Wow has it really been over a year??

My bad. It has been a busy year. Much progress has been made on the house. We have focused on replacement of our rotted sill at the back of the house. This has initiated other outdoor projects some direct and some indirectly relating to the sill replacement. Firstly we needed to lower the grade along the rear of the house. Since the backyard sloped from the back of the lot down towards the back of the back of the house and where it met the house it was above the height of the sill/foundation. We needed to remedy the grade on the lot. We removed the earth from the back 15 feet of the house and moved it further back on the lot making it all one level consistent with the level of the shed and driveway. We installed a retaining wall to establish the difference in grade. We then set up a form to do our concrete pour. We will be putting down a stamped concrete pad as our primary deck. Likely in the spring I will dig our pond. We also have some plans for doing some flower beds around the deck. I have run some wiring for electrical and speakers. We also have setup for drains in the concrete pad. That is with the intent to carry water away from the foundation. We have had an exceptionally wet summer. This has allowed water to get into the basement. Hopefully with the pad in place this will stop. I have also started ripping out the basement back to the field stone walls. I am unsure if I will refinish the basement or not but till I am convinced that the water issues are resolved nothing will be done down there. Anyway for now here are a couple new shots.