It is summer of 1948, where a wealthy and often spunky Miss Harley who lives in her quaint little town of Octave Reign, VA. Everyone knew of Miss Harley; folks have been coming to her for decades seeking Real Estate wisdom. Always the independent woman, she got herself into a construction mis
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02/27/2014
We had some horrible bursts of rain last night, water was overflowing my gutters. Sure, I know I preach about keeping the gutters clean but I did. I just did them myself. The rain was so hard that the downspouts just couldn’t keep up with the flow of water coming down. The worst part? It
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02/27/2014
My Favorite Stovetop Test – Photo I get asked to look at homes from time to time; usually for dry rot and water damage repair but sometimes just to go through and check the general condition of the home. Many of the tests are done at the same time like running water to check for leaks, tu
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02/25/2014
How Did I Know This Wasn’t An Original Exhaust Fan? The Wiring Wasn’t Right. One of the benefits of getting into the attic and crawl spaces of a home is that you can see things that were changed from the original construction. Often times this is because the do-it-yourself was not willing
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02/24/2014
Proper Drainage Requires a Good Slope in Sacramento I got an opportunity to look at a home in the Arden area of Sacramento that has experienced poor drainage in the past. Water around the home had nowhere to go so it would just puddle up near the perimeter of the home. This can be a pro
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02/24/2014
When it comes to your photos, the size of the photo does not always make for a better post photo. In fact, in some ways it will hurt you. Let me explain. If you are going to resize your photo to fit within the 640 pix width of your blog, why upload a huge file and scale it here. Doing it this
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02/23/2014
It is always fun to get under a home and check things out. Maybe it’s because many do not bother to look under a home that things go unquestioned. I recently came across this puzzler while looking at a different issue. The arrow shows the flow of the main drain line, but the rest is a mystery
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02/23/2014
Why Not Host A Springtime MeetUp? Kerrie La Guardia has arranged a Springtime MeetUp Invitation for you! Check out her latest Springtime MeetUp post and ask yourself – Can I host? We can think of reasons why we can’t host an ActiveRain MeetUp: I’ve never done it before I don’t have the ti
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02/23/2014
I was hoping to get a quick home inspection checklist printed for a friend of mine who is buying a condo. So I Googled it and the #1 result was our very own Elizabeth Weintraub. Being from Sacramento herself, Google recognized her proximity to me, and the matching keywords. The link was to an
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02/23/2014
Sure, you can go ahead and paint that water stain, but don’t forget the prime it first! Often times a roof leaks, or there is a plumbing or drain that causes a stain in the ceiling or wall of your home. The repairs have been done and there is no damage to the drywall but it is stained. Can
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02/22/2014
