Thanks for taking the time to find that link enduring. I think that I'm leaning towards the mud bed vs the SLC + kerdi pan. The "tinny" sound of the kerdi pan had me worried (my wife is picky about things like that) lol. The article you linked was a good read and it pushes me further toward the mud pan route. I finally got all of the wonderboard hung today so I will have to make a final decision in the morning when these beers wear off :-) Unfortunately, I messed up hand cutting the kerdi curb so I will have to make a trip to the store in the morning for the materials to do a traditional 2x4 curb. Above: the curb lines up fine on the top plane...just like the 2x4 template I made Below: Unfortunately, i guess I cut the curb at a pretty severe angle...guess this is why I don't do this for a living ;-) I was going to try to cut a wedge or fill in the gap with the dry-pack or something but since this will essentially be load bearing (shower glass door) I feel like that isn't a good option. I figure I will just grab a couple of the curb perfect kits...it seems like the "for dummies" version of shower building so hopefully I cant mess that up...I am so tired of going to the tile store lol.

In keeping with what Bus Driver stated, you definitely need to have the damage inspected by an expert. What you are seeing could have been pre-existing in the logs when they were processed at the sawmill and the offending insects are long gone, but on the other hand its possible that this is something new. Only a trained entomologist can properly identify the culprits and asses the damage. My singular reservation with relying upon a pest control service to assess the problem is that they are in the business of selling long term pest control contracts. While they certainly should be able to determine what caused the damage they may be a bit overzealous in selling you a remedy. Whenever I am confronted with an insect problem of any sort I contact the State College-Agricultural Extension Service. Every state in the union has a state college, and in turn, every state college has an agricultural extension service. The primary purpose of the Ag. Ext. service is to conduct research on all aspects of agriculture within your state and in turn it doesn't matter whether we are a rancher, farmer, homeowner working on your lawn and garden, or a school kid working on a science project, we can all benefit from their service. I just recently read where the Ohio State University Agricultural Extension service has one of the largest Entomology Labs in the world. I know that on two occasions in the past I have captured some insects and taken them to my local county extension service office for identification.. Within a few days I had a report back with full details on what type of insect it was and a complete bulletin on how to control them. Try running a search for your state online... example..run "Ohio State University Agricultural Extension Service" Or "Tennessee State University Agricultural Extension Service" or input your state name. Generally when you find their site it will list a county extension office very near you. You will be fascinated with the results because not only can they help you with this problem, you will find hundreds of bulletins on lawn and garden or home nutrition that will prove of interest to you.

I agree you don't see many because the styles clash. The house you posted above is what I sometimes refer to as a builder show house... They built it to show clients how many different things they no how to do all on one project. This isn't the worst example... but look at all the things that don't quite go... There's brick, and stone, and shakes. One column looks like all brick base, and two look almost like stone base (can't tell for sure). There are windows with arched transoms. and windows with squared transoms. There are wooden truss looking beam features in each gable, but no other wood on the entire house. I don't know... its just kind of a mish mash for me. I'm sure someone smarter than me could find other oddities.

Yes, yes, yes, we are currently dealing with termites after we "missed" our opportunity. We had a large addition added to the back of our home, huge patio that spans the whole back of the home, and completely new driveway (poured to the whole length of 1 side of our home). Our home in in south central PA, and I didn't realize that termites could be an issue here. We didn't know about treating before the cement/addition went in, and are currently kicking ourselves. There is a termiticide that can be saturated into the soil before your slab, or around a block foundation is poured/installed that will create a barrier for approx. 8-12 yrs if left undisturbed. (Lookup Taurus SC or Termidor) The main ingredient is the same thing that is in frontline for pets. So yes, it is soil-poisoning, however it is not agent orange. Then you can also go a step further and have a treatment sprayed or brushed onto the wood closest to foundation and lower floor joists that contains boron such as Bora-care, to protect the wood from all sorts of wood eating bugs. This site offers a bunch of good info (even if you do not want to do diy) https://www.domyown.com/