Termites in Utah?

As a real estate agent, I hear all the time that buyers or sellers didn't know we had termites in Utah. Well, we definitely do and here's the proof!

These were under a piece of old wood in the back of the property and resemble maggots. Termites in Utah are the subterranean variety, which means they always live in the ground. The only time they surface is when there is wood-to-soil contact like this....

 This piece of wood is supporting a floor joist and is in direct contact with the dirt floor of the crawl space below our house! There were several supports like this and several that were on top of a rock. We found no active colonies in the home (no live termites) but there was plenty of evidence that they had been there over the years and had done damage. They prefer the softer wood and will mostly leave the harder wood behind, which creates the "striped" pattern seen here...

These are the tunnels that the termites build along the wood to avoid having to have contact with the outside air or daylight. They travel through these to stay protected.

 another tunnel...

 

Needless to say, we will be eliminating all of the wood-to-soil contact in the crawl space and replacing the wood supports with concrete pillars. We also had a termite company come and treat the soil just to be extra safe.  All of the damaged floor joists have to be replaced and new decking will be put on top next week!

The 2nd Bathroom

We went from thinking we would just stick with the 1 original bathroom to deciding on a 1/2 bath upstairs, to finally deciding to go with a full bath. I think it was a good choice. Don't you? Especially because we eliminated a bedroom when we expanded the family room upstairs. Now we will have 3 bedrooms and 1 and 3/4 baths in this little palace of ours!

A bathtub: Something I thought I was going to have to live without! The cute plumber is a bonus!

Adios to the Juniper Bushes & Swamp Cooler!

JUNIPER BUSHES: 

It was time for the outdated Juniper hedge in the front yard to go. We will eventually sod this area, but I've already planted some flowers and it really does breathe new life into the home.

Before

During (this only took our neighbor about 15 minutes!)

After

SWAMP COOLER:

Before

During

It took 5 guys to load this monster into the dumpster!

After

Plumbing & Electrical!

I just have to give a shout out to our Plumber, Jared Ostler from Quick Quality Plumbing and our Electrician, Chris Chipping from Chipping Electric for all of their hard work this week. They and their crews have worked so hard (in nearly 100 degree heat) to get this house put together and have done such an incredible job!

PLUMBING:

ELECTRICAL:

 I hope the drywall guy that shows up next week know what he's doing so he can patch up this mess!

I am in love with the original brick behind this wall! Isn't it gorgeous?!

Open Spaces

One of the most noticeable transformations to-date came earlier this week. It was the removal of the wall and cupboards between the kitchen and bathroom. What a difference! It feels so much more open and spacious and we can't wait to do it to the east kitchen wall too!

Gutted

We have totally gutted the whole house so we finally had to move to the camper. It was hard to give up the kitchen (as little as it was) and even harder to give up the bathroom. But it means we are making progress!

Here's the short list of things we accomplished this week:

1. Tore out the Juniper bushes in the front

2. Removed all flooring in the living room, kitchen and master bedroom

3. Removed the kitchen cupboards, counter tops and sink

 4. Took out the walls to open up the doorways between the kitchen and the dining room and between the kitchen and the hallway.

5. Added the laundry area to the boiler room :)

HOME SWEET HOME

Goodbye Popcorn Ceilings!

Scraping the popcorn ceilings took a lot less time than I expected. They finished the living room and master bedroom in about 3 hours!