[joecaption]

A really strange customer of mine calls and needs me to look at some stuff.
He says his new insurance company will not insure the home if the water heater is more then 20 years old.
This thing was so big two people could not possible put there arms around it, and over 6 ft. tall. I open up the cover over the electial connections and there's a mercury switch in there.
This white elephant was sitting in plain view in the kitchen with no walls around it and exposed steel pipes hanging from the ceiling with pipe hangers.
The doors were all 34" wide and only 6' tall, how did they even get it in there?
Gee you think that might be over 20 years old?
While I'm there he tells me they also want a rusty metal shed torn down, I go out to look and someone had built it on top of partical board directly on the ground. What to guess how good a shape that was in?
Then he shows me some appliances he bought at the Sears scratch and dent store. The new stove looked like someone had drop it up side down from a crain from 50 ft. in the air.
Then he asked me to install the new dish washer, problum is his counter tops and cabinets where made on site and for some strange reason the one on the left of the sink were only 32" high. How does he expect me to fit a qt. of jello in a gt. jar.:laughing:
Where do I find these people!

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,.... Know what ya mean,... My houses ain't the prettiest, 'n they've been Bondoized,...

But nothin' like some I've seen, nor Many I see here...

Sounds like the antique water heater will be meetin' a Demo-saw, before it gets out the door....

Many years ago, I was workin' in NYC, 'n S&H Greenstamps was doin' a huge down-size in what was their demise,...
We had to demo-saw most of the appliances from the executive banquet room,..
None of it would fit in the elevator, 'n had come in through the walls, Before there were walls...

'n talk 'bout scratch, 'n dent appliances,...
My washer, I dug outa a dumpster behind a big box store,.... Brand new, in the box,...
They'd run a lift fork into it, 'n caved in the side,...
I beat it out, 'n it's still washin', 10 years later...

 

[jagans]

Your Creativity is now world renowned. Be careful what you ask for, you may get it. Sometime I think its better to just stay ignorant. They seem to always be smiling. :jester::jester::jester:

Have Sawsall, Will Travel.

 

[joecaption]

A couple more things at that same house. He was told they would not insure it with the Monitor heaters in there, so he uld have them of I took them out and patched the inside and outside walls.
I did it and he pitched a fit when he asked me if I had but insulation on the holes and I told him no.
The reason I did not add inulation is because there was 0 insulation in the walls already, Old ballon constrution.
Why would I insulate a 2" hole when that's the only insulation that would be in the wall?
He asked me to take a look at his old steel shower and try to fix it.
The whole side had rusted out and there was a hole in the floor.
He had taken a car floor mat and used roofing tar to stick it to the floor and had covered the outside of the shower with duct tape and used that spray sealer you see advertized on TV on the inside.
I'd seen enough of this guy and just picked up my tools and went home.

 

[Bondo]

A couple more things at that same house. He was told they would not insure it with the Monitor heaters in there, so he uld have them of I took them out and patched the inside and outside walls.
I did it and he pitched a fit when he asked me if I had but insulation on the holes and I told him no.
The reason I did not add inulation is because there was 0 insulation in the walls already, Old ballon constrution.
Why would I insulate a 2" hole when that's the only insulation that would be in the wall?
He asked me to take a look at his old steel shower and try to fix it.
The whole side had rusted out and there was a hole in the floor.
He had taken a car floor mat and used roofing tar to stick it to the floor and had covered the outside of the shower with duct tape and used that spray sealer you see advertized on TV on the inside.
I'd seen enough of this guy and just picked up my tools and went home.

Ayuh,.... Sounds like the 2nd riverhouse I bought,....

It had been owned by an ole spinster school marm who could do EVERYTHING, herself, 'n had 9 cats,...
'n lived there for 40 years...

She'd fallin', 'n couldn't get up,...
After she was moved, a local couple, the she of which was Betty's best, 'n probably only friend, spent a month haulin' out tons, 'n tons of Ship,...
Clothes enough for 2 or 3 Armies,...
Atleast 2 of everything that had ever been sold on a infomercial for the last 20 years,..
An Amazin' pile of Crap, for a tiny 45x16' house, 'n she only used 1 level of the 2...

I bought it, 'n had to Gut it to get rid of the cat pee smell,...
Everything from knee-high, down was cat urine Soaked...

Took me 91 days to make the main level, Livable, 'n rent it...

Still doin' the river level, 'n hope to nearly double the rent when it's done,
Hopefully next year...

 

[md2lgyk]

Six-foot doors? Who lived there, gnomes? And who would even buy a house with that many issues, except as a teardown?

 

[joecaption]

I see it all the time in really old houses.
In one house I own you would have to squat down to see what was on the top shelve in a closit because they had made the door so short.
All the jambs were made in three pieces. I guess it was because there was plaster board and plaster on the walls so they were thicker.

 

[jagans]

Does this guy just happen to own a trailer he is renovating also???

:laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing:

 

[ddawg16]

Dishwasher? Can we say "Sawzall"?

 

[Canarywood1]

From all the things you've said that was wrong with that place, i wonder why in the hell he would want to insure it.

 

[joecaption]

I almost forgot about that part Dawg.
He was yelling at me to make it fit so I went to the truck and got my sawsall and told him to get a hold of the dishwasher so I could cut it off.
No joke he stood there holding it for me.
No I did not cut it though. I was just waiting to see what he would say.

 

[AllanJ]

Disconnect the old water heater, drain it, and install a new modern one next to it or in another suitable location.

Leave the old one on display as an antique. If you wish to you could connect some dummy pipes to it.

He asked me to take a look at his old steel shower and try to fix it.
The whole side had rusted out and there was a hole in the floor.
He had taken a car floor mat and used roofing tar to stick it to the floor and had covered the outside of the shower with duct tape and used that spray sealer you see advertized on TV on the inside..

OT: In an earlier lifetime I was glad that my state changed from car inspections every 6 months to inspections every year -- that way my car would fail only once a year rather than twice! Once it failed and the inspector said "there's a hole in the trunk". I checked for the first time and the hole was at least a foot wide and a foot long. (I did have it fixed professionally.)

 

[joecaption]

I had a brand new Suburu station wagon. My son borrows it and goes through a yellow light and get hit in the right rear and tares a hole in the side of the car.
Insurance company looks at it and totals it because of what looks like a wrinkle in the roof. I buy it back from the insurance company for $75.00 and patched the hole with coil stock and roofing tar.
I took it in for a 4 wheel alignment and there was no misalignment so the unibody was not twisted.
I drove that car for 5 more years and over 250,000 miles and it still ran great.
Not pretty but no more car payments.