Quest for a dry basement: post the first

The rain has finally stopped (and it sounds like we didn't even get the worst of it: New England, you have my sympathies). Now the real work begins. My husband has a plan that will make water drain away from our house instead of into it. Something about a trench and some clay... it would take an engineer to explain it. Suffice it to say step one was dismantling our deck, which was built on top of the concrete patio (removal of which will be step two, but will require the aid of a professional).

I'm not a deck fan myself. I don't like to be up high. I like a patio, close to the ground, preferably under some trees. So losing the deck wasn't a heartbreak for me. Plus, it was getting kind of punky anyway; and the boards on the steps would tip when you walked on them - not a feature I look for in stairs.

So the deck is gone, and my back door now looks like this:

The space between the sliding glass door and the top of the concrete steps is somewhere between a big step and a little jump. Add to that fact that they're not on a level, that you have to step down to get to the concrete. See those metal brackets? They are all covered in rusted nails, all spiny and sinister-looking. And the steps have long twists of metal coming out where the fellow who put on the addition blasted out the space. See those pots in the background? Those are my tomato and pepper plants, the ones that need to be watered daily. Plus the patio is one of my favorite writing places, when none of the neighbors are leaf-blowing, melting styrofoam in their Coleman grills, or murdering their children (to be fair, I'm sure it only sounds like they're murdering their children).

Note: When trying to make a big step down do not hold onto the sliding glass door for support. It tends to move.

All this is just so when I don't blog for a while, you'll know I'm in the hospital with puncture wounds and tetanus. Oh sure, I could go out the front door and walk around the house, but it's such a long way...