the area while trying to come up with solutions. The situation is being left with the two men (landscaper and contractor), along with Nat’s ideas, who are going to get together to see what can be done.

So it looks like it may be a really busy Spring (should it ever arrive). Along with hopefully getting our front walkway and flooding problem solved, Mike should begin installing the new back walkway, we’re planning on getting a quote for a new driveway (which was badly laid and is sinking even more) and it turns out the Town of Fort Erie will begin diverting the stream that runs through the back yards of a lot of properties, including ours’, in order to prevent flooding that occurs further west of  here. All winter long we’ve watched certain prep work getting done, including surveyors, pole markers, drainage diggers for connections and who knows what else. Can’t wait!! It’s one of those years where it’s all going to happen at once and may God help us!!!