Inspection, and How to Lose Business!

Today was INSPECTION DAY! Welcome to the duplex! I arrived at 8am to find Mike already started--now, THAT'S a good businessman! Mike's other job is customer service at the airport; he's taken those skills and transfered them successfully into his own home inspection side business.

We got started at the front door. It's a little Christmasy, isn't it? That red wall will soon be sand or taupe. See the coved ceilings? Cute, aren't they? To the right is the dining nook. The photos are a panoramic view of the living room, which is rectangular, from right to left. This is the back of the living room. The entire room is approximately 20' x 12'. The previous owner had cable and direct tv cable EVERYWHERE! My TV will be towards the front window, and this area will probably end up being my office, unless I decide to put it into the second bedroom.The dining nook....that chandelier is leaving. I can't stand down-lighting at the table! I'm thinking of putting a nice little sideboard below the window--the mail slot is to the left, and a basket would be cute to catch the mail, wouldn't it? I'll be looking for a taller round table--sort of a pub table, for dining. I may also may open the wall between the dining area and kitchen and put a countertop there for a pass-through--it's a little too tight for a bar & bar stools. It would open up the space, but still leave enough wall space in the kitchen for counters and appliances. You can just see the stove; the fridge will go there, and the stove will be moved to the opposite wall. The countertop would be above the stove-top.The kitchen needs some work. Someone added a good number of outlets, but ran the conduit on the outside of the wall. The cabinets are old. Some aren't secured properly to the wall. The countertop is tile, which I don't particularly like....so, the kitchen is going to be gutted. I'll get new cabinets, move the sink to the right-side corner and put the dishwasher where the sink currently is located, put the stove on the left (where the left-side cabinet currently ends) and the fridge where the stove currently sits. That will create a little more counter-space, as well as more cabinets for storage.This backsplash and counter is from a condo that we looked at a few weeks ago. I photographed it because I loved the design and the granite--what do you think about that, with similar birch cabinets, for my new kitchen?Just behind the kitchen is the back door and mud-room. The washer & dryer will go under the shelf to the left. The furnace and hot water heater are to the right. The hot water heater is about 10 years old and probably doesn't have much life left; when it goes, I'll replace it with an on-demand system. On-demand is SO much more efficient and I don't understand why Americans don't install them. There is a little pantry next to the water heater.I mentioned the glass block in the bathroom. Here it is in all of its glory, just above the jetted tub. I'm planning to take it out and frame in a normal small bathroom window. Sorry, neighbors, no more exhibitionist strip shows! Someone did a nice job on the tile surround. I'm going to continue the tile as wainscoting all the way around the bathroom.The sink and toilet will both be replaced. We're not sure what happened to the toilet--the bolts were removed, and the wax ring has squeezed out the back, so the toilet leaks into the crawl space. Nice.... I'm going to replace the vanity with something a little newer and larger, possibly with a glass bowl sink atop granite. We'll see what's on sale at Home Depot!OK, is the the most HIDEOUS red you've ever seen? It's EXACTLY that colour--and so is the wall in the living room. This will soon be white....and the medicine cabinet will be replaced with something newer and more functional. The lights will probably stay.This is the front door--the left window is the kitchen window, and the small window is the window in the dining area. If you look closely, you can see the mail slot just to the right of the window. In older homes, mail drops directly into the house! That'll be cool!Here's the back yard. That's the glass block in the bathroom, and the window of one of the bedrooms. I'm planning an arbour with seating and a grill in this corner. Again, I've done a panoramic view, right to left. The bit of bush to the left is the same bush in the next photo.

That's the garage in the back. It's a 2-car garage, but my unit only owns half. You can see the big 3-car garage built on the other unit's property--so they have space for 4 cars! The vegetable garden is going to go against the garage wall, since it gets a lot of light as well as warmth from the wall.

There's quite a bit of fence repair coming up...the entire fence is pretty old, so I'll be replacing it, little by little.

Here's my half of the garage. And look, they left a Christmas tree for me, to go with the Christmasy colours in the living room!Well, that's the tour of the house so far. Mike spent FIVE hours inspecting the place! He'll have my recommendation, and he'll do my inspections from now on! That's the way to win business!

The roof was his only real concern--it's going to have to be replaced within the next year or two. Everything else is minor, meaning that it will cost under $1000 to repair or replace. The furnace works really well, the plumbing and electrical are updated...so really, the things I'll be doing are cosmetic. Keep in touch with the blog to see the work in progress.

This was a sunrise last week, coming from Bismark or Fargo, or somewhere else cold....OK, so how do you LOSE business???? Look at the vehicle below...then look at the bumper sticker!

Have a properous and design-filled day! I'm off to Seattle tomorrow for the Northwest Flower and Garden show. If you recall, I started the blog after going with Lori--so the blog is almost a year old! I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures. This year, I'm staying with Baze and Kim in their new mansion. Lori and Jayme will join us at the show--I can't wait!