bizy Finding termites in your yard or flower beds is not unusual - especially if you put down a nice fresh batch of mulch that they will gladly munch on. If you turn over any large rock in your garden, you are likely to see mites muching away at the mulch around the rock. They key is to determine if they have penetrated into your house. Since your home is fairly new, and assuming they did spray the foundation before it was backfilled, I would be a bit surporsed if they made it into the house in a year. It's not impossible - but unlikely unless your builder buried a big pile of wood near the foundation (not unheard of either). The first thing to do is look for the key signs of the mites - the brown mud tunnels that you will see on the inside walls of your foundation or on wood studs. I don't know what kind of access you have from your basement - you want to check along the foundation walls and at the interface between the wood framing and the foundation. Look around the entire foundation interior perimeter - particularly in places where there would be lot's of moisture. If you can't see from the inside, take a shovel and dig on the outside until you get to the transition point of the foundation top to the first floor joists to see if you can locate the mud tunnels. Swarming of the mites inside the house is also a sign - but it does not sound like you are at that point. If they did make it into the house - then you need to call in professionals who will drill holes and pump pestisides into the infiltrated areas. They will drill through concrete slabs to makes ure they get every possible area around and below the foundation. This can run up in cost pretty quickly. If they did not make it in, then I would call a termite company who should offer perimeter pestiside pumping. It should only cost a few hundred dollars (not 1500) and they will pump the pestiside around the foundation perimeter with holes spaced every few feet. They are basically injecting your soil with pestiside that should leach all the way down the side to the footers to create a barrier. I would then go on line and look for termite traps - which are basically tubes that you stick into the ground with pieces of wood in them. The tubes have large covers with a removable cap that allows bait (dry wood) and poison sticks to be inserted. You check the bait every few weeks and if termites make it in, you replace the wood with a food that contains a delayed poison that the termites will eat and then bring back to the nest. They feed themselves by regurgitating - so when they pass the food around it will kill the termites in the nest, hopefullty getting the queen. We also found termites in our last house - in the flower beds (they had not penetrated). I had heard that a few of our neighbors has some termites that did get into their house - which is what prompted me to take some proactive measures. However - these houses were 6 or 7 years old when they started having termite issues inside the house. I puchased all of my termite kit supplies on line for a few hundfred dollars. It's very easy to drill holes and install the tubes and bait. The pro's wanted thousands to install the same thing I could by on line. best of luck.

You might consider polymer cabinets: Google links to polymer cabinets

Thank you again for all of the responses. I am glad this has generated some honest discussion and that people have been willing to share their experiences. Palimpset, thank you for your input. I know I haven't decided how much I want to spend and that's a problem. It would not be totally unreasonable to spend a lot on this kitchen, especially if I went with the 10-20% of home value 'guideline'. I can swing spending that much if I chose. The kitchen is old and ready to be torn out, and I have very specific tastes so I am ready to do it and not unwilling to spend the money. I do not want to 'waste' money on something either, so I struggle with spending the money on cabs, mostly because the countertops and range are the things that I really care about. :) I already chose a yellow berta. How sharp would that be against a lovely misty grey? I have to decide if I think it's worth another __k to get the pale grey that I :really: want or would I be just as happy to have gloss white and roll that money into the divine glass tiles in the bathroom. I am also going to look into getting custom doors for Ikea cabs, although from the sounds of it, a lot of the cost was in the hand painted laquer. I fully appreciate the work involved, and have no problem paying for work where it's deserved.....I guess I just have to decide if I think it's worth it for this project. . Oh, and as an aside, I have been very specific when I have gone to the shops. Exactly how many ft of cabinets, lowers only, all drawers, gloss finish, flat front doors, metal drawer boxes.... I haven't just said I have a kitchen that might be 10ft of cabinets and I'm not sure what type of finish I want. I am going to keep looking for local shops, unfortunately I live in a place that has had a VERY good economy until very recently, so most kitchens around here were 100k plus jobs that no one batted an eye at. I think everyone's a little slow to catch up that things aren't quite what they were. I am encouraged to beat the bushes. Thank you!! It seems like there are plenty of places that will do wood cabs, I wish I wanted those and not gloss!!!

Thanks Kevin well I guess this might have answered part of my question then :( Looks like I will have to live with something I hate or will have to see if anyone has any alternative suggestions that are just as beautiful. Sadly I have been to 4 stone yards here in south Florida and have hated everything I have seen except the Calacatta marble in the creamy colors.