"EXT" writes:

If you don't have a lower area to drain the water to, you may have to be
more creative to deal with the problem. You do not say where you are, the
soil type or whether you have winters to contend with, which would help to
provide a solution.

I'm in Kansas so yes, we do have winters to contend with. I couldn't
tell you the soil type, but I think we still have the topsoil if that
matters.
Someone else mentioned the house sounded like it was in the side of a
hill. It's not, but it is *on* a hill. The top of the hill is the front
yard, which slopes so that the yard near the curb is about 12 inches
higher than the yard just in front of the northeast corner of the house
where the pooling happens. The back yard continues for about 15 feet
behind the home and then ends where the hill drops at quite a steep slope.
The previous owners actually put in a pile of dirt to make a landscaping
mound in the NE corner of the front yard, which makes the grade problem
worse -- the guy who owned the house was getting a Ph.D. in landscape
architecture and should have known better.

Stacia