Oh, I *so* know that feeling.

A couple weeks ago, I was incredibly excited because the builder was going to pick up and install my new, $$$, French doors. I got a very panicky phone call from him (which I stepped out of a meeting to take) asking me if I knew they were outswing French doors, if that was what I had ordered. "Sure !" I replied ... most of the interior plan relied on using the space that would otherwise be taken up by doorswing if I had chosed inswing doors. He kind of grunted and signed off the call.

I panicked about it all day, that I had bought the wrong doors or that they were too big or too small or ... or ... or .... Wondered if I could sell 'em on Craigslist or Ebay.

But when I got home, bracing myself for the worst, they were installed and beautiful.

I hope your situation turns out as well as mine did. Fingers crossed for minimal critter issues.

Oohh... crossing all appendages that it's not a problem!

OT: Flatcoat, you mentioned "dogs" in another post and your handle makes me wonder... do you have Flatties? We nearly got one before we wound up with Beardies, and I've always had a softspot for Flatcoats! Just wondering :)

We have friends who are going through something similar. They saw the windows in our sunroom and had our GC order some for theirs. When he cut into the wood to install - total ant infestation!

Just keep thinking it is better to have started the process and that you can now rectify problems, rather than never knowing what was there.

Will be sending good wishes your way!

LOL Divamum, my handle derivation is from the flatcoat pup I nearly got in 2004.

I got my funny-lookin' labbie instead, although he sometimes gets taken for a flatcoat (undersized at 55lb, tall, skinny and dorky) ...

He is an excellent boy, and tolerates being photographed next to every new appliance/wall/receptacle/faucet very well :-) I love the flatties though and I can see myself getting one in the future.

I have a buddy with 2 beardies, another buddy with 2 "neardies" and plans for a beardie pup in the spring. Apparently they are like potato chips and you can't have just one :-)

Not kitchen related, but just the other day I was driving down a local major highway in the Philly burbs and saw a huge, electronic "news" flashing sign. The sign was telling of an Amber Alert. My heart sank and I got teary eyed. Thanks goodness they are installing signs like this countrywide.

well after hyperventilating for a bit I talked to the foreman again. he says that when they were down to the studs in the kitchen he's sure he would have seen ant damage in that area...so he thinks we're safe. Oh I hope so.

tomorrow will tell for sure though.

The day after this last Christmas I was home for the much anticipated kitchen demo and remodel YEA!. It was a blast to watch. Very rewarding to see those 27 year old cabinets come down. Wonderful to say good bye to 20 year old white tile floors. I especially looked forward to seeing the sink/trash can cabinet taken away. It was disgusting and had at one time been the winter home of some smart little mice who went next door to the dishwasher and grabbed as much pink insulation as they could manage for their snug little beds.

As the demo team neared the sink cabinet I warned them that they might find remnants of tiny residents of long ago in the toe kick area under the cab.

As they pulled the cabinet away, piece by piece, I could see evidence of "something" under the cab but it wasn't pink. It was dirt... lots and lots of dirt! We're on a concrete slab, dirt filled the cabinet from the slab right up to the bottom of the cabinet (4" high)!!! Not exactly what I expected to find.

The contractors looked absolutely puzzle so I asked them if they'd seen this in their 20 years of kitchen work. Dust, dead bugs, pizza menus and the occasional rodent skeleton but never this much dirt! It took a shovel and two buckets to remove it all.

And then came the bad part ...

There was a 4" area of concrete eroded away around the hot and cold water pipes and one of the copper pipes was pinched. As we swept away the last bits of dirt away from the eroded areas, one contractor wonders out loud what that "thing" was snaking its way out of the concrete. All three of us squat down to get a closer look only to find a large Ficus root and bunches of hair-like roots making their way out of the area around both copper pipes. I just groaned, knowing full well the significance of such a find ... $$$ cha-ching $$$

Next month a demo crew is coming out to pull up our entire concrete patio so the gardener can cut back the roots of our 20 (yes, 20) backyard privacy Ficus trees.

Our pricey kitchen remodel just got a bit pricier. :-( ... sigh

And oh ... the we had the house treated for termites in November, right before the furnace gave out ... double sigh

Jodi-

oh gosh. I'm so sorry!!!!

and that's all I can think ca-ching ca-ching ca-ching...
the budget is stretched thin. WTF will I do?? I guess I'll have to break out a credit card....uggh.

Isn't that a bummer? We had ants in our basement (still haven't started on the rebuilding there). When DH took down the first wall, the stain on the drywall that for 11 years we had thought was from overheating from a TV from the original owners, was from the nest of ants behind the wall! Turns out they had made a home under the suspended floor- so that all got ripped out... WE THINK we have them all, I'm a little scared to cut out a section of DD's wall in her bedroom to see if any of the little critters are hiding there, but we have the pantry in between, and no evidence in there- thank heavens!

WE still haven't solved our roof leaking, which we wouldn't have even discovered if DH hadn't decided to replace the insulation in the LR walls after we tore down the brick fireplace. Wall was rotted away (under the fibreglass), no evidence in the house! We think it may be coming through the chimney bricks, cuz we've had the roofers 'FIX' the roof twice, and it's still leaking into the attic! ARGHHH!

But, thankfully, most of the stuff, except for going up on top of the roof, DH can do... so it could be worse!

You mean we aren't the only ones keeping the economy afloat? LOL We've had our share of it too.

It really is much better to find that now and get it addressed than to get your kitchen installed and have very active termites come marching in this spring -- when it would be even more heartbreaking and more costly.

Flatcoat, I have a 2 yr old black lab mix that looks very much like your boy. She's about 55 lbs and trim too. Such a doll. They look nearly identical.

you are right lascatx! I need to look at it from that direction.

I heard the guys talking to my DH this morning and they again really thought there wasn't going to be any house damage when they got to the bottom of the old porch. What I hadn't thought about - that corner where the old porch was attached to the house is right above my washer/dryer. SURELY if ants/termites had been in the sill above the washer dryer I would have noticed sawdust. So I'm breathing a bit easier, but I'll be better once it's all gone and we know for sure.

DH also told me that the people next door had termites. Great. They've relocated...

LOL They say that there are two kinds of houses in these parts -- those that have had termite damage and those that will. The house we live in apparently had a termite issue with a previous owner and the house before that passed the termite inspection, but when we moved ina ahort time later, there were termites in the base of one of the front columns. It was very limited -- just the base, but we replaced the columns and the bases with fiberglass and treated the whole perimeter of the house just to be safe. The termite inspector paid for the treatmenet, so we were only out a few hundred dollars for the columns. It was more the scare than anything.

Sounds like you will be okay and glad you got to getting that rotted stuff out before it got worse.

When my GC pulled out one of my base cabinets there were many, many starburst wrappers apparently eaten by the other resident of our house. Too bad I'm allergic to cats. I am not sure why (altitude, lack of humidity), but we don't have a problem with termites here in Denver. That is one thing I certainly don't miss about So Cal.