Steven L. Smith, Bellingham, WA Home Inspector (King of the House)

I want to wish all of my Active Rain friends -- internationally, nationally, statewide and locally -- a great Christmas. As I write this post, we have a really windy day here. I am hoping that the power does not go out. I am so glad I no longer am involved in being an engineer in radio, wind often led to power outages and real headaches. And, due to the time of the year, this often happened between Thanksgiving and New Years. That is a responsibility from my past life that I do not miss at all. Dead air meant no advertising revenue.

Hope the rest of this year, and the new year, brings everyone only the best and none of the worst. Merry Christmas and happy holidays from all of the King of the House staff, some of whom are really getting into the spirits, so to speak.

The first Billboard Top 40 Charts of the rock era emerged in 1955 when the Bill Haley classic "Rock Around the Clock" hit #1. Anyone who is into the era, and the evolution of the music, knows that rock 'n' roll was a derivative of the soul and gospel music that was created and popular with African Americans.

It is not surprising that the first #1 hit by an African American group was on the horizon, shortly after the inception of the Top 40 Charts.  This group, today, is lesser known than some of the big 1960's soul groups -- Temptations, Supremes, Four Tops. However this group, from Los Angeles, while not exactly rock "n" rollers, could sing like canaries and they were a dominant force in the 1950's and the early 1960's.

Back in 1956, those were simpler and less controversial times. It was exciting. Rock music was new, TV was new, the Second World War was over and people liked, and respected, the President. Ike Eisenhower was a universally popular President (a phenomenon that has eluded recent occupants of the oval office). Ike was a former war hero, who had helped engineer the defeat of Hitler and Nazi terror. Both political parties had wanted him as their Presidential candidate, he was coy about his political affiliations, but Ike ended up serving two terms as a Republican.

This group that goes down in history as scoring the first #1 hit for African American artists in the rock era, consisted of four guys and a 15 year old girl. In the end, these kids were the most popular vocal group during the first five years of the rock era. They had forty chart hits and that included fourteen songs in the Top 20, seven in the Top 10 and four that peaked at #1.

This is an appropriate post, here on Christmas Day, and you will know why when you hear the tune. To be taken back in time to remember 1956, and to hear original members of the group perform their hit (all be it a few years later), simply click on the 1950's TV. Make that test pattern go away and participate in the sound of music history.

It is my goal, at a home inspection, to try to look at all components and systems. That not only earns me repeat business from clients and agents, but it provides some insulation against potential client complaints. Logic prevails: The more you see the less important stuff you miss.

It is not possible to find everything that might be wrong at a house. Finding 100% of the problems is not achievable within the confines of a home inspection. Sometimes mother nature herself interferes. This time of year, it is not unusual for the home inspector in this region to have restricted roof access due to ice.

The state law, standards of practice, wants the inspector to go on the roof. It says: When it is possible to do so, safely and without damage to roofing materials or components,  a home inspector will traverse the roof. Problem is, sometimes you cannot safely traverse the roof. Case in point below:

That roof is a sheet of ice. All you can do, as an inspector, is put a ladder up to the eaves at some locations, view it with binoculars or a telescope and take zoom photos with a camera. Trying to go on that roof would be treacherous. I have gone on iced roofs, in the past, because I thought the ice had melted sufficiently. I hit slick spots, not a comfortable feeling!

Sometimes, the inspector can see obvious problems, enough so to comfortably state that the roof requires repairs and further review by a roofing contractor. Other times, the surface looks okay, but an inspector does not know for sure due to the limited access. In those cases, the inspector should explain to the client exactly what he or she could, and could not, see. Let the client weigh in on that information. It might be a less than perfect inspection scenario, but sometimes that is the best you can do -- You can't always do what you want! I wanted to get up on the roof but mother nature said "no."

Recently, as the weather has gotten colder, I did an inspection on a cold day -- at least it was cold based on our wimpy Pacific Northwest standards. It was 28 degrees F.

At first, I thought that someone had left the garage door to the outside ajar or open. On closer examination, the fit of the door was something less than ideal.

Since it was cold outside, and my little knees were knocking together, it made me think of an appropriate song for the season and the weather.

There is much debate about what was really the first rock n roll song.  One fact that cannot be disputed is that the firt rock song to top the charts, July 1955, was by Bill Haley and the Comets -- "Rock Around the Clock". To the casual observer, that might have seemed an anomaly, a blip on the radar, at the time, but the hot 100 charts would never be the same again.

Moving forward to January 1961, the charts had another first: The first ever #1 hit by an all girl group.

 How time flies, that was 50 years ago.

Those of you old enough to remember back than, are probably suspecting that this was an achievement by the Motown power house group the Supremes. But that is not the case, the Supremes were still about three years away from their first big hit.

The story of this first girl group to top the charts is interesting. The song that propelled these teens from New Jersey to a place in music history, was a tune of teenage angst and lust, written from the girl's perspective. One of the writers, Carole King, later a songwriting and recording legend, was a young girl at the time, pregnant with the child of her song writing partner, Gerry Goffin. She could relate to the theme, referencing a moment of pleasure, as she wrote the song. Little did King know that the song would go on to be a classic, later recorded by many big stars including the late Amy Winehouse.

The quartet of teenage girls that recorded the hit song consisted of four friends,  who began singing together in junior high school. One member of the group hated the song, thought that Carole King's demo of it sounded country. The girl changed her mind during the recording session when the musicians reworked it and turned it into a pop song.

This hit was the first song, penned by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, to top the charts. To learn the identity of the mystery artists, simply change the channel on the TV by clicking on it. Heck, you can watch Have Gun Will Travel anytime. A simple click will take you back in our Active Rain time-machine to those heady days of the early 1960's. 

Often, when people are purchasing manufactured homes, they are under the impression that the cost of the home inspection should be cheap. After all, the home is usually selling for less than 1/3 of the cost of a stick-built home. However, if you look at it from the inspector's standpoint, even though these units usually do not have an attic, there is still a lot to look at. And, honestly, often the quality of manufacturing is not up to par and the condition of the crawl space is such that it more than makes up for, in work required, lack of an attic.

At a manufactured home there are many specifics the inspector has to look for. Is there Polybutylene water supply tubing (problematic to say the least); is the electric panel properly wired (often they are not); are there roof or window leaks or problems with siding? Are heavy outside structures, decks and awnings, really free-standing, as they should be. Rodents are a common pest at manufactured homes, at least here in Bellingham and Whatcom County.

The older the manufactured home, the number of problems multiply significantly. Here is a photo of a rusted-out galvanized supply pipe at an old manufactured home.

The bottom line is that, even though a manufactured home costs less, it is impractical for a home inspector to offer a substantial discount. I can tell you, having done many such inspections, that inspecting an 800 sq ft manufactured home may be a bigger hassle, and take longer to write-up, than inspecting a 2500 sq ft stick-built house.

People buying these homes need to realize that they are saving money on the purchase price, not on the cost of obtaining a professional home inspection.  Especially so with a manufactured structure, the job requires hard work and knowledge of specialized information, so the inspector needs to be properly compensated for his or her expertise and time. Manufactured homes might be cheap, but the cost of inspecting them probably will not be commensurate with the low price of the home. And do not assume, for one moment, that "quality control" at the factory assures you of much of anything. I have seen some newer manufactured homes with major factory blunders, such as holes in the roof that allow water to run down into the walls.