Seattle Home Inspector's Blog

     I do it myself.

     Does anyone ever actually click on these links?

     When I open someone's post and it has a gazillion links----my brain glazes over.  Even if it were to mean that my life would be "positively" altered forever, the 700 Billion Dollar question was to get answered, and I was to become a millionaire over night, I am more likely to hit the "back button" than the "link button."

     Is this just me? 

     Now, posts like the ones that reference the "Week's Best Posts" are a little different----but even they seem cumbersome if they have more than 5 or 6 links.

     What is your limit?

     Do you usually go to all the links or listen to all the U-Tube clips?

     Don't you feel like these things can "hijack" your time?

     Hopefully the links in this post kept you on track

     Believe it or not I got thinking about this when I took out the garbage this morning.  I wasn't taking the garbage out because I was in the dog-house or anything----in fact she usually takes it out.  But this morning she asked me to take it out----so she could sleep in.

     It seems that every-other house on our street is for sale right now----not an indication of anything----just the luck of the draw for some reason.  It is NOT a sign of a mass exodus from the Northwest like in 1971 when a couple of real estate agents put up a billboard that said: "Will the last person leaving SEATTLE -- Turn out the lights."   For the past several months it has not been surprising to see the signs come and go on our street.

     The problem with this one is that-----this is MY house!

     Which is why I was wondering if my sweetie had neglected to tell me something, and why I hadn't heard those words, "We have to talk."

     It turns out that she was as surprised as me----but a little madder----that some misguided sales person had put their advertisement at our property to become both blog fodder and dumpster fodder.

     I am in the middle of a great crawl space dream.  I have my respirator, my goggles and my full-body condom on----and all is well in my dark, low and womb-like world.   All of a sudden there is this ringing sound-----it is my cell phone.  I always bring my cell phone into the crawl space, but as I am scrambling to find it I realize I am out of bed and digging it out of the pile of clothes on the floor next to the bed (the pile my sweetie affectionately refers to as the "carpet" on my side of the bed)----I'm not in the crawl space at all. 

     I look at the flip-phone screen.

     It is my daughter's smiling face.

     Oh, oh,---this ought to be good. 

     I half expected it to be another one of her great calls like the time she and her friends wanted to know how many chickens would fit inside a cow.  I LOVE questions like that----well, maybe not at 1:am but.....

     .....instead, she told me that one of the wall receptacles was making a "hissing" sound---and it was keeping her awake.

     She held the phone up to it.

     It was REALLY loud and was indeed hissing.  By now I was fully awake----definitely not in the crawl space anymore.  I ran through a couple of scenarios with her and ended up with:  "does it feel warm?"  "No," was her answer.  I said, "Well then go back to bed ----and call me in the morning,"----what any good doctor/inspector would advise I think.

      I called her in the morning and she answered:  "I'm still alive!"

     We talked some more about the many new possibilities I had come up with during the night----as I lay sleepless in bed after her call.  I had pretty much concluded that it was highly unlikely that it was anything electrical, even given that the sound appeared to be coming from the outlet.  I recommended that she take some pictures around the house outside to see if that would help us figure out the mystery.  In the process, she discovered that there was a leak in the area of the hissing sound, and water was flooding down the foundation.  By the looks of the picture it had been leaking for quite some time----and perhaps had finally completely broken so that it could be heard.

     Time to call the landlord----

----perhaps he also knows how many chickens fit inside a cow.

     There is the usual stuff that interests me as a home inspector, like vermiculite insulation, rat and bird infestations, leaks, asbestos wrapped duct-work, knob & tube wiring etc.  But in these older homes one can often see long forgotten "stuff" left by previous occupants. Stuff that can give clues about the lives of those previous occupants, and also glimpses into times gone by----perhaps into even my own youth----or that of my parents. 

     There are often old tools, antennas, century old Christmas decorations, children's toys, old newspapers/magazines/books (National Geographic seems to be common), and other collectibles and antiques.  This "stuff" can often be little "fringe benefits" to the new buyer when discovered after purchase.  I remember when we bought our current home a couple of the interesting curios that we found were a Peanut Man bracelet and an old flashlight------and an old sock with $40,000 in it!

 We also found a ton of old National Geographic magazines (though not in the attic).  The pictures later became the wall paper in one of the bathrooms.

     Another very common category of attic find is "contraband"----like the teenager's collection of hidden playboy magazines, or drug paraphernalia.  In an attic the other day I was transported back to the early 60's when I came across someone's collection of soft-core "erotica."  The covers of these old novels were kind of cool and sort of remind me of the old b-movie posters of the same time period. 

     After a little Google Research I discovered that the author Peggy Swenson was actually a "guy."  

     When you bought your home did you find any interesting goodies?

     Better yet-----what did you hide in the attic when you were a kid? (I don't really expect too many answers to this one:)

     In the days before hands-free devices, I was one of those drivers that should never use a cell phone while driving-----not sure about it even now.  As soon as I heard there was going to be a law requiring that we be hands-free, I went out and bought my first "blue-tooth."  I love it.  It is a huge improvement over trying to fiddle with the phone in my hand. (I never was much of a "multi-tasker.")  I always hated trying to fish the phone out from behind the gas peddle at 60 miles an hour after I dropped it----or trying to dial without running into the car in front of me. 

     Some say that even "hands-free" devices aren't enough.  Time will tell----hopefully it won't take too many deaths to figure it out. 

    How would it affect your business if you couldn't use your phone at all in the car?  I think we have all gotten so use to them----and in traffic what a great way to get a little office work done.

    Here is a picture of me sporting my latest blue-tooth.