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everson home inspector: Bellingham Home Inspection (King of the House) Water pressure - 01/17/12 11:00 AM
Assessing the adequacy of water pressure, among residents of a home, is often a case of perspective. I have seen people, used to a well system out in rural Bellingham or Whatcom county, move into a city home that had marginal pressure, per city standards, and they were thrilled. Other times, I have seen people look upon what I considered to be adequate pressure as poor pressure. It is all relative to what you are accustomed to.
Despite my saying it is relative, there are tests, and parameters, for pressure -- done with a simple water pressure gauge. The gauge above is showing water … (6 comments)
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everson home inspector: Happy New Year from King of the House - 01/01/12 11:31 AM
I was online reading a news story about how many people found 2011 to be one of the worst years of their lives -- unemployment, no money, the usual things reported these days. One person interviewed referred to last year as shared misery.
It made me grateful to have my niche here in Whatcom County. I found last year to be a year of modest growth, although I did pretty much the same as the year before. I have gotten to a point where I can only do so many inspections so I have been sending overflow to some other friends … (11 comments)
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everson home inspector: Merry Christmas from King of the House - 12/25/11 02:35 PM
I want to wish all of my Active Rain friends -- internationally, nationally, statewide and locally -- a great Christmas. As I write this post, we have a really windy day here. I am hoping that the power does not go out. I am so glad I no longer am involved in being an engineer in radio, wind often led to power outages and real headaches. And, due to the time of the year, this often happened between Thanksgiving and New Years. That is a responsibility from my past life that I do not miss at all. Dead air meant no … (7 comments)
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everson home inspector: Bellingham, WA: Happy Halloween from King of the House Home Inspection - 10/31/11 11:27 PM
I would be remiss in not wishing many of my friends here at Active Rain a happy Halloween. Moments ago, I got home from dinner with three of my favorite Active Rain members. Charles Buell from Seattle area, Don Hester from Eastern Washington and Curtis Brown of Bellingham, along with yours truly, went to Boundary Bay. Heck, the Bellingham mayor, Dan Pike, even joined us for a few minutes -- I think he really likes home inspectors. These home inspectors, all affiliated with the Bellingham Technical College program in one way or another, are all top-notch individuals who are very good at what they do and they … (3 comments)
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everson home inspector: Legendary Performer Reborn, #1 Song In America, 1974 - 10/27/11 10:05 PM
In February of 1974, there was a re-birth for one of the original artists and songwriters of the early days of pop music. The artist's star had faded pretty badly in the USA. He had not had a hit of any magnitude since 1964, ten years before.
Despite everyone being ho-hum about his career back home, the performer was still a well-respected artist in the U.K. This man, being incredibly creative, was not willing to rest on his laurels and he presented a new sound to the British audience at a major London concert. They liked what they heard.
Shortly thereafter, at a star-studded party … (4 comments)
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everson home inspector: Song For The Modern Age -- #1 In America, 1965 - 08/12/11 11:10 AM
Folk music was very popular in the United States in the early 1960's. The Kingston Trio; Peter, Paul & Mary and the New Christy Minstels all had some big, and long remembered, hits. The artist, who is the topic of today's blog post, was the lead singer of the New Christy Minstrels on their biggest hit -- "Green Green".
By 1965, what had been popular was changing. The 1965 Mustang was the rage on the road.
And, as a society, people were worried about big problems -- racial unrest, the Vietnam war and possible annihilation by nuclear bombs. The bomb … (11 comments)
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everson home inspector: Bellingham Home Inspection (King of the House) Leaking on the Job - 08/10/11 09:47 PM
We home inspectors inspect all kinds of domiciles. We go in modest houses and some very fancy, and expensive, homes. And, regardless of the cost of the house, we never really know what we are going to find. Sometimes, what you do find, is surprising.
Several months back, I was inspecting a main level bathroom at a nice custom-built house in north Bellingham. It had been lived in for a few years, prior to being sold. The bath was located right above another bathroom in the finished basement. I was, simply, running water into the tub -- nothing fancy or exotic.
All of a … (8 comments)
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everson home inspector: Furnaces and Pilot Lights - 08/06/11 01:17 PM
If the gas furnace has a pilot light, then it has some age on it. I have done inspections where someone asked to have the pilot light lit at an ancient furnace. If that is going to be done, then it is not going to be done by me. I limit my lighting gas appliances to my own barbecue and, on one rare occasion, a fellow claimed that after I looked at his gas fireplace the pilot went out. No clue why, but I did (with great difficulty) finally get the dumb thing to start again.
In the case of furnaces, … (7 comments)
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everson home inspector: #1 Song In America The Day The Challenger Exploded - 07/31/11 10:50 AM
Few endeavors in history have so captured the imagination of the public, and the world, as has the U.S. space program. From the first manned shot, up and back down, of Alan Shepard
to the last shuttle flights, the space program has provided excitement, interest and productive discoveries.
For the massive endeavor, there have been very few tragedies. But, of those tragedies, there is one, more so than all others, that stands out as the worst of all accidents.
I remember how it unfolded. A few months before the flight, there was the announcement that a female school teacher had been selected to … (7 comments)
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everson home inspector: First #1 Billboard R&B Tune in America, January 1965 - 07/29/11 10:15 AM
When those of us who lived through the 1960's think about the music of the era, we tend to think of the British Invasion. That was, certainly, a major influence. But right here, in the USA, the performers who were competing the best with the Brits were the soul or R&B artists. Detroit was the dominant force in American music. The motor city was making vinyl along with cars.
One of the most long enduring, and best ever, of the soul hits topped the R&B charts at the end of January 1965. It hit #1 on the pop charts a month later, in … (7 comments)
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everson home inspector: Berried in Rain - 07/24/11 11:43 AM
Well, the wet and cool northwest summer has been a big story in this area. Nationally it is, certainly, not the big news that the heat has caused in other parts of the country. In the past week, the Seattle weather forecasters said that, defining summer as 80 degrees F or better, then Seattle has had a 78 minute summer.
Well, yesterday, the local paper had an article that says that, so far, Bellingham has yet to have ONE DAY this year to reach 80 degrees. So, as of now, we have yet to have an official summer day.
There is … (3 comments)
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everson home inspector: Paint Them Up -- Oaxacan Art - 07/10/11 06:20 PM
Below is a shot of the "unfinished" works from one of the most respected of the woodcarvers in Mexico. This work is all handmade. We watched one of the champion woodcarvers working away on his projects. It was amazing to watch these animals take shape. It started with some fellows doing the "rough" carving. Then they hand the rough carving to the master who finishes all of the projects.
Then, once they are finished, they go inside to be handpainted by the crew. Oaxaca is home to some of the most famous and successful artists in all of Mexico.
… (5 comments)
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everson home inspector: Americana -- The Day Pearl Harbor Was Attacked - 07/03/11 09:10 PM
In the course of every person's life, for every generation, there are historic moments that will be remembered until your dying day. In my lifetime, those events would be (1) JFK assassination (2) Challenger explosion (3) Oklahoma federal building bombing (4) 9/11 attacks.
The shocking nature of such events is frozen in time in the memory. I remember exactly where I was, what I was doing, who I was with, when each of those shocking events unfolded. I remember the TV shows I had been watching, the songs that were playing on the radio.
Those are the moments that I remember, based … (7 comments)
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everson home inspector: Misdiagnosis -- Anobiid Beetles - 07/03/11 04:11 PM
In the northwest we have a wood destroying insect pest known as the anobiid beetle. It is often, incorrectly, referenced as the powderpost beetle which is, in fact, a different pest.
The professional structural pest inspector, who hears someone reference powderpost beetles in the crawl space, knows what that person is talking about. The misdiagnosis, in that case, is usually harmless enough.
But I have seen situations where misdiagnosis of the anobiid beetle is a much larger and an expensive problem. Below is a photo of the first thing you see with anobiid beetles. There are tiny shot-sized holes in the lumber.
… (5 comments)
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everson home inspector: Insufficient Roof Slope - 06/04/11 05:53 PM
The composition shingles that we see on houses are designed for sloped roofs. They will shed water but they are not waterproof membranes. Ideally, a roof will have a slope of 4/12 or better, but generally, if a roof is 3/12 or steeper, the inspector probably won't say much about it.
This is a roof slope gauge. It is on a composition roof. The slope is about 1.25/12. Now, as an inspector, I have to cite that as a potential problem. In some cases, like at manufactured homes, the factories use minimal slope but we hope that they use a good system of underlayments … (6 comments)
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everson home inspector: Wood to Earth Contact -- The Conducive Condition - 05/15/11 12:14 PM
I explained in a previous post the term "conducive condition." It means any condition that is likely to cause rot or increase the odds of an infestation by wood destroying inspects. There are many such conducive conditions -- uncontrolled runoff water, plumbing leaks. But, in my view, probably the most basic conducive condition is the one that I see the most often -- wood to earth contact.
When wood is in contact with earth (not simply soil but gravel and beauty bark, etc) that leads to high moisture content in the wood and, before too much time passes, the wood … (5 comments)
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everson home inspector: Bellingham Home Inspection (King of the House) Water Heater Safety - 04/17/11 10:34 PM
A standard gas water heater discharges combustion gases through a B-vent, often sharing the vent with a furnace. I am, often, surprised to find that the draft hood at the top of the water heater is loose. Usually, it is kind of, generally so, in the vicinity of where it should be. But it really does need to be properly attached to the water heater. The emissions that are in the exhaust from gas appliances are not something that you want to take chances with. If a gas appliance is not properly vented, that can lead to carbon monoxide inside the … (6 comments)
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everson home inspector: Niche Market: Homeland Security Buyers - 03/25/11 11:28 AM
Over the past year or two, in this northwest corner of Washington state, I have noticed that I am doing a large number of home inspections for employees of Homeland Security.
Here in Whatcom County, WA, we are home to the famous symbol of U.S. and Canada relations -- the Peace Arch. And this is the second largest border crossing between the US and Canada (Vancouver BC and Blaine). The largest or busiest northern crossing is between Windsor and Detroit.
Those agents that I talk to, many of them from Border Patrol, say that the Homeland Security population boom … (5 comments)
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everson home inspector: Warm Weather Thoughts - 06/13/10 06:13 PM
Yesterday, and it was about the first time this year, we actually had a nice day. Not so swell today. The warm weather, where a person can comfortably be outside, made me think of the nice days we had in Oaxaca, Mexico in January this year. It was wet and miserable back home in Bellingham, but Oaxaca was paradise in the winter.
Below are some warm weather shots that we took at street markets and public markets.
Thanks for stopping by,
Steven L. Smith
… (4 comments)
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everson home inspector: How Safe Is That High Deck? - 08/27/08 03:28 PM
This photo, and the topic, will get you thinking. I guarantee it. To get things going, setting the stage so to speak, please take a look at the high deck, balcony if you prefer -- top right side of the photo. It is way up there, where the air is thin.
If you were standing on that deck, I bet you would want to think that it was safe. Is that a reasonable assumption on my part, that you would want to think that a parachute is not in order? Usually, unless people have an obvious clue to the contrary, they assume … (14 comments)
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Steven L. Smith, Bellingham, Wa. Home Inspector
Bellingham,
WA
More about me…
King of the House Home Inspection, Inc
Address: Bellingham, Ferndale, Lynden, Blaine, Sumas, Nooksack, Lake Whatcom, Lake Samish, Anacortes, Mount Vernon, Whatcom County, Bellingham, WA, 98225
Office Phone: (360) 676-6908
Cell Phone: (360) 319-0038
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