Bad news about the basement

 Specifically root-related.  Apparently the roots that cracked the foundation are from all the nice trees that make the front of the house look nice, shield us from the road and hide our horribly collapsing front porch.  But the real root cause (no pun intended) was the groundhog hole right by the living room wall that formed an attractive nuisance (a) for the roots, which all grew into it, and (b) skunks, who like to steal groundhog holes, apparently.  We have been smelling a lot of skunk, although it's hard to tell the difference between natural skunk musk and the smell of skunky weed wafting over from next door.  So these will have to go (and we're still waiting for the estimate for the repairs, sphincters tightened).