It Started With Little Termites

It started with the termite inspector finding termites in our front screen door. He advised us to get rid of the door which we quickly did and decided to get a steel door so the termites would think twice before trying to take another bite out of the same place. However, when Art installed the door we found that the stoop did not go out far enough so there was a gaping hole at the bottom. Hmmmm... another invitation for termites to enter the house?

Off to Home Depot to buy some concrete blocks to extend the stoop and align it to the bottom of the door. That's when I got a great idea. How about we put tile down to make the entrance prettier?


OK, I admit Art wasn't too keen to start another project but he's so creative and brilliant and amazing with these home projects that I knew he would come around to seeing the rightness of this idea.


We had to go hunting for the right tile which we found at Lowes this time. There was a ton of measuring, choosing the grout and buying more thin set to glue down the tile.


Ummm... OK maybe it wasn't a quick and easy project like I thought it would be. I would have helped more if my foot wasn't in a cast at the time.


And now there's only the grouting left to do and I will help...

The Termite Wars

One of the first signs of termites in the house are the termite poop. Just seeing them sends a chill up your spine. Whenever I hear my mother's scream, "Kay, Art, come look!" I hold my breath.

This time she found the poop at our back door. Sorry the photo is blurry. My macro is not the best.

We found poop by this door last year and Art took it down and shot termite poison into it. However, because the door was so heavy, we didn't take it down to patch it. We were going to but got caught up with other things.


We called our favorite termite inspector and consultant, Alvin of State Termite (486-7378) and he came to give us his assessment of our situation. He said we didn't need to tent the house if we keep on top of things. He also said that a new door would probably cost us $700.00+ to have installed. Instead of doing that, he suggested we take the door to Aloha Termite who could gas just the door for perhaps $75.00. Then we could patch and paint the door and put it back up.


My brother came over yesterday since it's difficult for me, and helped Art remove the door. They then screwed on a plywood sheet to prevent burglars and mosquitoes from entering the house.


Then Dennis and Art loaded the door into the car for us to bring to Aloha Termite to have fumigated. I'm thinking we should also bring our other folding door that we also found termites in last month.


On the way out the front door, Alvin also found termite poop on the old front screen door. So Art removed it and bought a metal screen door to install. He's struggling right now to make that metal door fit onto the old frame style of this house. There's a 4" gap at the bottom of the door which means we'll need to come up with some kind of step or threshold.

If we're putting a step in, we need to see if there's something else we'd prefer doing to the stoop. And then, if we're going to do that, what about the door by the kitchen. How soon before the termites attack there while we're distracted?

Alvin says I need to walk around the house and patch any needle head sized holes I see to prevent termites from entering to make a home. He says I can stop them with one foot (stomp on them). Ha! Ha!

I told Art we'd better go buy a crate of caulking because we have holes and spaces everywhere.

Other than this, our electrician, Mariano is stopping by this morning to fix our suicidal electrical outlet in the kitchen.

Home maintenance is so much fun! (How do I show sarcasm dripping from those words?)

Tenting Against Termites

Here's something we never see in Illinois. Every five years or so, people tent their houses when they see an infestation of termites. People live in "fear" of termites. We have one recurring termite population in our back door which will have to be replaced soon. We put some poison in it for now. There are ground termites and flying termites so you're never safe.

The entire house is tented and poison is blown in. After a couple of days, I think, it's removed and you should be termite free... for a while. Unfortunately, burglars know you're not in and people have been burglarized while their house is being tented. There was a case of burglars dying because they went in and got poisoned by the fumes. They've gotten smarter. They're now coming with gas masks. Sheesh!