Thanks Walter Jowers of the Nashville Scene + Other News

Pinch pennies wherever you can, except on home repair by Walter Jowers: Here's what's bugging me - It seems to me that a fair number of folks who want some work done around their house want it done cheap—too cheap. Every day, I read or hear a request for a "reasonable" gutter cleaner, an "affordable" window washer, an "economical" chimney sweep or some such. It pains me to say that a fair number of people who are looking to hire cheap help have adequate cash. You'd think that money-minded folks would know that scraping the bottom of the hired-help barrel is the quickest way to screw up a house to the point where it might never get unscrewed.

Somebody tell me: Where are the unreasonable gutter cleaners? The ones charging neurosurgeon money for what used to be routine chores? How many such overpriced gutter cleaners could there be? You rich-as-the-sheik-of-Dubai gutter cleaners, let me hear from you. I might buy myself a bucket truck and join up.

Now, as for you tight-fisted homeowners: If your roof is way up amongst the tree canopy, and your gutters aren't so much drains as they are mini-moats, why wouldn't you pay the going rate—and even a pretty strong gratuity—for a guy to haul his 32-foot extension ladder to your house, wrestle it up against the edge of your roof and start scooping up your wet leaves? Keep in mind that all the while, he'll likely be fighting angry squirrels, head-pecking mockingbirds and killer wasps. He'll be working hard for the money, and he'll be lucky to get back on the ground with his skeleton intact. How much more "reasonable" could he be?

On the other hand, if you hire a gutter man who drives up to your house in a shiny new Escalade, or who puts your job on hold for a few weeks while he's off skiing in Aspen, you might want to consider hiring somebody with lower overhead. Most of the time, though, contractor overhead is just this simple: The gutter man has to pay his accountant to tell him how much tax he owes. Then he has to pay the tax. Once that's done, he'll be lucky to have a little money left over to buy tools and gasoline so he can stay in business. He won't be toting a duffel bag full of cash down to the strip club so he can make it rain.

Of course, a super-stingy homeowner might decide to avoid a worker who earns enough honest dollars to buy gas and groceries and keep the lights on at his house. That super-stingy homeowner might just decide to hire an unskilled and undereducated part-timer, somebody who just got fired from greasing the Tilt-A-Whirl at the carnival. The problem with that is, when you hire an off-the-books underground economy guy, you're likely hiring a tax-dodger who doesn't keep himself educated, doesn't have the right tools for the job, and can't offer any more than, "Golly, I'm sorry," if he screws up the job and wrecks your house.

And that's not the worst of it. If you hire a dirt-cheap worker, you might just be encouraging a backsliding, ne'er-do-well reprobate. It's the cheap-ass homeowner equivalent of helping Ted Bundy with his jumper cables. You satisfy his immediate needs and enable him to move on and harm others.

Here's an example: Some years back, I inspected a house that had the mark of the dimwit all over it. The house had just about every electrical problem that I'd ever seen, read about, or imagined. The cherry on this sundae was that the owners had just had the house inspected by one of my part-time cut-rate competitors, who told the new homeowners that their new house was just fine. I'll never know if that home inspector spoke out of ignorance, or was trying his best to flimflam his client so he could get more referrals from his benefactor, the saleslady.

So, you stingy well-to-do homeowners stop hiring from the bottom of the labor barrel, OK? Let me suggest that before you start hiring help, check with companies that have been around at least 10 years. Find the smart and honest souls who'll give you good leads. Finally, this: Don't take your neighbors' recommendations for laborers as gospel. The neurosurgeon next door might know how to fix a broken back, but that doesn't mean he knows how to clean gutters.

A Tunisian scientist working in the US is greatly contributing to the robotic revolution which is sweeping the industrial world and especially Japan, Europe and the US. A Professor of mechanical engineering at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Rice University in the US, Fathi Ghorbal, initially studied in Tunisia before receiving a B.S from Pennsylvania State University, an M.S from Carnegie Mellon University and a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana –Champaign. Recently, he was appointed as the Schlumberger Visiting Chair in Mechatronics and Robotics, in Paris. As the holder of the prestigious Chair, he will enjoy joint appointments at five of France’s ‘Grandes Ecoles’, including the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines, and the Ecole Polytechnique.
The Tunisian scientist has designed several robots destined to the aeronautical industry, pipelines as well as miniature robots for biomedical purposes. One of his major achievements is a robot dubbed “Inspector Bot”, equipped with its own source of energy, magnetic and electric sensors, video surveillance cameras and infrared lasers which is capable of achieving minute diagnostics not only of coastal erosions, abut also of underground and underwater pipelines.
Another of his inventions which has earned him considerable attention, is a robot which is capable of cleaning the window panes of skyscrapers. He is currently involved in the manufacturing of miniature robots based on nanotechnology. He is also the manager of a company dubbed “IT Robotics” which he has founded in Houston, Texas.

Sir Jackie Stewart: If I hadn't been F1 world champion I would have been.. a window cleaner. Formula 1 legend Sir Jackie Stewart revealed yesterday that he's also a whizz at cleaning windows. Sir Jackie, 70, even claimed if he had not been a racing driver he would have been a world champ with a squeegee and chamois instead.The Scot, who won three world titles in 1969, 71 and 73, says he hates streaky glass and prides himself on doing a good job. He said: "If I hadn't won the world championship driving a racing car, I would have won it cleaning windows. I am very good at cleaning windows. I have good attention to detail and I don't like to see streaks.
"If I could not have done what I did, I would have bought a pail and a sponge or a squeegee and I would have built a business."
Sir Jackie says he was attracted to menial tasks after being branded "thick" at school in Dumbarton because he was dyslexic, though the problem was not identified until he was 41.He added: "I see myself as the President of the Menial Task Division because I can't do the clever things - I couldn't be a lawyer, a banker or a doctor." He said it would have been his dream to have a window cleaning empire, staffed by fellow dyslexics.

H.W. Foote & Co. celebrates 100 years of business: The company was started in 1909; so we are celebrating our 100th year in business. The original owner was my great-grandfather, Harvey Wallace. The first site was in downtown Boston. It was originally a commercial window cleaning company. Later, the company expanded to include a painting contracting business. In the mid-1950s, his son, my grandfather, had this building constructed and moved the painting contracting business here. Then, in the early 1960s, the retail paint store was added. My grandfather and I had a close relationship.

CORDIA, the company set up to manage Glasgow City Council's direct and care services, has been praised in a UK-wide technology award scheme for its development of Blackberry and its use in home care. The limited liablilty partnership, which has a staff of almost 9,000, was commended as a runner-up in the Mobile Product Of The Year category at the UK IT Industry Awards in London. Cordia's in-house software staff created eRouter, which is now used by home carers. The application provides them with all the information they need about the people they care for - which saves time and could save lives. Cordia is based in the centre of Glasgow and says it can provide services to organisations across the UK. It has an annual turnover of about £154million. Among the services it provides in Glasgow are meals at home to more than 900 elderly people. It also does building and window cleaning, janitorial services, and school crossing patrols.

Mr Jobling suffered an epileptic fit two days before his death. His partner Valerie Rendal spoke to him on the phone the following day and he was saying illogical things. She said the confusion could have been an aftermath effect of the seizure. The next morning, window cleaner Martin Boddy saw him jump out of the window. He said: “I was cleaning one of the panes. He came and said ‘hello’. Then he walked back about six paces and said ‘move out of the way’. He headbutted the window and went straight through. It was just a shock.” Mr Boddy climbed down his ladder and, along with another window cleaner and a neighbour, helped to cover Mr Jobling with a towel and called an ambulance.
John Paul Jobling died after he leapt through a second-floor window at flats in Steward Crescent, South Shields, on June 3 this year. The 49-year-old, known as Paul, was seen “headbutting” the glass and falling through the broken window. An inquest heard yesterday that a similar incident happened in February last year when Mr Jobling jumped out of a window and injured his collar bone. Mr Jobling’s family members told the hearing he had been having problems with neighbours who were allegedly causing trouble in the area.

Service Charges: Do you think the service charge imposed by your landlord is justified? The pressure is growing on the companies that own and manage more than 100,000 leasehold flats and houses which are designed for older residents. The companies that run them charge significant annual fees for maintenance, services, management, and repairs. And when the leaseholders sell their home there is an exit fee to pay. They start at 1% of the sale price, but other charges are added on top and they can be considerably more. The Office of Fair Trading is investigating these exit fees which it says could be unfair. One site, on which there are a further six similar properties, is owned and managed (external property maintenance, gardening, window cleaning, buildings insurance, emergency call facility) by a Housing Association.

Roberts struck when window cleaner Mr Bates pulled up in Perrymans Farm Road to collect a payment from Roberts' neighbour. The grandmother brandished a large black-handled bread knife and raced towards the hatchback which was also carrying Miss Cartey, of Dagenham. 'Miss Roberts lunged at Mr Bates through the open side window of the Vauxhall Corsa in which he was sitting, shouting abuse and threats at both of the vehicle's occupants,' said Mr Requena. Lynda Roberts, 54, lunged a bread knife at Paul Bates through the window of his Vauxhall Corsa as her daughter Natasha Cartey sat cowering inside. Roberts then tossed blade away before rearming herself with a carving knife. A jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court took less than two hours to convict Roberts of affray following a three-day trial.