Ian Niquette's (ianiquette) Blog

I am pretty new to AR. I have gotten tons of help from a lot of peole here and I thank them for that. I am glad my friend Russel has helped me out. He can help you to, just go to Russel's blog I am amazed every time I log into to AR at what I find and learn here. But, sometimes it's the little th...

Most people don't give any thought to their water heater - they just turn on the faucet and expect hot water to come out. Keep your water heater in peak operating condition by performing some simple routine maintenance. One step you can take is to drain your tank. How often you need to do this de...

Show up for your Inspection/Appointment in ripped up jeans and a holey T-Shirt. As you are inspecting the main panel ask your client "Does that look right to You?" Hand write all your reports on a yellow legal pad, coffee stain free of charge, of course. Drive your company vehicle(with your # on...

Ok. So I managed to delete a blog this afternoon when my computer froze up on me. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother to turn this darn thing on. It really is a pain in my a$$ sometimes. But, how did we ever get along without them? I've always been kind of an outdoors kind of guy. Fishing, hunti...

Very good post about everyday thing we don't even give a second thought. Don't know if any of this is true... but it is something to think about - SAFETY FIRST! This gives us something to think about with all our new electronic technology.  GPS A couple of weeks ago a friend told me that someone...

My wife and I have been together for 10 years now. This spring we will have been married for two of those years. And she still loves me! Through all of our time together, her(our) dog, Lady, has been there for everything. Lady is almost 17 years old and time is starting to catch up with her.I rea...

I just had to go with this title. Some of you may recognize its' origin while others may not. I got the idea from reading another members blog where he gave out this bit of advice. I wondered if that were really the case. So, I figured I would just post a new blog with that title. Time will be th...

  I typically have 2 types of people call my office, 3 if you count telemarketers, but who counts them? The first type is a prospective client who needs a house inspected and they have heard from a friend or a relative that I am the only inspector worth calling. It doesn't happen as often as I wo...

    2:30am  Instantly awake!  All of the smoke detectors in our Salem, Oregon home are going off.  BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!!! For close to 30 seconds then they turn off.  I jump out of bed and run into the hall between the kid's and our room ready to assess the situation and get the kids out of the hous...

In being honest with ourselves as inspectors, and people for that matter, we need to assess our weaknesses and strengths. As an inspector, one of my strengths happens to be roofing and attics. This makes sense because that is what i specialized in before becoming an inspector. On that note, I wil...