It's always nice every once in a while to get an inspection job way out in the country. The smell of fresh air, quiet...peaceful. It's just nice to get away. As I turned off the country road onto the path toward the house, I notice a creek, 450 acres of beautiful rolling hills, a lovely home with a very large pond for a backyard that makes me wish I brought my pole. As I park near the house something caught my eye to the left and lo and behold...a deer. Wow, what a great place this is. As I parked and got out, I thought how strange it was that the deer was not running away, but was actually coming toward me. Shocked, I just stood there and it came right up to me with a "you can pet me" look in her big brown eyes. So I did just that. It's one of those moments that you wish someone else was around to witness this strange event. I have petted a deer in a petting zoo as a child, but never a wild deer.
After rubbing her head for a while, I grabbed my tool bag and proceeded to the front door and was greeted by the sellers. "Hey, there's a deer in your front yard". "Oh that's Lucy" explained the man. "She's our pet deer" "You have a pet deer?" He told me the story about how they came to have a deer for a pet. They found it very young and the mother may have fallen victim to maybe a hunter, so they took her in and bottle fed her until she was old enough to be on her own. They then took her way out on the land and let her go, but she would always find her way back, so there ya go...Lucy, the pet deer. It then dawned on me that when the inspection was scheduled, I looked up the property listing and noticed that one of the pictures had what I though was a deer in it at the back porch and I remember thinking what a strange place for them to place one of those fake deer....I had to laugh!
As I inspected the outside of the house, Lucy just followed me around hoping I would take a break from my work long enough to rub her head some more. Made me wonder if you could teach a deer to sniff out termites like beagles can, that would be an attention getter!
Lucky for the buyers, Lucy comes with the property. I'm sure the sellers will surely miss her.
Each year, there are hundreds of swimming pool related injuries and deaths caused from improperly designed or maintained pools and equipment. Here are some guidelines that I hope will help in keeping you and your family safe this summer.
Safety barriers. Designed to keep small children from entering the pool area, safety fences and gates need to be installed to certain specifications. The fencing surrounding the pool access area needs to be at least 48 inches in height, any horizontal members should be on the pool side of the fence, vertical members should not exceed 1-3/4 inches apart and all openings should be small enough so that a 4-inch diameter sphere cannot pass through.
The gates to the barrier needs open out away from the pool and have a self closing and self latching mechanism. If the gate latch mechanism is less than 54 inches from the bottom of the gate, then it needs to be installed at the top on the gate on the side facing the pool.
Drain covers. Pool drains can have a very strong suction and there have been cases of drownings and children being disemboweled from being caught in the pool's drain. The suction of the drain can be powerful enough to have hair caught in the drain and have backs and stomachs held down when covering the drain. There have also been reports of children sitting on the drain and having their intestines pulled out of their rectum. To avoid this, install an anti-vortex drain cover. An anti-vortex drain cover is designed to distribute the intake water in the sides as well as the top to lessen the pressure at any one given area in the cover. It is also dome shaped instead of flat so that a person's back, stomach and buttocks has more difficulty covering the entire drain cover.
Deck and coping. Inspect all walking surfaces around the pool to ensure that there are no sharp edges and protrusions to the decking, coping and plastic decking drain channels that may cause foot and toe injury.
Diving boards and slides. Diving boards and slides are dangerous by nature and are advised against in the first place. If you still want to have these, inspect them regularly to make sure that they do not have cracks in the board and slide surfaces and that the bolts and any hardware are not rusted and deteriorated. Always keep any exposed nuts and bolts painted with a rust inhibitor paint to prevent rust from forming.
Pool light protection. Pool light electrical circuits need to be protected with a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) device. These are the electrical outlets you may have seen in kitchen and bathrooms that have the test and reset button. GFCI protection can also be a breaker in the breaker box that controls the pool light circuit. The GFCI protection is designed to trip the electrical power to the light in case the pool light gets broke or develops a water leak and to avoid an electrical shock. If you know where the GFCI is located, be sure to periodically test the device by pressing the test button to ensure that it is operating correctly and if you can't locate it or do not have one, consult an electrician.
On a home inspection the other day, I ran across this electrical outlet cover that I thought was pretty simple but ingenious.
It is a cover plate with just the hot, neutral and ground cut in it instead of the oval holes that exposes the outlet itself. That way if you are painting a room, remodeling or rehabbing a home and have old dingy and dirty outlets that stand out, you don't have to change them. Just replace the cover and you're done. I wrote an article a while back.....http://ezinearticles.com/?Rehabbing-a-Home-That-Has-Aluminum-Wiring----How-to-Cover-Your-Costs-and-Reduce-Liability&id=2095828 on the high costs of replacing outlets on houses with aluminum wiring and this would be a very cost effective altermantive. I did some research and found a company that sells these as well as covers for wall switches.
On one of my inspections yesterday, I found this on the roof.
I only saw the round end and dug it out and saw that it was a bullet. (I keep a tube of sealant in my truck and sealed the hole) It amazes me at the ignorance some people have when it comes to shooting guns in the air, as if they think the bullets disintegrate in midair. Or maybe they just don't care. About 10 feet from this area was a backyard equipped with a swing set and other play equipment....scary. Just last November a lady I know, Jill King was injured when a high powered rifle bullet came down through her motor home at the Texas Motor Speedway and severely injured her arm. If she had been standing another six inches in the other direction, it would have shot through her head. I wish people would realize the damage that can be caused from falling bullets, they don't just float down. I could not help but think as I was standing there that if I were to take that bullet and throw it down onto that roof with all my strength, it would not even put a dent in it, this one went in a half an inch! Many people each year are injured and even killed from stray bullets, problem is trying to find people who is responsible.
Client: So you say the air conditioning won't turn on. How much will it cost to fix?
Me: I don't know
Client: The shower has very low water flow? How much will it cost to repair that?
Me: I don't know
Client: I noticed that the old wooden windows are in poor condition and most won't open. How much will it cost to upgrade the windows?
Me: I don't know
Client: Why did I hire you?
Me: To inspect the house ma'am
Of all the hundreds of houses I have inspected, I have had clients ask me many times about repair costs and they are understanding when I tell them that I do not give estimates. But today I had a client that thought I was pretty useless because I refused to give her repair costs of some of the defects. In a professional and calm manner, I tried to make her understand that since I don't troubleshoot defective items, and not knowing exactly what is wrong, I would not have any idea what it would cost to repair and I don't keep up with contractor labor rates and material costs. Besides, I would never want to get that phone call from a mad client that got the estimate from the contractor after I gave them a much lower number.
Do any of you give repair estimates to your clients? I keep thinking I have heard of some states that want inspectors to give repair estimate costs.
This post is in honor of my sister's sore fingers after hanging pictures. Very simple tips that people just don't think of but wished that had. Here are a couple of nailing tips that I hope you find useful.
Tip #1.
Most finger smacks from a hammer occurs when the hammer head skims off the nail head because the hammer head is too smooth. To help avoid this I keep the head of my hammer "roughen up". My Dad taught me this many years ago. Look at the hammer head to see if the surface is smooth like glass. If you can scrape your fingernail across the head surface and it feels smooth, then it needs to roughened. What I do is I vigorously rub the hammer head back and forth on rough concrete a for about 5 seconds. This will make small surface scratches on the hammer head and will reduce the chance of the head slipping off the nail.....this really make a difference.
Tip #2
When driving very small nails (or any nail if you are not a good nailer) just keep a pair of needlenose pliers around.
Needlenose pliers have many uses, one being you can hold the nail in the tip of the pliers to drive the nail and not smack your fingers.
Did you hear about the discovery scientists made involving Scotch tape? It seems that ordinary Scotch tape, the kind you use to wrap packages, when unrolled can emit enough radiation to make xrays! It seems another scientist back in the 1950s came up with the concept, but was recently proved. They placed a roll in a small vacuum chamber and with a mechanical spool, unrolled the tape at the rate of about a foot every 5 seconds which is about as fast as if you were to pull a piece off and measured the emitted radiation with a geiger counter. One of the scientist then placed a piece of dentist xray film over his finger and it took an xray of his bone! It should be noted that this must be done in a vacuum chamber so gases can't absorb the radiation before it has a chance to emit. I thought it was pretty interesting, might be a lead on how to make xray machines in the future.
Is it just me or is there something just not right about this wheelchair ramp?
I just happened across this pic on the net and thought it was funny. Would love to know the story behind it. If it isn't a wheelchair ramp, not sure what else it would be. Doesn't look like it's been photoshopped or stairs added to the top. I'm sure there are guidelines about how steep and the length handicap ramps can be, but that doesn't make sense either.
Did you hear this story about a girl that was taking a shower and all the sudden a snake came out of the drain and bit her on the ankle and then slid back into the drain? Good gosh, are we not safe anywhere? By the way, the chances of this happening is very slim, so don't think about it when you take your next shower......or maybe you should? :-)
Southmayd girl bitten by snake in shower
Posted: 1:03 PM Oct 7, 2008
SOUTHMAYD, Tex. -- A 15-year-old Southmayd girl was bitten by a snake while taking a shower Tuesday morning. Stephanie Brletic has the bizarre story from Southmayd.
The incident happened around 6:30 Tuesday morning at the girl's home on Sunny Road. Authorities say the girl was taking a shower when a snake came through the drain and bit her on the ankle, before it then slithered back into the drain.
The Sherman Fire Department responded to the home and made the decision to airlift the teen to Parkland Hospital in Dallas, where she is listed in stable condition Tuesday afternoon.
Sherman fire Chief J.J. Jones says firefighters never saw the snake, but think it may have been poisonous.
"There was some swelling and indication that it may have been a poisonous snake. There was some attempt to retrieve the snake, but that was not successful," Jones said.
Neighbors say Tuesday’s incident scared them, but that it is not unusual. One even told us about a similar situation last week.
Jones says situations like these are not uncommon as the weather starts to cool.
"This is the time of the year that snakes are looking for some other environments. It was a cold morning. I'd say it's not uncommon, but it's certainly kind of rare for us."
Jones went on to say this is the time of year when you may start to see snakes more often. His advice if you do see a snake is to simply walk away.
I was talking to a friend tonight after her and her husband returned from a ten day cruise and thought I would pass along a tip that might be useful. She indicated that while they were gone their electricity apparently went out because the alarm clock on their nightstand was blinking 12:00am. She was worried about the food in the refrigerator and freezer because she did not know if the electricity was off for just a few seconds or if it was off for days and then back on since they knew some storms came through during that time. They live in a rural area so they couldn't just ask a neighbor. She was upset that she chose to just throw out all the food rather take a chance of getting her and her husband sick.
So here is a tip that you can do before you go out of town to tell if the refrigerator has been off for a long period of time. Before you leave, just take a few ice cubes and place them in a plastic bag and put them in the freezer. If the electricity has been off long enough to affect the food, you can tell that they had been melted.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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