Yep. Drywood termites are the hardest to prevent, as compared with subterranean termites (the latter work much faster and can do much more damage however). In 35 years in Florida, we’ve had to have most of our houses fully “tented” to kill drywoods every 10 years or so (as have all our neighbors). Of course the problem is, one minute after the tenting is removed, new drywoods can start infecting your home. But I’m told it takes about 5 years before they can get another good nest started and start doing damage. And the good news is that drywood damage is much slower and typically not extensive.
edit: The termite pest guys always tell me that if every single house in our county would get tented at the same exact time, we would likely kill them all and escape termites for 50 years plus. I don’t believe him though, as termites live in dead trees, etc.
With our almost 100 year old Craftsman-like house, we had extensive work done on the outside last year. We had all of the ugly vinyl siding removed, and the 100 year old cedar shingles pulled off of the exterior walls and replaced with new cedar shingles, double dipped in stain so no need to stain on-site.
My roofer/siding contractor spent four months working on the house. They found and replaced rotten wood in the roof and sheathing. I had beautiful 6” half round zinc gutters installed. Those gutters move a lot of water. Most of the battle is keeping the water off of a house. We get a lot of rain.
For the windows, I could find no windows I liked until I found Heritage windows in Indiana that makes replica windows. They use an amazing 1/4” double insulated glass called Spacia that reads like my old single pane windows and they build sash replacements out of Accoya, which is treated pine.
Our little house has nineteen windows. We love the light in the house and never need to turn on the light during the day. The replica windows allowed us to keep all of our existing site lines and not diminish the amount of light in the rooms.
I feel good that we buttoned up the outside of the house, as I think that is the most important thing to take care of. What good is fancy inside work if your roof leaks?
Spanish colonists established St. Augustine FL earlier than Santa Fe (1610), but that settlement went up & down over the years while our town has been the continuous capital since founding. Palace of the Governors is the oldest government building in the US.
I just completed our 20 year house renovation here in Northern New Mexico, including new stucco on insulated concrete walls we call “faux-dobe” (meant to look like old mud bricks). The city codified “Santa Fe Style” as the required look in 1912, which is kind of a mishmash of Pueblo Indian, Spanish and Anglo “Territorial” styles.
No one is likely to mistake my 2002 creation for the 600 year old multilevel adobe buildings in Taos.
Interesting. I just watched a youtube video about a modern “old style” house in Santa Fe from a channel I subscribe to (related to interesting housing all over the world). You likely know this house as Santa Fe is not that big.
As someone who has renovated a lot of houses in my life, I smiled when I saw the “20 year house renovation” in your comment, knowing that I could easily (and believably) interpret it two ways (you renovated a 20 year old house or your old house renovation took 20 years).
You do understand the New Mexican work ethic: a nephew’s birthday or fresh snow at the ski basin are always much more important than showing up at the construction site. Our house took 2 years to build, not including the home theater; and if we’re still here in 2122, we might be considered locals.
“Manana” doesn’t mean “tomorrow”, but “maybe sometime”…
AceRimmer
(Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!)
47
If I remember correctly from working in Seville, Manana translated to " another day".
Yes it’s mostly recognized as meaning tomorrow…until you are waiting for parts😕
This is a wonderful perspective as long as you aren’t trying to accomplish something on budget or within a certain period of time. Now that our remodeling work is complete, I hope to adopt this “cultural difference” in my own life.
Visiting NYC is always fun for a few days before I need to slow down again on Mountain Time. Plus, the weather here suits me better: we hike year-round and don’t mind highs in the 40’s during ski season…
