telerib | Trailer: Week Three

We've got A/C, we've got a stove, we've got fixtures instead of holes in the wall and ceiling with wires sticking out. Books are on shelves, pictures are almost all on walls, and there's even a set of wire shelves under the kitchen table to make more pantry room. The poison ivy is dying from an application of weed killer. All but two windows have screens. The washer now rinses with cold water instead of hot. The place was presentable enough to have people over on Sunday.

The phone line still comes in through the window, but hopefully that will change today. DSL is still not working, but that will also hopefully change today. There are still some holes in the walls that need baseboards to cover them, the windows need frames, all the interior doors need rehung. The furnace needs fixed. We're going to order a futon so people can actually sit in the living room.

And I fear that we have termites.

Something was swarming under one of the windows last week (outside, thank goodness). They looked a lot like winged ants, but that's also what termites look like to my untrained eye. I saved a few in a Ziploc and have called the exterminators; one shows up today, and we have another coming tomorrow for another estimate.

They disappeared after the initial swarm and I had the faint, fond hope that they were gone; alas, Sunday night I saw three of them crawling on the interior wall. They are not gone, just... done swarming. They lurk.

That the exterminators offer a $50 coupon for first-time service bothers me a bit; it implies that their services will cost rather more than $50. Assuming approximately 10-20% off, we're looking at a few hundred dollars worth of bug-slaying. We shall see.