We still have contact with the previous owner to hand off mail in particular...some items slip through the forwarding crack. Will ask about details and go from there...in the meantime, got some sand and topsoil to build up around the wall + some sandbags if it gets worse. Problem is, of course, putting dirt against the wall has its own issues.

Another issue is just behind where I took the photo from, there is an electrical box in the ground, so sinking a pipe for a French drain, for instance, may not be that simple

between modesto and bakersfield stretches the largest clay deposit in the state
might as well be gortex
water refuses to move through it
you have a lot of that right in your backyard

those soils were once seabed sediment
infinite fish bits float down and settle
before ocean weight from above crush them to dust like extras in 'the collapse of the titan'

imagine a velvet comforter rumpled upward at the feet of saint andres while he rolls over dreaming of snowy mountains
still confusing them with his grey-haired de madre from south of the border
somehow probably all his fault

snow covered nevada results above the foothills
only for infinite raindrops to wash it back down
eroded dirt blends with clay to become the most fertile soil in the world

All done... finally I can walk to the back gate.

That is gorgeous Schu. But you know what you need? An Irish girl with no arms and no legs to hang out with. I happen to know one. Her name is...

No argument from me...

Mother Nature did me a solid of providing a little more rain so I have a clearer picture of what is actually happening. the pooling is due to water flowing from a downspout at the far end of the picture, so ideally we could instead divert the water toward the back yard, although it would be slightly uphill

Alternately, I guess we could dig a more permanent channel toward the street, but then there would still be that electrical box to contend with

Good going. Sometimes you just have to go stand in the rain to see what is actually happening. I had to do that at MIL's house several years ago to show her that the water pooling in her garage was run off from her flower bed in the front of the house rather than leaking in under the back of the garage.

Don't overlooking checking the connection of all of your downspouts to your gutter to see if altering the placement of some of those connection points might put some of the runoff in a different and more advantageous spot.

That looks good schu, I really like those colors.

offTop:
not sure what happens beyond the gate
but if you choose to send water in that direction
dig up an invitation for the liquid to get there
one of my favorite words heard ever is iambic pentameter
never knew what it meant, made me look it up
onomatopoeia is a mechanism for brain electrodes to cross wire scents with echos heard across the grand cranium
particularly interested in metrics which we use to measure rhythm
i'd say ground that power hog so it doesn't come back
but the bill came again today, still not worried about clouds casting shadows

Put a curb offer in on a house, and it was accepted. Thankfully I can back out with no penalty if i see anything i don't like during the walk through. Definitely nervous but this seemed like my best opportunity so far. Luckily my realtor has good eyes so i trust him to help as I go through the house.

There were some very limited pictures with the listing, so I'm not going in totally blind. But it is still nerve-wracking.

I'd be nervous also if I had never seen it in person and I was going to live in it (versus a rental unit).

Which is why being able to walk away for any reason is a pretty good safety net. Still makes me a little concerned, however.

MSchu, that's a really nice looking outdoor space.

I have never heard the term "curb offer" before.

Most of the time it's done that way because there is a tenant and the owner hasn't told them it's being sold yet. Not allowed inside before making the offer. It is unusual when it is occupied by the owner, but that's the case this time. Having a contingency for a full walk-through and being able to null the offer for anything I don't like is definitely a necessity. Hoping to do the walk through tomorrow or tuesday.

Me neither. I guess it's just a delayed walk-through. Good luck cokeboy. Hope you get the information to make the right decision, whatever that is.

I hadn't heard of a curb offer either. Sounds most likely to be a crotchety old guy who doesn't want to be bothered at all by people who aren't very serious.

I hope you find something you like and will be happy with.

Unsurprisingly, it needed more work than I was comfortable with, and i had my agent void the offer. Oh well, on to the next!

Hey guys - had a No Heat condition with a 2007 Trane gas furnace.

Could see the pilot come on, then the burners, then it shut the gas off and continued to repeat the cycle. Quick YouTube search points to the 'flame sensor' which is basically a wire safety feature that tells the furnace if you have a nice safe, healthy flame at the burners. $11 part on Amazon but I took mine off and cleaned it with steel wool and its back in business while I wait for the new one.

Guessing that would've been about $400 to have somebody come out

Even 400 is less thN 12-15k for a complete new system.

I'm dreading when my AC goes. I think it's the original AC from when the house was built in the 80s. Probably will just replace the AC and the electric furnace all in one go with a heat pump, but I'm hoping to put that expense off as long as possible.

Might look at the federal (and maybe local?) tax incentives, and when (if?) they expire when making the decision to go on more energy-efficient HVAC.

I just did the entire system last year... 15k

Your better off buying on your terms than waiting for a failure in the middle of the season when the contractor is buried and gives you his take it or leave it price

As far as a Heat Pump, they are not new contrary to recent media hype-in most climates secondary heat is required, which is integrated to your Air handling-the farther north you live the more likely you would benefit from a “dual fuel” system using a gas furnace as the your secondary source-

Check with your local utility providers to find out what rebates are being offered at higher SEER ratings.

I know they're not new, but the technology has advanced rapidly to the point where it's pretty different. It used to be you had to do some crazy geothermal heat transfers to make heat pumps work well in the cold, but not anymore. At this point you have to live in an awfully cold place before you need a gas or oil backup.

And yeah, doing it when I choose is definitely better. But I just had a big spend on a backyard concrete pour, and then an unplanned kitchen floor replacement, so I'd like to rebuild the old buffer first.