If I am camping with friends, what can be comfortable in the woods doesn’t seem the same back at home. Once the basic shelter needs are met, creature comforts and decorating style seems to take over and often it simply depends upon individual taste matched with discretionary income.
The interior of a structure is completely familiar with everyone. But just from experience, we can become used to something and completely overlook it as an item not working properly. A bedroom door that doesn’t latch and you may never use it because the kid moved out ten years ago. Or that shuttered bedroom window behind the headboard has not been opened for a decade and you do not care. This is natural and so common.
If you are looking at a property or a potential buyer is looking at your property, some people’s internal antennae are at an all-time high for the slightest squeak or pencil mark on the walls. Now the industry joke is that those types of buyers actually believe the TV show saying they can purchase a house with no money down in Cuba or Venezuela and actually believe they can do that in coastal communities in California, Florida and Rhode Island where $2,000,000 won’t buy the empty lot. But snake-oil salesmen have always existed.
Getting to the real life situations for most people, the Interior headings for the structure on this site will be divided into quite a few areas. Some topics with more details and items to be aware of than other topics. As boring as they sound, here’s the list:
Doors, Exterior Doors, Floors, Windows, Walls, Ceilings, Ceiling Fans, Closets and Cabinets and more. And for the categories not found in every home, we could think of no better title than, “Miscellaneous Interior Features”. Yep, the Wet Bar, Elevator, Dumb Waiter, etc.
Continuing along the train of thought of things maybe not operating properly or working as they once did when new, there are so many safety factors as a house has a hundred different features and all of them can cause injury either minor or serious as well as death.
Everyone knows, accidents happen. Accidents causing a scratch to a serious injury and even death. Following Building codes is important and along with supervision or caution are just as important.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) staff is supporting voluntary standards activities to review performance requirements for free standing ranges (kitchen stoves) to address stability. Panel (STP) activities for UL 858, Household Electric Ranges for electric ranges and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Standard for Household Indoor Cooking Gas Appliances (ANSI Z21.1) for gas ranges. From 1980 through 2008, CPSC staff is aware of 38 fatalities associated with range tip-overs. (IN 48 YEARS). Yes, a code and rule….. but more important that what a Politician wrote in the State Capital, you should also watch out for meteorites!
The 2024 worldwide total of 47 confirmed unprovoked shark attack cases is in line with the most recent five-year (2019-2023) average of 64 incidents annually. There were 7 confirmed shark-related fatalities last year in the United States, four of which are assigned as unprovoked. This number is in line with the five-year annual global average of six unprovoked fatalities per year.
During 2011–2021, a total of 788 deaths from hornet, wasp, and bee stings occurred (an average of 72 deaths per year) in the U.S. The annual number of deaths ranged from 59 (2012) to 89 (2017). Overall, 84% of deaths occurred among males.
In the United States, there are approximately 1000 deaths per year, as a result of electrical injuries, electrocution. Of these, approximately 400 are due to high-voltage electrical injuries, and lightning causes 50 to 300. There are also at least 30,000 shock incidents per year that are non-
fatal. Jan 20, 2025 National Institutes of Health (NIH) | (•gov)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov > books > NBK448087
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were an average of 3,536 pool-related drowning deaths per year in the United States from 2005 to 2014. This translates to approximately 10 deaths per day.
One of the most significant findings in the bathroom report is that children under five years old, while comprising only 8.5 percent of the total U.S. population, account for almost 30 percent of the 110,000 annual bathtub and shower-related accidents. Slips and falls in bathtubs and showers were found to be the most frequent type of accident. Burns from scalding water were less common, but generally much more serious, resulting in over 70 deaths each year. In addition, over 100 people drown every year in bathtubs.
While the number of traffic fatalities is significant, it’s worth noting that there has been a recent trend of decreasing fatalities. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (gov) projects that 39,345 people died in traffic crashes in 2024, a decrease of about 3.8% compared to 2023.
Key Points:
- 2021: 42,939 deaths
2022: 42,514 deaths
2023: 40,901 deaths
2024: 39,345 deaths
Keep everything in perspective when looking at a property. Every year injuries happen at the 4th of July. They are all called, “Accidents”.
Ceiling Fans
A comfortable addition to a warm room. When someone invented the ceiling fan that operated on electricity instead of slaves...
Ceilings
Looking up at the ceiling sometimes startles a person when they see cracks. Is the house going to fall in...
Closets and Cabinets
Closets are not very confusing. Today there are multitudes of options that can be squeezed into closets for storage or...
Doorbells
There are not too many confusing areas about doorbells. About the only confusing thing people ask is why does the...
Doors
Our modern houses have entry doors that are plain and some that are attractive. Few properties have to worry about...
Exterior Doors
You already know what a door is. These have changed over the years from stopping Vikings from entering your happy...
Floors
Flooring on concrete slab and flooring on raised foundations and second stories respond differently to the installation. For one thing,...
Interior Stairs
I did slide down a bannister as a youth for fun. We could do that on Christmas morning also because...
Smoke and C/O Detectors
When you think about smoke and fires, they can be disastrous to the structure and emotionally heart breaking from the...
Walls
Once you have the house all nicely painted inside, isn’t it irritating for cracks to show up? Every house gets...
Windows
Fresh air is what the Doctor ordered. In 1860 he may also have said, “Go west, young man.” In England,...