seattle home inspectors: In a bit of a fog this Wordless Wednesday
- 08/04/10 02:49 AM
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seattle home inspectors: Have you ever had a, “I smell something,” moment?
- 08/03/10 02:43 AM
I suspect that it is part of the “great human design” that we don’t remember much about that time of our lives when we didn’t have any control over our bodily functions----and certainly didn’t care about it either. There comes a time in every child’s life when they do however become aware that it is something they are expected to be aware of----and gain control over.
I remember when one of my kids (who shall remain nameless so that I get to continue living) had their “aha” moment as he passed gas and said with a proud smile: “I … (20 comments)
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seattle home inspectors: Rulerdog was such a wimp!
- 08/01/10 04:14 AM
I sometimes “jokingly” tell my buyer, as I disappear into the crawl space, that if I am not back in an hour, to pull on the rope I have tied to my leg and pull me back out. It usually gets a chuckle----as they appreciate me doing what they would not like to be doing.
If a crawl space does not have proper clearances, Licensed Washington Home Inspectors are allowed to exclude the crawl space and recommend that proper clearances be created. I am very aggressive when it comes to inspecting these spaces and I have my own personal … (40 comments)
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seattle home inspectors: Ruh Roh----vertigo----where I go!
- 07/31/10 04:18 AM
There are lots of things about doing Home Inspections that are not for the faint of heart-----things that would even scare Hitchcock I think.
Home inspectors need to have a healthy respect and/or tolerance for electricity, rats, tight spaces, filth, spiders, snakes, heights----and people.
The other day I inspected the roof of a four story condo building. Looking over the edge of the roof to check out the fascia and siding, I noticed the toy cars below.
Vertigo anyone?
Charles Buell, Seattle Home Inspector
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seattle home inspectors: It is all good theatre----or not. What say you Thomas Parker?
- 07/30/10 02:31 AM
I have always been interested in all the stages a structure can go though over its life span----often vastly different or unimagined from its original use. Like a lighthouse turned into a bed and breakfast or a school turned into condominiums. Wars are acted out on giant world-wide stages with much drama and acting much like might be symbolically acted out in a play on a smaller stage of a local theater. The symbolism and irony of seeing an old World War II gun emplacement at Fort Casey on Whidbey Island, Washington turned into a stage was another example of … (13 comments)
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seattle home inspectors: The ocean is a locket full of secrets!
- 07/29/10 01:48 AM
Who hasn’t wandered along a beach to see what the tides have washed ashore?
It can be fun to wonder what the things we find on the beach are, and how the stuff got to be there. Some are barely recognizable pieces of glass, or objects made of metal and wood, while other things are all too recognizable pieces of junk. Some of the most common things found are cigarette lighters, pop bottles and tampon dispensers. Since approximately 7 million tons of junk gets tossed into the oceans every year it is no wonder that lots of it … (31 comments)
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seattle home inspectors: Wordless Whidbey Wednesday
- 07/28/10 03:35 AM
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seattle home inspectors: Oh, by the way, we will have to schedule the inspection at low tide!
- 07/27/10 02:33 AM
While it is never a good idea to jump to conclusions as a Home Inspector, our experiences as home inspectors can lead us to sometime “predict” with great accuracy what we are going to find.
For example if we find large areas of missing shingles on a roof it is not too much of a leap to suspect there might be considerable damage on the interior of the building----especially if there is evidence that the shingles have been missing for a long time.
Another example is when we are walking around the exterior of a home that we … (21 comments)
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seattle home inspectors: Have you ever been lunch?
- 07/25/10 05:11 AM
Sometimes it just comes down to dumb luck.
While the best laid plans of mice and men can result in disaster, sometimes those plans can result in greatness and incredible accomplishment.
The other day, while vacationing on beautiful Whidbey Island, as I walked along the beach at what must have been a minus tide, I found this stranded sea star.
If you have never explored the beach at a minus-tide (tides that fall well below normal seasonally) you don't know all the amazing things that can be found----things that you would usually only get … (32 comments)
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seattle home inspectors: Breaking news! Giant Kiwi eats Washington State house!
- 07/22/10 12:32 PM
If one insists on planting stuff so that it can climb on one’s house, one is only asking for trouble.
Not only can we not see what the vegetation is physically doing to the house, but it provides an easy protected access to the roof structure for an assortment of critters----including rats. This giant kiwi monster is so camouflaged that he is barely discernible from the background----and might have gone un-noticed but for the keen eye of the inspector. This house had lots of rats, and while the kiwi looks better than rats, it is in this case … (22 comments)
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seattle home inspectors: Wordless Wednesday FALLS on a Wednesday
- 07/21/10 01:53 AM
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seattle home inspectors: Julia’s Skykomish River Poem
- 07/20/10 03:22 AM
Just West of the little town of Index, Washington, on the Skykomish River, there is a scenic picnic spot that the kids and I found on one of our many camping adventures into the Cascade Mountains. My oldest daughter Julia gave it the name “Green and White Water Carved Rocks.” I think the name she gave it is a little poem in itself and it also fits nicely into a haiku.
As you can see by the picture----no poem can do the place itself justice----but the poem can just be its own thing----just as the river is.
Green … (21 comments)
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seattle home inspectors: Rots! Better luck next time! (Bet you thought I meant “rats” didn’t you?)
- 07/19/10 04:10 AM
This is indeed what you think it is----even looks like one. It could be straight out of Walt Disney, it is so classic.
It even has a concrete stoop in front of the entrance. An actual door would be an improvement I think.
While I could talk about rats in relation to this “doorway,” what this post is really about is the concrete stoop at the doorway. It is about what happens when concrete patios get installed over the top of wood siding in the Pacific Northwest. If the siding is buried, so is the wood floor … (15 comments)
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seattle home inspectors: What do you know----your nose knows it doesn’t know! No?
- 07/18/10 03:17 AM
There is an old-time folk wisdom that says, “Sometimes you just have to follow your nose.”
But think about it.
Is that REALLY what happens?
I mean, it is not as if the dang thing has a mind of its own after all (except during flu season maybe).
Actually, don’t we more or less push it around? Wherever we go it is out there in front----kind of like being tied to the cow catcher on the front of a train----scared shitless over what we are getting it into next. As we speed down the … (15 comments)
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seattle home inspectors: Everyone likes to cuddle with something furry and fun!
- 07/17/10 02:32 AM
Anyone that has read my blog knows that on any overly hot day you will find me curled up for a nice nap in some cool crawl space somewhere.
Everyone likes to cuddle with something furry and fun!
The other day when I was NOT napping in a crawl space, I came across many seismic straps and bolts that had not been used, and it got me scratching my head for answers----maybe it was actually the bottle flies in my hair----but I was thinking, I swear!
Did some engineer 30 years ago give the … (73 comments)
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seattle home inspectors: Wordless in the Bog again!
- 07/14/10 01:53 AM
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seattle home inspectors: When was the last time you looked at yours?
- 07/13/10 08:51 AM
Lots of shite can happen when you haven’t checked your crawl space in 30 years.
For example, take a look at this plumbing leak in the drain from the kitchen/laundry. The leak has been spraying on the concrete pier support for 30 years. One can see how it has etched the concrete----exposing the aggregate in the concrete. Now this is not a “big” leak, and not much in the way of “solids” have escaped the drain----but it still represents a very unsanitary condition in the crawl space. Bottle flies like these kinds of leaks and many were noted … (25 comments)
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seattle home inspectors: Do you read the signs?
- 07/12/10 10:48 AM
WOODn’t it be nice if we could get exterior wood surfaces to grow and repair themselves?
We could create truly “living homes” as well as “lived-in” homes.
Unfortunately wood doesn’t work like that. Within hours of being cut it starts its return to the earth and quickly becomes food and shelter for other plants----and for insects as well. We call these insects “wood destroying insects” but in fact they are merely doing their job. They carry little signs that say, “If you don’t want me to eat your house----don’t make it look like food and/or insect … (27 comments)
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seattle home inspectors: OK GANG-----we need a little more over on the Northwest corner!
- 07/11/10 02:55 AM
The cool thing about ivy is that it can be trained.
Well, in truth, it can be “let go” so that it covers everything in sight. Ivy League schools are only beginning to see the damage that the “ivy look” can do to their brick structures and are removing it from buildings kicking and screaming because people like the look so much. Some schools would be almost unrecognizable without their ivy.
Regardless of how cool it looks----Ivy should never be allowed to climb buildings. I have seen it crawl under clapboard siding and fill up attic spaces … (24 comments)
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seattle home inspectors: Are you smarter than a bag of potato chips?
- 07/10/10 02:57 AM
Does anyone out there have as much of a problem with product packaging as I do?
Nature itself makes things difficult to open----take coconuts and cacti for example----but that has more to do with survival than “packaging.”
I can understand making dangerous products like medicines difficult to open or to require “special knowledge” to open. What I don’t understand is WHY does it have to take the Jaws of Life to open a bag of potato chips?
And how about getting all that security wrapping and tape off of a CD or DVD case? Wouldn’t it just … (35 comments)
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