I have the same issue and am working on it too. If you hit on a great method, I would love to know! Ponding it isn't an option for me, even though I had a pair of ducks paddling about a few weeks ago..LOL Mine is a large city lot, with heavy clay soil. Two neighbors graded their lots with drainage toward mine (decades ago). When it rains it turns the corner of my yard in to a big giant puddle. It takes days to dry out leaving a squishy mess fit only for weeds. With the loss of the only tree in that area of the yard, it is bound to get worse. I added a layer of black dirt last year, but it didn't make a huge dent. This year, the chips from the stump grinding of the pine tree that pulled up due to the wetness and wind,are being added in to try to lighten the soil. Today I planted a butterfly bush and baby joe pye weed to see if they would grow. It needs something to break up the clay and be able to tolerate wetness in the spring, but hot full sun in the summer. I am trying to figure out what else to plant that might help do this. Any ideas?

My 10 acres were within a very small subdivision. We found out about the lot, had it bought and closed on within a month. Paid $650 for the perc test which included his marking boundaries of the property, designing septic, soil analysis and slope information. After reading this I'm glad we didn't know what we didn't know. I am not sure we would have pressed forward without panic first if I read all that. It can be scary, there is so much involved, but if you love it, its all worth the research. This is going to be your home :) Here's what we did...call a lawyer (no real estate agents involved, my dh found the lot on Craigslist~), another reason to talk to the lawyer (we have a creek on our property and had to talk to water conservation society as well - can't build within 50 feet on each side of it, blah blah blah) call a soil analyst (he knew about local well diggers/septic people and county requirements so he taught us as we went along), research HOA stuff (no horses - boo, but chickens for eggs ok, no white siding - boo, but plot, setbacks, building requirements all listed for us), and call your city/county permit office and see what the secretary knows about the development. We're in a little county but it might help you too. Our gal was SO helpful, even giving me the # of the best/but cheapest soil guy who turned out to be a gem. Hope my little bit of experience helps encourage you - we knew nothing compared to all this and have a beautiful piece of property. Hope yours goes as well.

What a fascinating thread! It was like traveling back in time. I had NO idea this many people still use or have landlines! Or that so many places in the U.S. don't get cell reception! So, a few things about me. I have always lived on the west coast. Since the age of 13 I have always lived in a major metropolitan area, yep, I'm a city girl! :-) I'm 55 now. I haven't had a landline since 1998, and have never once wished I did. Oh, I should probably mention that I really dislike talking on the phone, except with a very few relatives and my best friend. And fax and answering machines? OMG NO! LOL!! I have had to fax something twice in the past two decades, both to the east coast. I went down to Staples and faxed. Both times together cost less than $5. I would never consider an answering machine. I'm about to dump my voice mail. We have a saying here, "Friends don't let friends leave voice mail." If you want to tell me something, text it. My kids and friends text, so the only voice mail I get is from businesses, like reminder calls from my doctor. I almost never have my ringer on; I see my texts come up on my iPad or computer, and I check them maybe once a day, unless it's my kids or best friend. Clients for my business contact me via email, and for my business that is the usual protocol. I have unlimited talk and text and it's not that expensive. I pay $20 a month to be able to talk for an hour to people in Zambia. And I have a good data plan because I use it all the time on my phone or iPad when I'm away from my home. The house I just bought is out in the tulies! 20 minutes from downtown Spokane, which is not a major metropolitan area in my book (but don't say that out loud here or you'll be verbally whiplashed! Lol) I lived in that house for the entire month of September as a house guest, so I have ascertained that it has very reliable internet and cell phone coverage. I would not have bought it if it didn't. I don't have a TV or want one. If I want to watch something, I can get it on Amazon, YouTube, or PBS on my computer. We don't have the kinds of natural disasters people in other parts of the country do. If I lived in an area that had hurricanes, tornados, massive snow storms, earthquakes, then I'd definitely consider a land line. But I always keep my cell charged up, and my iPad too. I also have one of those portable battery chargers and will probably get another one. One person mentioned above that her gas range kept the neighbors in hot meals during a power outage. That's one of the reasons I'm getting a wood burning stove. My joints don't like it when I get cold (arthritis)! The house will stay warm and I can heat up food with a wood burning stove. (The other reason is to save money on the power bill.) One of our fellow commenters, Sophie, mentioned a generator. I'm going to look into that, but I think it will be too expensive for my budget. And if I use up all the portable chargers, I can charge my phone and iPad in the car, if I can get to the car. And if the roads are usable, I can go charge stuff up anywhere. Interestingly, third world countries that are greatly expanding phone service are doing so with cell phones. China, for example, will never have to bear the expense of stringing phone lines all over the country. In Zambia, cell reception is excellent, but landlines are unreliable. Cell towers are cheaper than phone lines. My dad was born in 1919. When he was in high school he was on the debate team. One year the topic was: Rural electrification: should the government pay to have electricity brought out to rural areas? My oh my how times have changed! :-)

The diagram in the above link is schematically correct but larger than required by the IRC. It shows the walkline correctly at 12" from the narrow edge of the winder but the minimum tread dimension (without the nosing) exceeds the code minimum of 10" by 6" which is not the best design IMO. The minimum code dimension at the narrow end of the winder tread is 6" but is shown larger in the diagram which, of course, is still legal. However, it is unwise to drastically change the slope of the stairs by increasing the tread size at the walk-line from 10" to 18". A better tread size for this stair winder configuration would be 13". The use of oversized winders would defeat to the purpose of using winders since the ones in the diagram add almost 19" to the run of the stair. I would use that space to make the stair wider. So, winders do not shorten a stair run and oversized winders add as much as 19" to the run of a stair for no improvement in the stair.