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

Children, especially in the teen years, can be creative in where they hide contraband from the parents. I have a friend who bought a house and, years later, he had to do electrical work. When he removed covers on the wall switches in the bedroom that had belonged to a teenage girl, he found strings. When he pulled on the strings he got drug paraphernalia and condoms at the other end. It was like fishing. That was one fun-seeking teenage girl. She knew how to party.

At a recent inspection I found something odd. I opened the small door to view the pump at a jacuzzi tub. When I peered inside there were boxes and packages of Marlboros loose and strung all over. My first thought was that this was a weird place to store cigarettes. Then I got to thinking, hmmm maybe one spouse does not want the other to know that he or she smokes. An hour later a couple teenage daughters came home from school. I think it most likely that this was their stash, but who knows?

Then again, maybe everyone at the home was ignorant that the cigs were on premises and they belonged to residents who had lived in the home previously. Most people never open an area such as this. Maybe they do once! I have seen people who lived in homes for years who had no clue that there were cubby-holes like this until I opened them during an inspection. 

Steven L. Smith

Bellingham WA Home Inspections