I’m back with good news to report. We have begun and almost fixed (or at least we hope) our big problem. As you can see from the photos above, we dug (and by we I mean mostly my husband and neighbor. I tried, I just moved rocks around and was very inefficient.) and we laid the piping and put the peat gravel in. Only days after we did this we had a VERY heavy rain. I ran downstairs and to my glorious surprise, only light moisture around the side wall! YEAH! Hopefully after we remove all the big rocks and have a sidewalk poured and graded away from the house, all moisture will be minimal.
Gone are the days of the spouts of water pouring into my basement! Its taken a couple of weeks to actually do the job (and my front yard is still full of peat gravel) and the actual ditch isn’t yet covered back up but, I think its all been worth it. Time will tell…
Next I get to scrub the walls and dry-lock it all! YIPPEE… Do homeownership responsibilities ever end?? Whoever eventually purchases my house, better be glad we have done what we have done 
