Here's a link that will give you lots of info on termites. It's the Louisiana State University Ag Center's website, so they talk specifically about the Formosan Subterrarean Termite. However, most of it applies to all subterranean termites (but not drywood termites). When you click on the link, you'll get a pop-up box asking for your zip code, but it's the only pop-up you'll get. If your house has a concrete foundation you should probably be more worried about cracked corners and the bath traps than the mulch. There are good pictures of both on the link I provided, so that you'll know what I'm talking about. The site says that mulch can be a problem if you put it on top of a treated termite barrier around your house because it can give the termites a bridge over the treatment. It can also be a problem against a foundation if it keeps you from seeing the termite tubes (which are not usually as large and dramatic as ones you see pictures of on the web). They recommend leaving 6 inches of your foundation showing so that you can inspect it easily for termite tubes. When you inspect your foundation, occasionally take a little spade and dig 6-10 inches down at key points (places where plumbing enters or exits your house, cracked corners, wood fence posts, wet areas, etc). Termites look like little white larva with brownish heads. They move away pretty fast, so look as you dig. It can help to dump the dirt you remove on a black plastic bag and mash the dirt around to check it. Be especially alert if you find roly polys where you dig. Note: if you've had the perimeter treated, don't follow this advice unless you plan to re-treat the areas you disturb. Now, anyone want to talk about carpenter ants?! Here is a link that might be useful: subterranean termites

Well, you certainly have a challenge in front of you. I second the recommendation to get some professional expertise in there to help you evaluate your structure, but I would caution you to take the time to find a professional with experience in old houses, not a regular real estate transaction type inspector. The right person might also be a real estate inspector, but if you don't get someone with experience (and preferably affection for) old houses you will be over-loaded with things that need urgent fixing. Over-loaded to the point where burning it down will seem the best option. If you can't find an inspector, at least find someone from your area who has worked on their own old house. Contact your historical society, or local museums, or even your local field office of the New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). If you're stumped there I can help you as I live near main office in Albany. You really do need to get an old-house expert to do your inspection. Now, I don't want to add to your husband's complacence, but yes, things will probably hold up for a while longer, but that only buys you some breathing room to make a plan, not to put off planning, IYKWIM? By all means get the sill repaird and hole patched up. Get a sump pump set up for floods. Go slowly on digging around your foundation. Buy cheap paint and use it liberally indoors to cheer yourself up. Make sure your electrical service isn't about to burn you out. Think about whether you can safely add wood or pellet stoves for additional fairly cheap heat. But then you really have to do the hard part and that is some heart-to-heart plain talk with your husband. I would begin with some thought and discussion about what realistically you can to do economically, and time and energy-wise. This is a lot more complicated for you because this started out as his house and he may have a lot of issues related to that. It will be harder for him to work that through than if you had bought the house together. I have a good friend who married a man with an 1840-ish Greek Revival (gorgeous house with fantastic sunburst-pattern siding on the gable end) that he had grown up in and his father had done pretty much what you describe your FIL did. In addition to the beautiful GR features it also had sill problems, rotten window frames, holes in the slate, leaky basement, etc. What she did (when they had a baby) was demand that they move to a trailer which was set-up next to the house. She wanted at least some clean space and was concerned about the lead paint issue when the child was young. Well, that baby is graduating from high school tomorrow, the GR house isn't fixed up any better and my friend decamped for her own apartment a couple of years ago and her husband is still living in the trailer. I'm telling you this cautionary tale not to discourage you, but to urge you to get a realistic view of what you and your husband have to work out, or you'll be stuck in limbo for years. If your husband is more complacent than you, can you get the cash together to pay someone else to do the work, even if it takes a long time to do it? My friend and her husband could have done that, but always put it off until he could do it, which he never got around to doing. It would have been better to hire workers and get it done. I have a bit of this problem, too, as my husband is less keen than I am on working on the house, and I am really picky about the standards. I've learned it's better, sometimes, to pay workers to do the parts I can't do, rather depend on him to do them. Old house repair can be very hard on a marriage.... but a happy marriage is 'way more important than the house! While you're hunting for the right professional to help you make a plan, begin by having some "real talk" with your husband about what he wants and is willing to do. And read some books on old house care that include outlines of how to assess a structure. You can make the assessment yourself, if you are a careful observer. If you need some suggestions about which books to read I could make some recommendations .... If I were you, I'd prioritize this way: Marriage first; clean and cheerful-looking (even if somewhat unsound structurally) house; careful assessment of structural needs by person with experience in old houses; make plans for slowly taking care of structural problems - as slowly as finances and first priority dictate; try not to stress when you read about other people's renos that seem to sail along (and come to an early conclusion); you don't know about what compromises they made or what unseen costs were paid. Keep focussed on your marriage, your economic situation and what you need to feel like progress is happening. Those are the things you can control. Also take time to appreciate that you are lucky (well, I know some days it doesn't feel that way) enough to live in building with the authentic old features some people pay tons of money to imitate. For instance enjoy every post where people are discussing scarifying their too-new looking old floors. What a hoot! Just thinking about that makes vacuuming up the scurf in the cracks in my old wide-board floors a thrill. Good luck! Molly~ PS: The other thing to appreciate about your house is that since it was your husband's childhood home you are probably not doing this work with an eye to resale, as many people are. That gives you some breathing room, to take your time and pace things so you don't add more stress than necessary. All houses, even old ones, are meant to be lived in, so be sure to make space for your *life*. Any house that's been here for 160+ years will stand up a bit longer while you squeeze in a little personal life between structural repairs!

Ladyvixen, we were in our 30's in 1985 when we bought our 1898 house. Looking back, we were very young. Neither my husband nor I had any skills or knowledge at all about how to work on houses. All we knew was that our house was nearly intact, was very inexpensive, and that we loved it. I had always wanted an old house, and had been buying things such as light fixtures, hardware, etc., for years before we bought the house. We bought the house "as is". Fortunately we were both employed and had no children. We had to hire almost everything done, and it needed a lot of work. We did not take a vacation for years. Then came a time of around a year or two that my husband was either unemployed or underemployed. During that time, the house just didn't get worked on. We didn't care that we lived in an unfinished house; in fact, I thought it was beautiful from day one. We have a corner in the dining room where all the little balls the cats play with end up, but you don't notice the slope otherwise. It has taken us over 25 years, and we are almost finished, but still have some work to do. We should have it finished by now, but are in our 60's now and do like to take a vacation now and then. Also we sometimes didn't have work done even when we had the money, because we were tired of the mess of having things torn up. We lived with a practically non-existent kitchen until about 2004. I said all along that this house was my dream house. People would look at me funny, but it was and still is my dream house. Don't let others talk you out of your dream. Make the decision based on what you want and what you think you can handle. If you think you can live with an unfinished house for years, go for it. If you have to have everything finished and perfect, you shouldn't buy an old house. I have the ablility to not even see the unfinished stuff until we get ready to do something about it. I meant this to be an encouragement to you, but reading back on it, maybe this will scare you because it has taken us so long. Don't let that scare you--you can do it faster than we did! I will try to attach some pictures if I can.

Diane - thank you for your sincere response, and I agree with you, I couldn't possibly judge the house without a professional...that was not at all my intention in asking questions here. I can assure you I do not plan to base future home purchases off of a few comments I read on Garden Web. I think this can be a wonderful resource to increase knowledge and help people to learn what to look for, and at least feel like I have a slight advantage when the time comes to speak with that professional. Ok I really regret mentioning the wallpaper because apparently I sound like an idiot. LOL* I had followed a link from a Garden Web member here in the home forums some time ago and it was to a web site documenting a major renovation of a very old home. There was mention of the wallpaper falling off of the wall in large pieces after having the foundation rebuilt, and I was just curious if a bad foundation could also cause the wallpaper to fall off in chunks that way...I didn't mean to ask if 80 year old peeling wallpaper had any connection to the foundation. Geez! LOL* My Dad and I also talked about the "slight" slope a porch should have...but this is quite pronounced and as I said it's as if it's falling away from the house. A section of the roof is attatched to the deck and so it does in my uneducated mind make me think foundation, but from your posts it sounds like this is equally difficult to judge without a professional. Thank you all very much for your responses.