When you weatherize a home, do the job right. After a recent inspection where the home has set empty for about three months. I was called to do a home inspection. I was told the utilities were turned on and the home was ready to be inspected. This was not the case. The water had been turned off and there was a hanger on the front door stating that the water was to be turned on by the water department of the city and no one else. The buyer wanted to turn on the water but after a careful explanation about the "rules to public utilities, he agreed" let's leave the water turned off. The first bathroom i went into to inspect I saw that the commode and "P" traps had been weatherized for the winter. Notice the broken valve on the cold water supply line on the right? I was thinking that they pl... 02/28/2012

When it's wrong, is it right? When you need a second opinion about electrical service in a home by a licensed electrician, you would think the inspection would go as you had planned. Not in this case. This home needs an electrical upgrade. It has a Federal pacific panel and breakers. This home also has several electrical issues as well. This Federal Pacific panel has seen it's share of issues. Notice the breakers that have already been replaced? When the electrical inspector was at this home he looked at the electrical panel and deemed it "SAFE", really. See the knob and tube wiring connected to the breakers? I did. Notice the double lugging of the supply connection to the box? Did you notice that the box was installed upside down? The cracked breaker? I guess I was the only one to noti... 02/23/2012

Last night I made a home buyer "CRY". I did'nt want to, but it's the way things worked out. I did a home inspection for a "first time home buyer". She was there with her Realtor and her mother. She also had her eight month old son in tow. Not a problem, I have had a lot more people than that during a home inspection in the past. It quickly became apparent that the home was a "concrete home built in the early fifties". First thing I noticed when I arrived at the home was all the stress cracks in the walls of the home. Not a good thing as they were telling me a story, and I really needed to listen to the home tell it. This home has "issues". The Realtor had to leave several times, so I had the chance to talk freely to the new buyer. If you look closely at the right side of the home you wi... 02/13/2012

Active Rain Blogs are getting noticed by others. Home tips for women. Active Rain is quickly becoming to "go to place" for all Real Estate related information.  This is evedent with the large number of visitors to the site. At Desert Sun Home Inspections, I try to give a lot of information about all types of subjects. With that said. I received a call from Tina Gleisner. She is the founder of the web site Home tips for women. She wanted to ask if she could use my last post about "attic's and getting to know them".  I was happy to hear about her wanting to use the post to help her members get mor information about attics in general. Her interviewing skills had me giving more information than I thought I could remember. After the interview she said she wanted to use the post and the inter... 02/12/2012

Ads you will never see again Part two. These ads are great. Back in the day when these were really popular they generated a lot os sales for the company they were representing. Looking at this ad, all I could think of is how proud they were of their ads. Look at the prices. Now these would run you upwards to nearly a thousand dollars. Can you imagine an ad like this today? Have a good day everyone. 02/05/2012

It's been a week, has the broker dropped the ball? This all started a week ago. Last Saturday to be exact. I received a call for a home inspection. I told the client they needed to get with their Realtor to get in and schedule a time for an home inspection. The client called me back yesterday and told me this. "Hello Mr. McKie, I am at the Realtors office again and they tell me my realtor is gone for the weekend. There is nothing they can do for me". I told her to "talk to the "BROKER" and tell her what you need and the address in which you need a home inspection for". "O.K. I will and I will call you back". It took about an Hour and I found out that the "BROKER", could or would not help her. She suggested she call the listing company and then have them let her in. I told her to wait ti... 02/04/2012

Ads you will never see again. I just love retro. here are some retro ads that are awesome. You will never see these ads in print or on the T.V. they would be controversial. Take a peek and let me know what you think of the form of advertising "BACK IN THE DAY". One way to stay fit while cleaning the home. Well maybe not every one. LOL Have a fun and restful Saturday. I will be busy all day today.   02/04/2012

The home has closed. Tony gets his refi. This all started with a post about "is it greed or is it me". 168 comments. This post went wild with comments about the banking industry. Lenders who want to help and those who don't. Well yesterday, Tony signed the papers on his home. He will save about $280.00 per month after the "refi" of his home. He went fron 6.75% rate to 3.99%rate. His bank did not even offer a refi, nor would they even talk about a Re cast loan as mentioned by John in a comment. There will be a twenty year payment schedual, with one final payment in the last month. I wanted to add a picture of his home but he declined my request to do so. I hope this is a lesson to the bank on how they can loose business and how a bank can gain new business. Here's hoping all have a great... 02/02/2012

Home Inspections. And the comment's I'll never forget. Inspecting homes is so much fun. I get all kinds of comments when inspecting. I also do energy audits on homes. Here are some of the quipt's I will never forget. 1. When performing an energy audit there was a smoke detector half way down the hallway from the bedroom. The owner was asked why the smoke detector was not placed in the right position near the bedroom. His reply. "There has not been any "fire" in that bedroom for years" 2. I was inspecting a home for an buyer. I told him I needed to add the fence in as a "issue". He said why? "Don't add it, then in six months I will turn it over to my insurance for a claim. This way they will pay for a new fence". Needless to say I did add it to the report. 3. During a home inspection, I ... 01/26/2012

The client wants the home, but have the repairs been made yet? On a recent post about the A/C duct work running over the roof instead of in the attic. I had a lot of comments. The client called me yesterday and wants me to inspect the home again. The sellers Realtor had called her Realtor to tell them that the repairs had been completed and they could look at the home once again. The duct work in question was not mentioned. This leaves me to expect the repairs that were mode were items that were the smaller "issues". Not the major issues of the ductwork on the roof. I will be going there this saturday afternoon to insect the home for the second time. I hope for the buyers sake, that "ALL" items that were REPORTED in the report were addressed. Only time will tell.   01/23/2012

A must see for those who love cakes. I don't normally write or post about my personal life. Because it's just that personal. But circumstances have dictated that I do so with this post. My son and daughter in law are expecting their first son. Many of you know they have a five year old daughter. But now I will have a grandson. Our first grandson should arrive about the 20th of February. If he is anything like his mother or father, he will be late and not arrive till Juns or July. Courtney loves to bake. She had a "diaper party" thrown for her for the new arrival. She loves to bake and baked this cake that I truly loved. I wanted to share it with the Active rain Family. I hope you enjoy the picture of the cake it took about four hours from start to finish. I thought it was an impressive ... 01/22/2012

Home Inspections in Carlsbad New Mexico, so much fun. Everyone here on the Active Rain Dashboard see's a lot of shots from home inspections here in Carlsbad, New Mexico. I cover a total of three counties here and I have an expanding area when I get the call to go a little further than I normally travel. My close coverage area consists of three counties.  Eddy, Lea and Chaves counties. When I get a call about a home inspection outside my "normal area", I tend to add a travel fee to the inspection. If there is no way I can get there fast enough for the client, I try to find a certified inspector that's closer and can get the job done for them.  Here was a home inspection that left me "puzzeled" to say the least. The duct work for the A/C unit was run ontop of the roof. Not in the attic ar... 01/21/2012

Take Roy Kelly's advice, have your camera handy. As the story goes, There I was minding my own business, getting ready for another day. When all of the sudden there it was. Starring at me like a big smile saying "welcome to the day". Mother nature wants to say hi in many ways. This was her way of saying welcome to the day to me in Carlsbad, New Mexico.  It was gone about as fast as I could get the shots of the sunrise. It was an awesome shot of a scene that never ceases to amaze me.  01/21/2012

 So you think you've had a BAD DAY? It got crowded in heaven, so, for one day it was decided only to accept people who had really had a bad day on the day they died.  St. Peter was standing at the pearly gates and said to the first man, "Tell me about the day you died." The man said, "Oh, it was awful.  I was sure my wife was having an affair, so I came home early to catch her with him.  I searched all over the apartment but couldn't find him anywhere.  So I went out onto the balcony, we live on the 25th floor, and found this man hanging over the edge by his fingertips.  I went inside, got a hammer, and started hitting his hands.  He fell, but landed in some bushes.  So, I got the refrigerator and pushed it over the balcony and it crushed him.  The strain of the act gave me a heart atta... 01/19/2012

Garbage disposals. Do you have one. Do you know how to use it correctly? There are a lot of home out there with garbage disposals. And there are a lot of home owners who don't know how to use a disposal the correct way. Routinely, while conducting inspections of the kitchen appliances and plumbing piping at the kitchen cabinet, I will run the garbage disposer and check the hot water control location (left) simultaneously. A homeowner recently became very concerned when she observed me conducting this ritual. I politely asked if something was wrong and she replied, "I've always been told you never run hot water into your garbage disposal." Well, while there is some merit to what she was alluding to, it deserves further explanation. Here's the short list of when to use cold water or when ... 01/18/2012

When it's "home made" does it count? On a recent inspection, I ran accross this "home made whole house fan assembly".  With this not being rated for this home and the fact it was "home made" does this count for the existence of a "whole house fan"? This fan was not connected to a thermastat controll.  So if the fan was needed then it had to be turned on by the occupant of the home. What if your not home at the time the fan should be "on"? Then what? You just never know what may be lurking in an attic. Even though this fan is stable, it's not rated for this size home and the fan is not vented properly. This fan looks like it has never been cleaned either. It did work when started up, but leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to doing the job correctly. 01/17/2012

Roof inspection, after the fact. I was called to do a roof inspection on a home that had the work completed by a contractor and the contractor wanted to get paid. There was only a couple small problems with the "work that was completed". High winds tore off shingles and there was some water damage to the interior of the home. Let's take a look at the work from the reputable roofing contractor.  As you can see the "Patch" do'es not match the roof. Even though the roof is an older roof there are shingles available in the existing color. Notice how these shingles were "nailed through the top of the shingles"? The damaged shingles were never removed then replaced. I did'nt pass the inspection. It looked like a ten year old did the work. I think there was no supervision on this job. Have a g... 01/15/2012

Two invisible Active Rain Ambassadors. This is a post about Active Rain members that went above and beyond being a member. They are not Active rain Ambassadors even thought I think they both should be. With nothing to gain but the satisfaction of helping others in the Active rain membership. These two members have proved why being a member of Active Rain is such a honor. I am nominating these two members for "ambassadorships". First of all there's Richard Yates, he is from Mission Viejo, California. If you don't subscribe to Richards post, then you need to check him out and then subscribe to his great posts. There's so much to learn from him. He has presented himself as a go to guy for the active Rain membership for Video's. He started the Video challenge. He built me a video that can b... 01/13/2012

No room no problem, let's take a look at the attic. On a recent inspection I was all set to look at the attic. This home had an access in the closet on the second floor. When I got in the access door I found a myriad of duct work that had been run every where. Holly molly I thought. What's on the other side of that mess. I needed to take a look and see for my self. This open junction box was one of three I found hiding on the other side of the mass of duct work. Also as you can see. The blown in Cellulose was only blown on the attic access side of the duct work. Not in the entire attic. I guess the homeowner or contractor was just too lazy to blow the entire attic with cellulose insulation. Remember, if your going to "add" insulation, add it to the entire attic. Not just half of it. Hav... 01/09/2012

A little inspection, I mean little. Here is a "little inspection" I did on a BarBQue restaurant out of town. It was a really a small place. I had to laugh when i saw it. But it really puts out some good BarBQue.   This is one for the books. LOL. I never thought it would be so small. There were a few "pointers" I had given the owner to get the unit up for the state inspector. I was quite a interesting inspection. Have a great day everyone. 01/08/2012