What do you mean by stained? Zinsser makes a waterproofing paint that is good for painting concrete block.

AND.....the hits keep coming............ I have not seen any further activity in the house. I keep checking...but nothing. Holding my breath but hopeful. HOWEVER...today I decided to clean out my shed. It is an all wood 8x12 structure that I built myself in the corner of my backyard. It is built upon four 6x6 posts (embedded in concrete) and is four (to six) inches above the ground (suspended). I had a large hardwood tabletop and a big piece of butcher block countertop stored in there. As I was removing items I noticed a large blemish on the tabletop. I thought I might have scarred it with a bicycle that I'd had hanging next to it. Nope....termites. I pulled the tabletop (and butcher block) away from the wall and they were prettly well chewed up. I soaked them with bug killer (because I didn't want to unleash live insects into the wild) and hauled them to the curb. Then I noticed that tremites had chewed up the plywood inner wall of the shed. Mud tubes (might as well be..mud WALLS) were erected in the corner of the shed. One single mud tube went all the way to the ceiling. It had all been hidden by that giant tabletop. There was damage in one other area as well....and I could HEAR the termites munching away. The damage is pretty harsh but IS salvageable (and does not appear to be structural). I doused all the affected areas with Termiticide. The termites also munched on other pieces of scrap project wood I'd been storing in there. I trenched around the back and side of the shed and (in the back) found a LIVE cluster of termites and mud tubes centered around some decorative stones I'd placed around the base of the shed. This area is CONSTANTLY moist (due to rain and shade). I soaked the trench in termiticide (including the backfill) and will complete the treatment for the front and other side tomorrow. I am exhausted. If anyone else has gone through this...I feel your pain. The destruction of these little buggers is unreal. I am confident I can patch my shed up...but man....what a frustrating pest to deal with. Cheers.

IMO tiled floors are hard on feet , legs and backs so my last choice for flooring unless you live in the tropics. why not just stick with the oak you have already and BTW IMO wall to wall carpet anywhere is a dated look not to mention yucky in most cases too. A nice area rug over hardwood in bedrooms is a nice choice .

I don't think that is an "overpour," it appears you have shallow frost depth and that is your footing. It looks like the footings were poured being just dug in to the soil, where the soil formed the sides rather than using formwork. If this was the case, then the grade on the side of house was lowered, and shouldn't be, because then you'd have washout from under the footing. However, I notice the bottom course of brick looks to be 1/2 covered in concrete, so it's as if this concrete was poured after the house was built. So, for me the pictures don't tell the whole story, but in any case, I'm not sure why you'd need a retaining wall just to hold back some landscape covering (your decorative rock). The retaining wall certainly won't hold back a foundation, and you should not raise grade up above the bricks without some waterproofing, and there should probably be drainage involved. Not sure if this is headed in the right direction for the sliding rock problem you have.