Home sellers can expect buyers will perform a home inspection before closing on a home, and for many, its a stressful part of the home-sale process. Rarely does the inspector find absolutely nothing wrong with the place. Whats more, buyers may ask for all the items in the inspection report to be addressedeven if theyre not major problems.

In the last couple of years, because it has been a buyers market for so longinspection reports end up acting as a punch list for sellers to tend to, said Wes Flacker, owner of Century 21 Magellan Realty in Boise, Id.

What can you expect when the inspector walks through your home, clipboard and digital camera in hand? Here are some of the most common problems that pop up in inspections of American houses, broken down by category.

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Amy Hoak's Home Economics: 7 things that are wrong with your house

The Northwest Regional Housing Program, representing the counties of Ashland, Bayfield, Burnett, Douglas, Iron, Price, Rusk, Sawyer, and Washburn, is now accepting applications from homeowners needing to make major repairs to windows, exterior doors, shingles, siding, insulation, furnaces, wiring, plumbing, water and sewer laterals, failing septic systems or wells; and other major home improvements.

Funds are available to assist qualifying applicants make necessary repairs to owner- and renter-occupied housing units and to provide down payment assistance to qualifying families purchasing a home.

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Home repair funding available

World of Wires
Electronic Installations 15 years of experience in home automation. Professional installations and great experience. TV installations, surround sound, outdoor lighting, home wiring and pre-wiring,...

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BERKELEY COUNTY, SC (WCSC) - Bond was denied Thursday evening for a 31-year-old Summerville man accused of breaking into a home in the Cane Bay area and assaulting a woman and her 4-year-old son.

Brandon Keith Sigmon is charged with first degree burglary, two counts of first degree assault, three counts of kidnapping and possession of a firearm in the commission of a violent crime in connection to the Wednesday afternoon incident.

"The monster that did this forces his way into our home and terrorized me and my two children," said the victim in Thursday's court hearing."He hit me several times in the back of my head with a gun that he had previously pointed at my face and the back of my head."

Authorities said since the incident occurred, the victim along with her entire family has been "terrified" to even return to their home.

Deputies say Sigmon was apprehended after he was spotted hiding in a construction area Wednesday evening. Authorities say after he was spotted, he jumped into a pond and ran into a wooded area where he was arrested.

Sigmon is being held at the Hill-Finklea Detention Center, according to Berkeley Sheriff's spokesman Dan Moon.

Investigators say Sigmon was posing as a vacuum cleaner salesman when the home invasion occurred after 2 p.m. at a house in the 300 block of Decatur Drive where he forced his way inside the home and assaulted a woman, who investigators say suffered "fairly extensive" injuries.

The woman told deputies she saw the man walking from the front door with his hands up, saying, "OK, ma'am, OK, ma'am." She said the suspect's behavior made her nervous and she called her husband to let him know about it, but before she could walk out of the front foyer area of her home, she heard the glass shattering from the back door.

She told deputies she saw the man enter the home and charge at her, yelling for her to get off the phone. The suspect then began to punch her and hit her in the head with a handgun, the report states. The woman told authorities as she asked the man what he wanted, he appeared to get angrier and continue to hit her, and pushed her head against the wall several times.

The victim said her two-year-old daughter and four-year-old son were in the home and were crying. Police say the suspect then ordered her to make them stop crying. When they didn't stop crying, the woman said the suspect pushed her son and he fell against the wall.

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Investigators arrest suspect accused of assaulting woman at Cane Bay home

Baltimore, MD (PRWEB) September 06, 2014

Birckhead Electrical, a top rated electrician in Maryland, has confirmed that it will continue to offer domestic electrical inspection services for home owners in different cities across the state as the provider marks 38 years in service delivery.

A statement released by the company noted that for the past few months a lot of locals in Maryland have been taking advantage of this service as a measure to ensure that electrical wiring in their homes is perfect and safe, and as such, it is only and utterly logical to continue on this path. Birckhead Electrical is confident that the home electrical inspection service will continue to be a huge success and, in fact, the Bowie, Maryland electricians have assured homeowners in Maryland that they will continue to explore all available opportunities to make it accessible.

The news comes as Birckhead Electrical Inc. marks 38 years in the local electrical services industry. The company notes that since 1976 it has continued to offer quality and affordable electrical services, and during this period, the experience it has managed to get is nothing short of amazing. Moving forward, Birckhead Electrical Inc is expected to continue dominating the local sector as the company expands its market base and continues to serve a huge portion of locals here with the best electrical services, including home electrical inspection.

According to expert electricians, the safety of electrical wiring in any domestic or commercial property is a huge priority. Although in most cases detecting faulty wiring may not be easy, Birckhead Electrical notes that its team of experienced and highly rated electricians in Bowie has what it takes to isolate the problem and fix it at very easy and reasonable rates. The company acknowledges that its home electrical inspection has helped a lot of homeowners detect faulty wiring, and as it seems, the provider is looking to continue on this trend.

In addition to this, Birckhead Electrical is keen on cementing its current position as one of the biggest electrical companies in Maryland, and the continued provision of home electrical inspection services is seen as a great start towards achieving that goal. The provider welcomes any home owner in Maryland looking for electrical inspection services to take advantage of its expertise today. For more information, please log on to http://www.birckhead.com.

About Birckhead Electrical

Birckhead Electrical is one of the leading electrical companies in Maryland that offers a wide range of electrical services to both commercial and domestic entities. The company has been in business for 38 years and is one of the most experienced and respected players in the market. For more information, please log on to http://www.birckhead.com.

Company Details

Birckhead Electric Inc. 3506 Malec Lane City: Bowie State: MD Phone Number: 301-355-2175

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Birckhead Electrical a Leading Electrician in Maryland Continues to Offer Home Electrical Inspections as the ...

BERKELEY COUNTY, SC (WCSC) - Bond was denied Thursday evening for a 31-year-old Summerville man accused of breaking into a home in the Cane Bay area and assaulting a woman and her 4-year-old son.

Brandon Keith Sigmon is charged with first degree burglary, two counts of first degree assault, three counts of kidnapping and possession of a firearm in the commission of a violent crime in connection to the Wednesday afternoon incident.

"The monster that did this forces his way into our home and terrorized me and my two children," said the victim in Thursday's court hearing."He hit me several times in the back of my head with a gun that he had previously pointed at my face and the back of my head."

Authorities said since the incident occurred, the victim along with her entire family has been "terrified" to even return to their home.

Deputies say Sigmon was apprehended after he was spotted hiding in a construction area Wednesday evening. Authorities say after he was spotted, he jumped into a pond and ran into a wooded area where he was arrested.

Sigmon is being held at the Hill-Finklea Detention Center, according to Berkeley Sheriff's spokesman Dan Moon.

Investigators say Sigmon was posing as a vacuum cleaner salesman when the home invasion occurred after 2 p.m. at a house in the 300 block of Decatur Drive where he forced his way inside the home and assaulted a woman, who investigators say suffered "fairly extensive" injuries.

The woman told deputies she saw the man walking from the front door with his hands up, saying, "OK, ma'am, OK, ma'am." She said the suspect's behavior made her nervous and she called her husband to let him know about it, but before she could walk out of the front foyer area of her home, she heard the glass shattering from the back door.

She told deputies she saw the man enter the home and charge at her, yelling for her to get off the phone. The suspect then began to punch her and hit her in the head with a handgun, the report states. The woman told authorities as she asked the man what he wanted, he appeared to get angrier and continue to hit her, and pushed her head against the wall several times.

The victim said her two-year-old daughter and four-year-old son were in the home and were crying. Police say the suspect then ordered her to make them stop crying. When they didn't stop crying, the woman said the suspect pushed her son and he fell against the wall.

Excerpt from:
Deputies searching for man who assaulted woman at Cane Bay home

Two sheets of molybdenum disulfide show why it's so hard to find any place to put impurities of any sort inside what's essentially a single molecule.

As chip manufacturers are getting close to the limits of their ability to scale features down, materials scientists are working hard to provide the raw materials that would let us build circuitry from individual molecules, such as carbon nanotubes. One class of molecules that may find a home in future chips is sheets of material that are a single atom thin.

Although graphene, a sheet of carbon atoms, tends to attract the most attention, there are actually a variety of atomically thin materials. And, while graphene is not normally semiconducting, a number of the alternatives are. One of these alternatives, molybdenum disulphide (MoS2), has already been used to create functional electronics. Unfortunately, the performance of these circuits has been erratic. Now, a collaboration of researchers at Rutgers University and Los Alamos National Lab has figured out why: hooking up wires to an atomically thin material is really hard. Fortunately, they've also figured out a solution.

Although MoS2 appears to have what it takes to make great circuitry, early attempts at using it have been inconsistent. As the authors of the new paper note, the mobility values (a measure of how quickly electrons move through the circuit) reported for these circuits can vary by as much as a factor of 400. The problem, the authors suspected, comes from wiring up the circuits. Although it's easy to deposit metal on top of an atomically thin material like MoS2, it's another thing entirely to make sure electrons can easily hop across that junction.

In regular circuitry, a mismatch between the wiring and a semiconductor is usually handled by adding a small amount of an impurity to the semiconductor. This process, known as doping, brings the semiconductor's properties a bit closer to those of the wiring, making for a match that lets electrons flow with minimal hassle. The problem comes about when you attempt to add impurities to a material that's only an atom or two thickit simply doesn't work out.

But doping isn't the only way to change the properties of an atomically thin semiconductor. Since these are essentially single molecules, it's possible to change their properties by altering the molecular structure. As it turns out, MoS2 can come in two forms, or phases, that are distinguished by slightly different arrangements of the bonds extending from the metal. One of these (the 2H phase) is the semiconductor that circuitry depends on. But the other, called the 1T phase, behaves more like a metal.

The secret to the new work is that the authors have figured out a chemical process that can convert between the two. Exposure to an organic-lithium compound will cause local conversion of the semiconducting form to the metallic one. As long as the researchers can control what parts of the MoS2 get exposed to the chemical, they can create a pattern of metallic material on the semiconductor. After that, it's simply a matter of hooking up the wiring exclusively to the metallic parts.

This allows electrons to readily jump from the wiring and into the MoS2 sheet before they come in contact with the semiconducting portion of the circuitry. The authors built a series of field-effect transistors using this approach and show that all measures of their performance are significantly better than devices that rely only on the semiconducting form of MoS2. In addition, the performance was consistent; they made 25 devices of each type and showed their behavior was all very similar.

That's the good news. There are a number of caveats that the authors helpfully point out, the most significant of which is that they're not especially good at limiting the chemical treatment to only those areas where they want to hook up wiring. The other issue is that the metallic1T phase is what's called "metastable"it can convert back to the semiconductor under the right conditions. And, as of yet, we don't know what those conditions are or whether they're likely to pop up during normal operations of a chip.

Nevertheless, the authors do a nice job of identifying a problem and showing that it can be solved. And, more generally, the work does a nice job of showing why it can take a while to go from a material breakthrough to an actual product. While MoS2 may have all the properties of a wonder-semiconductor, putting it into an actual product involves sweating a tremendous number of details (including attaching wiring to it). It's the less glamorous detail work that follows discoveries that actually allows us to do something with the discovery.

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Hooking up wiring to 2D semiconductors

For immediate release Thursday, September 4, 2014

Homeowners Ill-Prepared for the Future

Housing expert warns failings put families at risk

Homeowners are failing themselves by failing to research their new builds and renovations, warns a leading industry advisor.

Whether it be complacency, ignorance, or mere trust, often people embarking on home extensions, renovations or new house builds will rely on the Building Code as an adequate standard. However they should do more than that to future-proof their home, Richard Gough, General Manager of industry authority Future-Proof Building, says.

The Building Code gives peace of mind with your build but it is a minimum requirement. Why would you be happy with a minimum when there is so much more you can do to make your home healthier, safer and more liveable not only now but also for what you might need in the years to come?

A home is the biggest investment you will ever make, so you need to do your research. Its your home. Educate yourself on what you can invest in to make it more liveable not just now but also in the future."

Gough is a guest presenter at the upcoming Auckland Home Show, educating attendees on ways to increase the liveability of their home beyond Building Code requirements. A collective voice of market-leading product suppliers, Future-Proof Building offers advice and solutions for homeowners.

What do you do when you buy a car? You take it for a drive, you research it online, you compare the ratings. We do so much research into a car but not nearly as much with something that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Examples of ways to future-proof your home beyond Building Code stipulations include installing greater levels of insulation; investing in thermally-broken double-glazed joinery; pre-wiring for solar and data technology and ensuring the finished work delivers on future needs of the property and is backed by warranties.

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Homeowners Ill-Prepared for the Future

COURTESY / Las Vegas Fire Department

By Ian Whitaker (contact)

Monday, Sept. 1, 2014 | 12:47 p.m.

COURTESY / Las Vegas Fire Department

A vacant house in the northwest valley was destroyed by a fire Sunday night, according to Las Vegas Fire and Rescue.

Firefighters were dispatched at around 10:15 p.m. to a house fire on Crestline Drive, near Torrey Pines Drive and Washington Avenue. When they arrived on scene, the fire had already engulfed the one-story wood house, according to LVFR. Firefighters contained the fire in less than ten minutes, but the house was destroyed.

Neighbors told fire investigators that the house had been vacant for two years but appeared to have been used by squatters. Investigators found evidence of squatters left inside the building, and also suspect copper wiring had been stolen.

According to investigators, the estimated damage to the house was $57,000.

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Vacant home in northwest valley destroyed by fire

BRITTANY PICKETT/ Fairfax NZ

ALL THAT'S STANDING: The remains of a West Plains Rd, Invercargill, property after a fire on Thursday night.

A chimney is all that remains of a rural Invercargill home.

Keith Greig had been away from his West Plains Rd home for only about an hour on Thursday but returned to find it engulfed in flames.

"I screeched down my driveway . . . there was a guy there who must have called the fire station,"he said.

Greig, a security guard, lived alone in the old wooden house, his home of 18 years. It was "only worth two dollars", but worth a million to him, he said. "My grandkids loved it out there, I loved it out there."

Greig said he had no idea what caused the fire. "It was gone, yeah, I'm baffled."

He lost 18 years of belongings in the fire.

"I'm staying with my son in town here and then I don't know what I'll do," he said.

Fire Service Invercargill senior station officer Gordon Rodgers said the cause of the fire was unknown but not suspicious. Firefighters were called to the fire at 7.48pm and left the scene at 1am, he said.

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Fire razes man's home of 18 years