Gardengal, wow - I'm sorry to hear about that, but glad everything was saved. After 14 inches of snow followed by 8 inches of rain overnight and today, my nursery is partially under water now. I am not too worried about the plants as I expect the water to recede quickly. The unfortunate thing is I probably lost a kerosene heater, and it spilled fuel. I took these pics yesterday around 3:15. It was pouring rain and miserable out there so I just got a few pics of this and it was shortly after the meltdown began so I didn't quite get the full 14 inches... anyways enjoy! general view I'm using these metal shelves to move the nursery. Whenever I come up with the cash I rent a big box truck, then put the shelves in and fill them with plants. desert plants Embothrium seedlings left/center is a bunch of flats of 4" stuff. mostly 1 and 2 gallon plants at right Greenhouse buckling under the snow after I already knocked the snow off it twice. Remarkably enough it sort of recovered today after most of the snow melted off and it will only need some minor quick fixing. greenhouse exterior wheelbarrow full of dead plants and snow Amazingly even after 8" of rain and strong gusty winds all day, not all the snow has melted yet. On the plus side, we've been spared most ot the wind here in Poulsbo. Lights have flickered a bit but winds have been less severe than in most places.

Thank you to everyone and especially to Worthy for posting my pics on the "builder's only" site. That was really helpful. After reading all the comments here and on the site Worthy posted on, plus everything else I can find about foundations and foundation repair and after talking to an engineer (from another state unfortunately) who has the expertise to actually do non-destructive foundation testing, we've finally decided that our best option at this point is to go ahead and allow the builder to do the "cosmetic fix" with high-strength, non-shrinking grout and then keep our fingers crossed that no structural effects show up down the road. Turns out that appropriate non-destructive testing of the foundation is pretty much cost prohibitive for a residential project. Plus, such testing can only result in one of two outcomes: 1) A finding that there are no structural problems which means we've bought "peace of mind" at the cost of not having enough money to finish the build unless we scale back to the very most basic of finishes and leave out pretty much every detail that made this our "dream home" to start with. - ergo, we wind up with a basic tract-home quality house that was built for a high-end custom-home price and which we would never ever be able to sell for what it cost to build; or 2) A finding that there are structural problems which will cost who knows what amounts to fix and which, in theory, our builder should be liable for. Unfortunately, in the past two weeks, I have also discovered that our builder lied to us and to our bank about having appropriate insurance in place before the foundation was poured. That in itself was a total breach of our contract and fraud but no insurance company will now insure the foundation because the work done prior to coverage! Plus, it has become clear to me that despite my having checked his references - including his financial status with his bank - he is actually on very thin ice financially. I suspect his bank is actually aware of this but was less than forthcoming to me about his status. All of which means, if we found out we actually do have foundation problems, he would probably bail from the whole contract and possibly even split town! My lawyer tells me a lawsuit in that event would be throwing good money after bad because if the builder is essentially broke and had no insurance then he is pretty much judgment proof which means even if I win there would be no way to ever collect from him. So, if there are foundation problems, we would have to pay to have them fixed or sell the property - with a known bad foundation sitting on it but no house - to someone who could afford to either fix the foundation and finish the house or have it jackhammered out and start over fresh. (Can't even imagine what it would cost to jack-hammer out nearly 2000 sq ft of rebar reinforced concrete slab!) So, we have fingers crossed that there are no real structural problems and are going ahead with the build on the CHANCE that the foundation is "good enough" and we'll wind up with our dream home without losing our shirts in the process. I'm not usually a head-in-the-sand kind of person but, at this point, I don't feel I have any other viable choice. Needless to say, I am livid especially because I DID check this guy's references every which way from Sunday including checking the website of our state agency that is supposed to register and police builders. They showed him as having a clean slate but it turns out that their on-line records appear to be at least 18 months out of date because in the last two weeks I've found out about 2 major lawsuits that have been pending against him for well over a year - both of which include claims of fraud as well as whole strings of construction defects. Plus, I've found out that the county D.A. is considering bringing a grand jury on him and indicting him for criminal fraud! At this point, I'm hoping he manages to stay out of jail and not declare bankruptcy long enough to even finish my house. And in the meantime, I'm at the site every single afternoon checking every single thing that has been done that day for myself and spending half the night researching what each stage of the build SHOULD look like. Builder is still scheduling subs and directing the build but, after confronting him about his lack of insurance and the two lawsuits, he agreed that from this point on, all financial matters will be routed through me and I made d--n certain he got the requisite coverage. I have also contracted for an independent third party inspector (not ATS) to come out an do several "phase inspections" at key points in the build - although I can't imagine any other problems/defects that could be quite so potentially expensive to correct. Hopefully this nightmare won't get any worse but with all of this going on, I probably won't have much time for visiting this forum so again, thank you to everyone and I would deeply appreciate prayers, blessings, good thoughts, and/or the sending of positive karma my way.

I'm not sure why you have never had moisture inside the existing shed given those issues, and changing the roof line so that it increases the amount of water and snow on the uphill side sounds like a recipe for rotting of a wood structure over time. It may be that the existing roof design is a big factor in preventing water damage to date. Moisture will cause expansion and contraction of wood, which means that a caulk/adhesive bond between wood and concrete will likely fail over time, so it's hard to recommend this type of connection. I have three thoughts on these challenges: 1): excavate around the pad so you can lower the soil level to several inches below the top of the pad, and trench down and install 4" drains all around the perimeter. Then you should be able to overlap the sides of the existing pad; or 2): pour a new, slightly smaller, 4" pad on top of the existing one: an 8'X10'X4" pad will take about one yard of concrete. Then you can overlap the siding; or 3): Lay a cinder block perimeter foundation in mortar all around the outer edge of the existing pad and build your shed on top of this. With any of these approaches you should also do two things: 1): Securely anchor the shed to the foundation; and 2): Install gutters and downspouts.

Guess I should have pointed out that it is the steel pipe on the right that is leaving, not the copper. Also, I do not believe chopping out the foundation is an option as it is a poured concrete foundation that is below the water table after rains and leaks at cracks and a cold joint. Chopping the foundation would only cause yet another leak I think.