waterproofing for the weepers out there..

We went a while without much progress.  The weather was really making an impact.  It had been one rainy day after another, but here we were on April 21, 2015 and we had waterproofing!

Everything covered in black will be beneath the ground.

The view from the left of the house. Crazy to think that only a foot or two will be visible once they backfill.

The garage and porch -  eventually they'll need to bring in a few loads of dirt to level things out.

The front of the house, and our trash pile.

We read a lot about waterproofing in our research, but it seems to vary so much by location, we didn't really know what to expect.  The black tar sure was shocking when we drove by for the first time.

I'm still surprised by how tall the walls are, but it means we'll have a nice cozy basement.

On the left of our lot, you can see where the ground levels quite a bit.  I'm so glad we have a fairly level back yard -  or will once it's all over with.

A close up of the "weeping tiles" - the black corrugated pipe curled on the ground.

Part of the waterproofing is the installation of "weeping tiles."  We'll actually have a French Drain setup for our house and yard.

  From Wikipedia: A French drain or weeping tile is a trench filled with gravel or rock or containing a perforated pipe that redirects surface water and groundwater away from an area. A French drain can have perforated hollow pipes along the bottom to quickly vent water that seeps down through the upper gravel or rock.

The pile of dirt along the edge of the walls is covering our weeping tile.  Later they will trench the backyard and lay the pipes a few feet below the sod.

Just to give you a little break from all the concrete and drainage and dirt talk..
below is a recent stand off between our two kittens. 

 I'm not sure what all was being said, but my guess is that it's not suitable for polite company.

Crying for joy over weeping tiles and waterproofing -  Day 94 of our build