Our driveway slopes towards our house (why???) And ends up with standing water. Just started getting bids to have a channel drain installed in front of the driveway doors with the diversion path routed away from the house. It would like like a giant linear drain in a shower I am guessing.

Kristen, something is back pitched or you have a recessed area that prevents water from being diverted away from your foundation and your front door. Take your flower bed area as an example, it looks like the water has no means to escape and collects near your foundation. It looks like you have a long walkway to the front entrance, make sure the walkway is not back pitched.

You certainly don't want standing water to ever have a chance to get under the door threshold, or sit there and rot your walls.

It doesn't look like the sidewalk has settled at the front door, looks right up under the threshold. It also looks like the section between walls may have been replaced, seeing the exposed aggregrate finish sidewalks everywhere else and that butt up flush to the area between walls. So it appears mudjacking, grinding a slope, or gutter/roof review are not possibilities. That leaves demo'ing and installing a drain with a pipe out to yard somewhere.

Kirsten if you think it's difficult to formulate a plan of action while standing there staring at it,you should see what it look's like from 1k miles away. Find a landscaper or drainage contractor with proven record of success with drainage. They will "shoot grade" in various spots near the house before deciding on best approach. Need i repeat "record of success",millions of dollars are wasted annually on french drains that quickly fail so be carful. If you are asking for a diy solution,i reccomend plotting elivation in several spots on the intire lot. If water doesn't naturally drain at least 10 feet from building,add or remove soil until it does. Going back to water standing in front of door. I see what look's like gutter downspouts in flower beds. Make certain those flow freely because I suspect they are backing up due to clogged underground lines. You must find where water on porch come's from and resolve it. Once water run's away freely,there will likly be little or none that stands on porch.

The sidewalks look to be above grade, so if water were to overflow from the soil then the water would be dirty and stain the concrete. The water looks clear, so it likely is rain falling on the sidewalk and running back towards the door. You can duplicate this with a hose to verify.

You are correct - the water is not coming from the soil it is rainwater as we have had a tremendous amount of rainwater lately. I have duplicated with my hose!

We did not have the same problem, but after Ida came thru two months ago, we've decided to upgrade to 6" gutters.