I would advise not digging too much trench while it's raining. Wet soil is much more subject to compaction than drier soil when worked or walked on, and I think compaction is one of your main problems. The soil you backfill around the trenches needs to allow water to pass. In any event, stick with just one or two good size trenches for now, and see what it does this year. Drainage from the problem area isn't going to be instant, no matter how many trenches you dig, so see how fast it drains with the one or two trenches, and then decide if it's worth it to go for more. Until the structure of the soil in the wet area improves you will always have standing water there after a rain (trenches will carry it away, but not instantly) - so be patient :-) Once it has dried out a bit come spring, you can spread some compost around. It will encourage the worms to work the soil, which will improve drainage eventually. If you plan to try growing a lawn there at some point the compost and worm action will be a good thing too. We are on Agricultural Reserve Land Your neighbours altered the grade of their lots on this sort of land? Hmmmmm... I believe adding fill or removing soil on reserve land requires a permit (not 100% sure on that, but pretty sure), and in theory requires approval - it doesn't sound like they did it right, if their lots drain onto yours. Any idea what your land was used for before you bought it? BP

Again, thank you everyone for all the prayers and positive thoughts. Yesterday we spent the day salvaging as much as possible. Lots of photos, my mom seems to have a gazillion, and we're not throwing out any. All the furniture has been trashed as well as the carpeting. We'll try and save the washer and dryer but the other appliances are all gone. The beds, couches, tv's, small kitchen appliances, just too much to remember everything although we are trying to keep inventory. Today was spent pulling out the last of the carpets, sweeping mud out of all the rooms, washing most of the stuff in the kitchen and doing a million loads of laundry at the laundromat. We've got some contractors in who will work through the night to pull out dry wall up to a foot above the water line which was at about 4 feet. They'll be removing all the insulation from the walls as well. Cleanup has been reasonable easy because we were lucky enough to have a lot of help from the local South African and Jewish communities as well as from total strangers. I can't thank enough the people who are helping total strangers, the 10 yr old who gave lunch (an apple, bag of chips, sandwich and homemade cookie) to anyone who wanted one and she had about 100 sandwiches she'd made, the adults who walked up to you and asked what they could do to help or the elderly couple handing out ice water from their grandchild's wagon. My mom's car has been officially written off and it's covered by insurance which is a good thing because almost no-one here, including my family, has flood insurance. FEMA is coming in tomorrow to do an assessment. Laurie, thanks for the links. Thanks to all of you I think we got in early on that one. We're staying with friends n Horseshoe bend which is upriver a bit. Here's a link to see the floods both in Horseshoe bend and River Plantation: http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/category.asp?C=125220&clipId=4751432&flvUri=&partnerclipid=&topVideoCatNo=0amp;autoStart=true&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage&clipFormat=flv When you see River Plantation, look how high the water came up, almost to the carport roofs. The lower houses in Horseshoe bend were almost half way up the first floor. There are dumpsters everywhere in HSB and driving down Sawyer Brown Rd is like driving between two trash levees 10 ft high and 15 feet wide all made of trash...furniture, lumber, carpets, dry wall, insulation, toys, clothing. It is the saddest thing I have ever seen. These are my pictures: http://s140.photobucket.com/albums/r26/LaniKaye221/Nashville%20floods/ Please continue to pray.

Thanks so much, everyone, for helping me out with your perspectives! As a next step I am going to get a landscape designer out here for a consultation. The previous homeowners were avid gardeners, and these plants are popular in the PNW (Japanese maples, rhodies & azaleas, wisteria, clematis, burning bushes, japanese umbrella pine, etc) so I hear you on your advice about being thoughtful about what to keep/get rid of. We've obviously let them overgrow to the point they are out of hand. However there is some benefit in the privacy they create - as we have one of the few acreage properties left in our (desirable) location so we want to consider how we maximize what is unique and special in our property. Appreciate your help!

For curb appeal, remove the faux shutters and the arch inserts that are in the garage window. Add a light fixture that is 1/3 the front door's height. Unless required by HOA or you have livestock or pets in the fenced areas, remove the chain link fence. In certain places it can lower your property value. Bring your flower beds on out around the landing pad and down the edge of the drive. You could consider blue siding; it will work with the brown roof and brown brick. Not so sure about a black door with all the brown. Can you cancel that order?