I had no idea that such changes in the world could occur in just 20 years. I should have…. because in the 20 years before, things were just as different. At that time [1965] I was [oddly enough] an inspector in an automobile plant in the Midwest for more than a third of that 20.
After clocking out one day in 1973, I went looking and found another job. That day, I began another career. I went to work as a civilian carpenter at Fort Benjamin Harrison, the Army’s Finance Center. It was a temporary Civil Service job with a chance at a permanent position. I passed the Civil Service sub-journeyman’s exam, but 700 hours as a carpenter was long enough to decide that I would not be content punching another time clock even for the government. I didn’t take the permanent post.
I had decided that at 30 years young, a job as a carpenter in such a structured environment was too "grown-up" for me. Foolishly, I thought that I could do that kind of work when I couldn’t do anything else.
Working for a builder of apartments and nursing homes after that was a lot more rewarding to me then than inspecting automobile parts and climbing on slate roofs. I never looked back. A few years later amid the recession, apartment construction ceased; so did many other things including cheap gas.
I found work with a swimming pool builder but as inflation rose and interest rates soared, new pool construction ceased as well. On a Saturday in October, my employer and I finished a lap pool under the lights on the Purdue University campus . After shooting 44 yards of concrete through a 4 inch hose at 900 PSI, we were both spent. He paid me my wages and told me he would call in the Spring. By then the recession worsened and I never got the call.
Now some years later, I am blessed with a job in a metropolitan area where I can see so many beautiful homes and meet so many interesting people. Everybody knows Texas is a great place to live and has a lot of beautiful houses, but somehow Dallas unfairly gets most of the high praise. Tarrant County, Denton, Wise and Johnson Counties have some of the most beautiful homes and some of the prettiest scenery in the state.
Like most home inspectors, I’m all over the map. Earlier this year I went as far as Lucas, Texas for two of my friends but I mostly do inspections in Tarrant County.
Two-thousand-six has been a strange year for me. I’ve never been hired to inspect so many different types of properties for so many interesting clients in my 21 years of inspections. This year I was hired by California investors who seem to be buying up Texas properties like a modern-day California Land Rush.
I performed more commercial inspections this year than ever before, including a 14-story high-rise in downtown Dallas for one of those California investors. Condos in Fort Worth at the tornado-stricken-now-restored Bank One building, a condo on Turtle Creek in Dallas, and some apartment complexes in Fort Worth and Arlington.
This year I met a lot of Katrina victims and a few stranded by Hurricane Rita. Some were homeless with heart-wrenching stories; others just wanted a change of scenery and decided to stay in Texas. Some had their own means and resources; some needed government and private help. All of them were a pleasure to meet and serve.
I’ve had a web site for Arlington Property Services since 1996. Not for any particular reason but to occupy myself in the evenings and to publish my music. I never relied upon the World Wide Web for much more than the usual entertainment but this year has been different. Although I seldom book appointments through the Internet, I’ve received email from the other side of the globe as far away as Lithuania. I use the Internet extensively to send reports and post PDF files for my clients as far away as Venezuela.
These past two decades as a real estate inspector, I have met many real estate agents and their clients; their buyers, their sellers and sometimes their families and friends. I’ve had chance meetings with appraisers, surveyors, insurance agents, repairmen and decorators. I have inspected for plumbers, doctors and nurses, and more than a few veterinarians. I have met lottery winners, college students, and young married couples, motorcyclists, and a legendary race car driver and his gracious wife. I’ve been hired to inspect homes for current baseball players, former baseball players, former girlfriends of former baseball players, TV anchormen, radio newscasters, program directors and college professors. Teachers, coaches, principals and bus drivers, corporate CEO's, baseball GM's, engineers and lawyers and a legendary singer from the 40's; just to name a few.
I’ve also met some pretty contemptible people but had I not, I wouldn’t appreciate the others as much. I am a better judge of people and their character now as a result of these meetings and albeit brief acquaintances. I am a better judge of my own character now that I can reflect. I bought my first house when I was 21. That was over forty years ago. I was arrogant and cynical then; now I am just arrogant.
Doing the best job I can, performing a service for other people and getting paid for it has a way of neutralizing cynicism [but does little for the arrogant thing].
There are a lot of honest and good Americans. I have been hired by people buying homes for their elderly parents to be near them. Parents buying homes for their struggling daughters to help them get through a nasty divorce. Church members buying homes for flood victims until they can get back on their feet. It is good to be an American. It is good to be a Texan.
I am over 60 now and I find that getting old is highly under-rated. It's difficult to experience the rewards of maturity if we don't recognize them. We can't be young and wise at the same time; we can only be young and clever. Maturity comes with a price. Day by day we feel that we are spending those coins of our youth until they are gone. In reality, we are investing them.
Aging is not without reward. If I've learned anything, I have found that impatience is the penalty we pay for our youth, consequence is the price, and wisdom is our reward for living beyond and in spite of it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------Dave Padgett
