at the end of 2008 i found termite tunnels in the house..
we're coming up on 3mos being in the new house and we just noticed two new tunnels on the kitchen ceiling. the house was apparently treated before we moved in and there's a 1yr warranty. i've dealt with termites before and i think what's happening with these is that they likely ate whatever the treatment chemical was and died as the tunnels appeared one day and then haven't grown or multiplied in the week since. despite that, we're having someone come out to make sure. there's some issues with the grout used for the saltillo tile. seems they didn't compact it well enough in a couple places and bubbles formed which caused the grout to collapse into a small pocket. so we just have to refill those. shouldn't be too big a deal.
we've got a ton planned and i may have already listed some of this stuff. we've got a lot of trees we have to get rid of. which is a shame because we could use the shade. but some are dead, some are in non-optimal locations (in the way of new plans), and some are pretty well useless (who plants ornamental oranges that you can't eat? although i think someone said you can make marmalade out of'em). most of those trees are where we want to add a few outbuildings.. or one building separated into a workshop, storage, and entertaining room with a bar and some seating. we're on a quarter acre so we've got a lot of room. the house was built in '47 so it's not very big despite a master bed/bath being added before we bought it. that building will be on one side of the yard while on the other we're planning a mini orchard that starts in the corner of the front yard followed by a garden of raised beds, then the compost storage, then the chicken coop/run towards the back corner. we had some column ficus trees planted along the back fence for privacy and they're coming along pretty nicely. we're also planning a white picket fence along the front yard and along the carport with two gates for access. we're also planning a higher wall for privacy from the neighbors next to use who have let their property go to shit. the wall will have staggered slats for hanging potted plants.. some flowers, herbs, etc. it's some pretty ambitious stuff that we have planned mostly since i don't have much experience outside of woodshop in jr high and messing around in my father's woodshop growing up. my biggest problem is measurements and angles so it could get interesting.
