g'day cestrum, generally nothing and that means cement paths within a meter i always worked on a 2 meter margin. with termites you can't be too carefull when protecting your home and yes steel certainly makes their job a lot harder but they are resourceful little critters, and if there is a crack in a cement footing or in a weld they can find their way through these flaws and into you home (sorry mm you still need to be a little vigilant but yes i support all steel construction of homes in our climate). you need to create a dry zone around the house as they like the soil moist so at best have a loose gravel type covering to keep weeds at bay fro the first meter then a cement or whatever path for the next meter then gardens. len mail len lens garden page

A simple truth is that your yard could go from mediocre to almost spectacular based on one single change and that is to improve the maintenance of the grass such that it is uniformly green and weed free. If it's a grass that goes blond when dormant, then it should be free of green weeds in the winter. You'll have to forgive my corner-cutting in drawing. I drew a single tree and cut and pasted it everywhere. I'm not suggesting that you should use that tree form everywhere. Just trying to save drawing time. The point I'm making for the overall yard is that the house looks overly exposed -- like a raisin in the sun. It needs the framing and sheltered look that some trees would give. Probably in the foreground of the lawn, single trunk trees, with canopies ultimately raised quite high, would look good ... with smaller multi-trunk trees being closer to the house. Currently your house is smothered all around with shrub balls at its base. Instead of all the smothering, only four shrubs that correspond to four porch columns would be enough. I'm flanking the steps with "color," which could be annual or perennial depending on the details of your needs. Between the shrubs and "color" is a low groundcover that fills in the gaps. At each end of the house the bed is filled with perennials of a height that works with the house and the grade. The ends do not need to match each other. (Daylilies and Siberian iris come to mind if either of those would suit your liking.) In the second picture I'm suggesting that the walk experience would seem much friendlier if there wasn't shrubbery pinching edges of the walk. It would be better set back away from the walk. For the size of house and yard, the walk looks very skinny, which makes it less inviting. You could easily change this my mortaring an 8" brick band along each side, flush with the walk surface. This would add 16" width and an upgraded, decorative edge to the walk. (I'm not illustrating this.)

I agree that you should move in and live with it before making any changes. There is nothing hideous about your new to you kitchen. It looks nice and clean and well maintained. Then you could see if you hate the floors or not. If you find you aren’t able to choose countertops you love, because of the floor, then you have your answer. Better to save and do it so you love, then spend a ton for what you don’t really like and still hate the floors. Regardless of whether you keep floors or not, take a cabinet door to supplier to choose your stone, wait until countertops are Installed before selecting backsplash so you can see it in your house, pick paint last of all. Oh, and when you do the backsplash, only do the space between cabinets, not those side walls. Congratulations on your new home. Don’t listen to those who turn their nose up and anything not brand new.

Ah ok, that's a lot different than what I was thinking. @3onthetree is probably right about needing to fix the grade; the concrete work in your photos looks to be in rough shape. In the meantime, here are some things to sleuth. You're obviously on a hill. Which side of the basement are you seeing water? You're going to have to track the flow of water around the entire perimeter of the house and make sure it's sloped outwards and downhill. Ie - check those stairs with a spirit level. Are they definitely sloped both away from the house and downhill? Like you mentioned, the concrete gutter at the bottom of the stairs looks like it may have settled to direct water towards the house somewhat. Regarding the flashing: It's not designed to prevent water going into your basement from the ground, but rather to direct runoff from the wall to the steps (which then should direct water away from the house). Check it for holes/cracks. If you don't see any, I don't think that's your main issue. Does your roof have gutters? Do the downspouts direct water to away from the house/downhill?