I was at a home inspection recently, really a high house, and I kept seeing birds entering up under the soffit. Residents of the home were under the impression that the birds were nesting outside, not getting inside the attic. Since I saw no nests up there, I suspected that the feathered friends
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05/22/2010
Often I do inspections and find that outside receptacles are GFCI protected -- as they should be. However, they are still not properly installed because the receptacle is fully and completely exposed to the rain. An example of such a receptacle is below. When it was tested, it was GFCI protected
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05/22/2010
I was perusing some photos from a home inspection field training course that we taught at Bellingham Technical College a couple months back. I found this one. This is a guardrail at an upstairs bedroom, above the stairway. For a guardrail to be considered safe, it must be at least 36" high and t
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05/21/2010
Time just flies. It seems like the class just began, but at Bellingham Technical College we are ready to begin the final phase of the most recent "Fundamentals Of Home Inspection" class. The final phase of the state approved course is 40 hours of field training and that begins today with Charles
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05/21/2010
We all get them, the scam phone calls and Emails from those telling us that we need to pay big bucks to enhance our online presence. I work very hard, largely through Active Rain, to make sure that my business has the highest possible online presence for any number of key search terms in my regi
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05/17/2010
Yesterday, and it was enjoyable, my wife and I went to Meerkerk Gardens, a Rhododendron Park on Whidbey Island. This place has one of the most gorgeous displays of rhododendrons that you will see anywhere. I have attached a few photos for your perusal. Yesterday, checking out the rhodys was a fu
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05/16/2010
I am in the process of putting together a slide show of some home inspection concerns, along with a voice over. Having worked in broadcasting for 30 years, I am more comfortable with the voice over than the organization of the photos. But, so far, it has been fun and I found this cool program th
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05/16/2010
I first visited the small town of Langley, on Whidbey Island, back in the mid 1970's. Even then, there was this guy standing by the rail, his dog beside him, staring out at the ocean. I was there again yesterday and I had to look around the crowd of visitors to this pristine waterfront town but,
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05/16/2010
It was a wonderful day here in the Pacific Northwest yesterday. The sun was out and people were flocking to the outdoors. My wife and I took our grandson to the beach, over to Boulevard Park which is one of the nicest parks in the county. It seems that there were others, besides just us, who th
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05/15/2010
Yesterday, over at Bellingham Technical College, I taught my regular course in wood destroying organisms. The class was, more so than usual, interested in the teredo. The teredo is a wood boring clam that historically goes back almost to forever and was much feared by navigators of the great oce
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05/15/2010
