Once the new foundation and drainage was completed, there was the matter of “cleaning up” the surrounding ground as well as replacing a few of the wall boards that had begun to rot. Here’s one example with the BEFORE on the left and the AFTER on the right:
I replaced several sections of board, then caulked any gaps between the boards, and also added a waterproof paint to the new boards. Ultimately these will be covered in house wrap (Tyvek) and siding, so there won’t be any exposure to water, but the paint is just an added protection. And filling the gaps is for weatherproofing/sealing the exterior as best as possible. This helps with interior heating/cooling and also helps keep the bugs and critters out.
Additionally, there was a LOT of rain during the week that the trenches were dug so mud kinda slogged all over the place. This left the property a huge mess and while “curb appeal” isn’t really critical at this point, there is the matter of simply navigating the grounds. So after the area had mostly dried out, we got the grounds cleaned up quite a bit. Further, there were some significant stones unearthed in the process so these were placed strategically around the property. It’s hard to see here, but the footpath from the shed ended with a pretty big step up onto the wood porch. So two of the larger, flatter stones were used to create a couple of steps up from the path to the porch.
Most of the rest of the grounds got covered in gravel to make it easy to manage, especially during the construction phase. Water drains nicely preventing a mud bog, and this gives a decent surface to work from as we determine what to do about the front where the old, rotted wood porch was removed.
Next up? Siding!