Found

I have 3 houses up for inspection. That means I go around and test all the smoke detectors, Carbon Monoxide detectors and GFI outlets to make sure they are working.

I was in one house and found a couple of smoke detectors not working. When I pulled them down to replace the batteries, I found that the batteries were still in backwards. That is the way they are shipped in the box. I am hoping it was one of the boys who did that number and not me when we put them up new a year and a half back. There may have been smoke detectors on the walls but they were not going to warn of any fires. I checked the exhaust fan in the bathroom and then I pushed the test button on the GFI outlet above the vanity. Nothing. They do fail, so I went up to true value and bought a new outlet. On the way back over to the house, I got to thinking, maybe there was no current to the outlet. I pulled the outlet out of the wall and checked the wires. Nope, no current to the outlet. Checked all the other outlets in the house. They all worked. Went to the basement to look for the wire. I was hoping it ran straight down and I could follow it back to the breaker box. No such luck. No wire came down out of the bathroom. 

I was at a loss so I called Rich. "Rich, I have a house coming up for inspection and I have no current to a GFI in the bathroom." Rich came over to check it out. He turned on the bathroom light as he walked into the room. Click went the GFI outlet. Yea, the outlet is wired through the light switch. No lights, no current to the outlet. Rich asked me "were you working in here without the light on?"

 "Um yea, I suppose so."

At least Rich found my issue and fixed it, right?

Checked out another house today. Found the water lines to the water heater do not have 18 inches of metal pipe before they go to plastic. I sent a picture to Harrison, the inspector, to see if he would pass it or if I have to cut out the CPVC pipe and install braided metal.

Had a sewer line back up on the house we had just rented last week. Tenants 4 days in the house and the drains were plugged. Cody came over right away and cleaned roots out of the line. The access to the sewer line was in the crawl space under an addition to the house. Cody told me he would like to have a clean out outside the house, so he could check to make sure he had the lines clean and so he would not have to crawl under that floor again. Cody ran his camera down the line and then took his locator and marked where the line was outside the house. I took that to mean unless I put in the clean out I had better not call him if it plugged again.

Irv came over the next day and put in a clean out. He said he would put it down ground level so the tenant wouldn't hit it with the mower. I told Irv I wanted that thing several inches above the ground so I could find it. I had a tenant cover a clean out with dirt last year and I spent a couple of hours hunting for it. I do not want to do that again. It is one thing to have to find a clean out in the summer when you can probe and dig. In the winter it would be a nightmare to find a buried clean out.

 I got one of the old air conditioners out of the wall in the house I am working on now. There were 3 of them installed in the walls. Now there are only 2 left. I know it is cheaper to put a window air conditioner in a wall than to put in central air, but really, come if you are going to put in 3 just put in the central air. It took me a while to figure out how they had fastened the air conditioner in the wall. I finally found the unit itself was only held in by caulk and the box that held it had 4 nails driven through the sides. I spent some time hunting before I found that out.

I am totally redoing the bathroom. taking it down to the walls. I could not figure what was holding the tub in place. I could not get it to move at all. I asked Cody how cast iron tubs are fastened down. He said "They aren't. They just weigh about 200 pounds." 

I thought about that and went to get a sledge hammer. Yup, a few wacks with the sledge hammer and the tub came out.

 

It is laying in a pile on the deck. When I saw Cody later that day I said, "I got the tub out by breaking it up with a sledge hammer." Cody said, "after you left, I thought I should have told you we always break them up with a sledge hammer. You carry a cast iron tub out of a house in 5 gallon buckets." 

Nice to know I work like the pros.

When I first looked at the house I am working on now, I found where the basement stairs used to be. They had been moved and were taking up too much of the living space. I got the steps put back where they originally were this week. they may be steeper than today's code, but they will pass.

Since I had another stairway to the basement I could tear out the misplaced one. It was well installed. I had to cut everything except the stringers into 12 inch pieces to get it apart.(notice the spare air conditioner under the stairs. Suppose they had 4 running at one time??)

This morning I put the floor joists back in and laid flooring in the opening. I found that the surrounding floor is 1.875 inched thick. I had to put in several layers of flooring to get even. First 1 inch lumber, which is only 3/4 inch in today's world. Then 2 layers of 1/2 inch plywood. That left me .125 inches from even. 

The top piece to get even with the old floor is what I call pressed saw dust. Not a product I am fond of but I couldn't find anything else the right thickness to get level. It doesn't have to hold any weight because of all the wood beneath it. It will be covered by foam under-layment and laminate plank flooring, but I hope no moisture ever gets to it because it will swell up and flake. Did I mention this is in the kitchen. There are never any liquid spills in a kitchen, are there? I am thinking it would have been easier to have cut pieces of wood and screwed them to the top of the joists so I only needed the 3/4 inch boards to get the floor even. Every day is a learning experience.

So this week I found out I was too dumb to turn on the light switch to make an outlet live, I may have to replace some pipes on a water heater, I had a house with  plugged sewer line, (but I will be able to find the clean out). I found out how to take out a wall mounted air conditioner and a cast iron bath tub. I found out the pitch on stairs back 100 years was steeper than today's code, I found old lumber was actually an inch thick when you bought inch lumber (the top layer on the floor must have been put in when they had gone from full inch to .875 inch?) I found a lot of stuff.

Jesus told a parable about a women who lost a coin. She hunted and swept out her house until she found it. And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

We are in the season of Lent. As we approach Good Friday many will mourn Jesus' death. I do understand that thought pattern, but it is not what I will do. I will rejoice that I was lost and I am found. If there was rejoicing in the presence of the angels in heaven when I was found, I am going to rejoice very day that God has given me eternal life with him.

I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see. God has turned my mourning into dancing. 

Next month many Christians will be sad about Jesus having to suffer for our sins, I will be singing because Jesus' suffering is past and my salvation is guaranteed. The price for my sin has been paid! Notice that? It is past tense, not the price is being paid it has been paid. I kinda feel like dancing a jig to celebrate right now.