mgbinspect

Actually, not only are they not illegal, they are a requirement for drivers with an impairment or amputation in one arm. All states have a drivers license restriction in their codes requiring it. Here is a quote from the Maryland MVA web site regarding restrictions: Airbags deploy from the center of the steering wheel and the spinner is attached to the edge of the wheel. No obstruction. But, I have seen folks tape/velcro stuff to the center of the steering wheel which will probably impale them if the bag goes off. Interesting, but the problem with one arming the steering wheel can't be remedied through such a ball on the steering wheel. The problem is that, as you sweep across the top of the steering wheel (in a left hand turn with the left hand on the wheel), you're seriously side-loading the left elbow. That's the problem. When you're young, it's apparently not a problem. But, at age 59, suddenly my left elbow said, "You know? If you do that just one more time, I'm going to make you pay." And, it has delivered on the threat... No biggie - just another minor adjustment, due to an older body, to avoid future agony. [:-graduat

Kinda figured it was. Well, for what it's worth, the elbow inflammation is actually going down. (I drive a TON - Sometimes 300 miles in a day, so I think the one arm driving was finally enough to push my elbow over the edge.)

(I'm pretty sure they're illegal.)

An annoying sore elbow has led me to yet another revelation regarding a current or future pain we all may experience, due to the fact that this motion is something that most of us do. One would think that power steering would make driving easier, and it truly does, BUT it makes it SO easy that we tend to drive (and especially turn) with one hand. I'm driving almost twice the miles per month I once did to stay busy, which has really brought this driving habit to the forefront. That constant press against the wheel and Turning the wheel with the palm of the hand is HELL on the elbow joint - putting side-load pressure on it through the rotation of the wheel. You may wish to give thought to whether this or the way you reach and pull forward your seat belt are sources of elbow pain. So, far since I've stopped steering that way my elbow inflammation seems to be deminishing. I'll know for sure in about a week. By the way, the knee is 100% so the way I got out of my vehicle and the way checked for loose toilets was DEFINITELY the source of that pain. [:-graduat Hope this discovery rids you of a bit of future pain.

Same here Mike, but I go all the way back to high school. I took two quarters my senior year. It was a lot of fun and the best thing I ever took as an elective in high school.Whenever I went into Radio Shack and the sales assistant would ask (for the billionth time) for my address and proceed to enter it with two fingers, I thought my head would explode. I found myself always resisting the strong urge to say, "Get away from that keyboard and let me get this done! I've got places to go..." [:-banghea But, the Barney in me always let the guy waste a few minutes of my existance.. [:-graduat

It's sad, but to this day the most valuable class I ever took in college was typing (not to be confused with my "thumbing". Architecture and Engineering science was - helpful. The rest - Eh...

I believe the secret to a PDA touchscreen is making certain that anything that comes up on a daily or weekly basis need not be constructed through a series of touches. Such common finds should be a complete and concise statement describing the defect or deficiency and merely needing the location to be added. Then, you can blaze through a home. I've only converted to software in the last year or so, because it is so slow compared to a detailed paper form, but that being said, I've come to realize that software is all about making certain that you don't waste a move in dropdowns when it's a condition you see often. Common observations should only take two or three taps to contruct - more and you're wasting time...

Yes, and no. Initially, you're on target, but I always told my disaster restoration clients to look at the bright side - for a mere deductible, they're about to get a complete home renovation, with every finish being of equal quality to what they had. And, they can always kick in and get an upgrade, while they're at it. The downside (especially with fires) - for years to come they'll keep remembering one more personal belonging that wasn't on their initial list of damaged belongings. Fortunately, for just that reason, most home owners claims departments keep large loss claims "open" for a while - sometimes up to two years. Unlike auto insurance, home owners insurance is pretty fair and decently regulated. Claims departments DO pinch pennies, and will try to convince one or shame one into accepting less than they had, but in the end, they know what their obligation is. And, won't go to court over things they clearly owe.

I do the same with HomeGauge. It's petty cool to do all of your info collection with a touchscreen that rests in the palm of your hand and a tiny camera. Between those two, you can pretty quickly gather everything. The only trick is remembering which room thing are in, but I've pretty much overcome that by always moving the same way every time and taking a picture of the room I enter before I photograph problems. That reduces site time to a bare minimum.

Ah yes, this all reminds me of my largest water damage claim, back in the late 80's. The poor homeowner was out of the country for a couple of weeks, and Richmond experienced temps around zero with snow and typical Richmond black ice. Of course, the city lost power, and the plumbing and cast iron radiators throughout the home froze and burst. When things thawed, his plumbing and auto fill on his boiler flowed freely for days. When he arrived home water was running out from under the front door, as he inserted the key in the front door. That was a fun restoration job. Some guy in Texas had the foresight to scarf up mass quantities of cast iron radiators, which he had in a warehouse. So I had to purchase some of the radiators from him at about $700 a pop, due to special height or width requirements. The alternative was baseboards, and the owner wasn't having anything to do with that. Fortunately, the home was in the middle of renovation so there weren't a lot of finishes. Still the damage topped out at about $47,000.00 One of the more difficult tasks was getting all of the underlayment up. It was 3/4" particle board, and had swelled up into huge mounds within each nailing pattern. It had to be pry-ed up in chunks...

I just reviewed the coverage in my area, which it turns out was on a national map at buildfax.com. two thirds of the areas I serve are online 100%. But, unfortunately, the city of Richmond, which is the most likely area to have multiple permits pulled over a 80 - 100 year period is not on line. So, I'm canceling. Bummer. It really sounded great, but not worth $99 a month if the reliability is that spotty. Dang it!

That was the appeal - instant gratification, without pavement pounding. If it was a reliable service, it would be great info to offer a client - permit history of their home in just a few seconds.

Well, I know that my friend, the title examiner, has access to such public records. I assume she pays the local government for the right to access the files. She's a real pro and has been researching titles for over twenty years and owns her own title company. Somehow it's possible.

I have a Strion that once served as a backup for an Ultrastinger. The difference between a Fenix and a Strion is pretty much akin to the difference between a Ferrari and a Prius. OK, I'm thick... and the Ferrari being the Fenix?

I work for a municipality as a building inspector. I promise that BuildFax is completely unaware of any of the 600+ building permits we've issued in the past two years- or of any of the thousands that were issued before me. We run on paper and the paper is in drawers and the drawers. I work there and even I can't find anything- Build Fax doesn't stand a chance. My point is- the service they offer isn't any better than just picking up the phone and requesting a permit search by the building official. Interesting! Of course, their demonstration of a commercial property researched in Chicago resulted in 128 permits pulled since 1970. It was impressive. I suppose a sales demonstration is designed to be just that - impressive. The old saying, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." suddenly comes to mind. I guess the real message, for me, is to make certain that all of my local authorities make their info available online? I have a friend that's been doing title examinations for a couple decades and does most of it these days from home, so maybe she'll know? Thanks for that rather sobering heads up, Chad.

Anyone have any experience with BuildFax - a comprehensive report offering all permit info on a property (similar to CarFax)? It seems like a pretty useful service. I'm going to do the thirty day free trial and see how it plays out. The report offers: the name of every contractor that ever pulled a permit; what permits they pulled; when the work was done; Seems like great info to offer clients buying older homes. [:-thumbu]

I have a StreamLight Strion, which put all my bulky 1 - 1.5 Mil candle lights out to pasture. It's extremely expensive for something that rests in the palm of your hand, but is astoundingly bright. Are these TKs even brighter? Less expensive?

Based upon that one picture, I believe that's probably a steel hung plate affair. The reason for the offset in coursing is that those aren't "standard" brick (3 courses for 8"). They appear to be modular brick (5 courses in 16") - hated them. Lol... (They're designed for production and reduce installation labor by approximately twenty percent. I saw them most in warehouses, schools, shopping centers, etc.). I have real problems with wrapping and sealing support steel that's integral with masonry - ALWAYS a REALLY BAD IDEA, in my opinion. The masonry holds moisture which will condensate and linger on that cold steel to accelerate rust. Give that detail a few years and open it up to find a real disaster in the making - a lot of the same dynamics that go into Kurt's reason not to flash the backside of parapets.

Jeez! That's a definite first.

I love that show, but missed that episode. I believe it was last week when they rolled up on a property where most of the stuff was originally the guy's deceased father's collection, and the son was definitely in a selling mood. Much of the stuff even the son knew of but had not beheld for a long time - an equally cool episode. IF memory serves, there was a particularly rare car in one of the sheds that only had a few original miles on it - amazing. Can I get a job like that?

You know, John, marketing is a funny thing - the way folks choose to do it. There used to be a home inspector in our local ASHI Chapter that blatantly marketed himself as the best inspection service in Richmond, based upon the fact that he was an "Engineer" (although he didn't mention that he was a civil engineer - not a structural engineer). It was rather annoying and frustrating to go to shows and listen to him peddle that crap right beside you. If he had claimed that he was offering another qualified dimension or level to his service, I could have tipped my hat to him. No one could dispute that fact, but he chose to suggest that anyone that didn't choose him was getting an inferior inspector and service, which I found to be a foul. As usual, the chickens finally came home to roost and justice was apparently served: he's out of business and working a 9 - 5 job, while most of the "Old Guard" home inspectors are hanging in there chugging along.

Well, it is kinda cool that we got to rub elbows with the "best independent home inspector of Maryland". I mean how often does an opportunity like that come up? Um, if he's "of" Maryland, does that mean he's no longer in Maryland? And, can John Dirk Jr. settle with being the second best independent home inspector of Maryland.

Grammatically speaking, I think you're sentence is fine, with one exception: because of the intent of the last phrase in your sentence as a qualifier for what precedes, most grammar books would recommend a colon instead of a comma. A Colon (or possibly a dash) creates an exaggerated pause. The colon, in particular, creates that pause and sets the phrase that follows apart as a qualifier to what was said before.

Agreed. It's always best to say it all with a handful of words.

Thanks for the heads up Erby. While I'm pretty good with PC software and hardware and did build my own web site many MANY years ago, Search Engine Optimization has always been a constantly changing mystery to me. I've recently learned that all our previous attempts to improve our web presence through reciprocal links, is no longer an effective endeavor, because Google wants to make Search Engine Presence a paid for quality of a site. To this date, I've only agreed to three very small payments, which each did improve a site that was already doing quite well. The site is pretty well entrenched and hasn't been modified very much, which definitely help. But, since this thread, I've been contemplating where to go from here. I may just leave things alone for a while and see what happens. I certainly had no intention of gaining web presence in an underhanded way - not my nature, that's for sure. I guess I should Google folks more than I do, before I do business? I'm a pretty trusting guy always assuming the best and extending everyone the benefit of the doubt, until they prove that they're not worth of such a courtesy. (PS. They don't host my site - Verio does and has since its inception.) All that being said, and wishing to do things right, who are some White Had SEO companies?