So apparently like 30% of the termites in the United States have chosen to reside in Florida. I mean, I can’t blame them, it’s nice here but also, gross.

Our introduction to homeownership here has for the most part been pretty painless; had to replace the dishwasher and a few landscaping plants have kicked the bucket (I blame myself for this as I have been known to kill even a cactus or two). Surprise, surpise for us about a month ago though when we found signs of what we thought were termites by the front door about a month ago. Happy summer to us haha.

A professional was called and confirmed that it was the drywood kind, the least offensive according to him. Before you ask, yes, we did get the house inspected before we bought it back in January and no, there was no evidence of the little buggers at that time. Come to find out, they like the heat and sun and occasional rain to keep thing green and pretty as much as I do so that’s when they took residence by our front door.

Fortunately, they aren’t too hard to evict and keep out for at least the next decade. Expensive? Eh, yes, but not nearly what I used to pay in vet bills for my show horses every month. Hard? Not really. I think I’m slightly immune to expensive and hard things after owning horses haha.

We did have to remove ourselves, the dogs and any food that we wanted to consume ever again for 3 days while the pest control company assembled a massive tent of tarps over our house and gassed out our unwanted summer visitors.

In real fashion of Brett and I making the most of any situation we decided to take advantage of the weekend out of our house and sent the pups to camp and checked ourselves into the Mariott downtown. Which was quite nice and had a GREAT pool. The 10-minute travel time from our house to the hotel really took it out of us so we spent 3 days lounging by said pool and eating out at a new restaurant for every meal. The food options really are great here guys.

It was a good time, and our house is now free of crawly things, and I am able to sleep without being creeped out or feeling like our squatters are eating the house down around me….they weren’t THAT bad, I’m just being dramatic.

One final note: Don’t let this story prevent you from wanting to move here or buy a vacation home here please. Although almost every building gets treated at some point, it’s normal and the good things about this state outweigh the bad by a lot.

The picture is on one of my runs while we were staying downtown. Had to balance out the food somehow haha.