Friday Funny 1211: Funny Home Inspection Photos

I love this time of year because the Star Tribune comes out with their "worst of home inspection photos" from the previous year. This time, they weren't "the worst," but just "funny." Here are the photos and captions from 2016:

Rubber washing machine hose about to burst:

Beam Stiffeners - those metal rods help to stiffen this wood beam. Interesting detail, not a problem.

New basement carpet... mostly:

Minnesota crawl space - that's how we roll. Insulated walls, concrete floor, plenty of headroom, and a mechanic's creeper for effortless navigation.

"Here's Johnny!" - I know this looks fake, but it's not. This is our best "accidentally creepy" photo of the year.

Creepy Photo of the Year - If we have an accidentally creepy photo, we must also have an intentionally creepy photo. This is that.

"It's Alive!" - this is a combination boiler, gravity furnace, and forced air furnace in one.

Tight Quarters - some people complain about not being able to open the fridge and the dishwasher at the same time. To those people, we say "could be worse."

Moo. A home inspector in Connecticut shared this photo of how to hide two fuel oil tanks. Nobody will ever know...

Must be a safe neighborhood, because that's the button for the garage door opener mounted outside the door.

Melted Vinyl Siding - The photo below is courtesy of Boston home inspector Donald Lovering, and is the best example of melted vinyl siding from reflected sunlight that I've ever seen.

Everyone loves neat work:

More neat work, same house:

Fire Grenade - we found several of these old fire grenades in the attic of a large, old house in Edina. It's a glass bulb filled with carbon tetrachloride, and was supposed to be thrown at the base of a fire to help put it out. They were withdrawn in the 1950s because the chemical is toxic, and heat from fires can apparently turn the chemical into phosgene gas.

Sprinkler on the Roof - the most common guess on our Facebook page was that this was someone's home-made evaporative cooler for the garage.

Salt blocks in water softener - courtesy of another home inspector here in Minnesota, Lanny Freng of InspectionWorx. These salt blocks are apparently made for water softeners, and they apparently work, but it still struck us as odd. [STEVE'S EDIT: ummm, this is a salt block for cows and other large animals. But apparently you CAN use the same block in a water softener. Seems gross to me.]

Six handrails or one guard? Not a bad idea. A handrail for every height.

These weren't the best. I think my favorite collection of these "home inspection fails" was from 2014. Here are 3 previous years that I posted as "Friday Funnies:" from 2013, 2014, and 2015.

More funny things posted 10x every day on steveinaspeedo.tumblr.com.