Find your passion: bullshite.

This will not be your typical political diatribe or some long winded complaint about the price of beer, or how school children now occupy seats in the Provincial Legislature because all of these things are things that will pass, mostly without long term meaning or significant impact.

Today is my 56th birthday and it's pretty much exactly the same kind of day that it is most years, except when I was seven and it snowed.  I'm being nostalgic for a life I have enjoyed, people I have loved, people I still love and people I don't even know yet who I will probably love in due course.

For those not familiar I have been an executive, was the 773rd person in history to have a seat in the Alberta  legislature and now, I am wearing Carhartt bid overalls and about to leave here to go build a small shed for a friend.  All of my adventures to date, including the statement "one more severance cheque and I can retire" are summed up in my preference for Carhartt's over button down collars and cuff links.

Smattering of grey, white and pink paint, will tell you stories of the work I do for those I care for. Broken finger nails and a hole in my sock speak to what's important. And it's not what I long thought it was.

My car is an old   Mercedes  ML320, I uses it like a truck. My truck is an older  GMC 3/4 ton that I also use like a truck.  I like trucks.  More to the point however, I like what trucks let me do, they let me haul quantities of things that I can skillfully assemble into something necessary.

I should have stayed in trade school, but who knew.  I confused legislative advocacy as being more important than weather-stripping a cold door  and assumed the executive role that determined the fate of so many would never back fire and determine my own.

Thank you.

When my house is sold and the legal sabre rattling of divorce is settled, I will be in Belize; I will build, I will inspect and I will fix. My tools are good, my talents are many and as long as I have both my tools and, more importantly, my talents I will carry on.

My tools were stolen recently, and during the process of replacement, I had a tough time finding things that fit well to my hand, and were  automatic extensions of me.  Tools are a very personal thing, this is why price is never an issue when buying a hammer for example. I still have and use my Dad's old 16 oz. Craftsman hammer, I also have a 22 oz. Estwing, a 16 oz. Estwing and a couple of others. I use Greenlee electricians tools for maintenance because they are just so comfortable, at $500.00 for a set of 21, they damn well better be.

Being an Advocate and an Executive have led me to the point where I have very good tools and now it is my life intention to use them.

Being by nature a minimalist, I allow myself the luxury of picking a few  good things, instead of random piles of crap:

• Purdy paint brushes, they ARE better than anything you get at the dollar store.
• Estwing hammers
• Makita cordless tools
• Milwaukee 12" mitre saw, the king of saws!
• Greenlee tool pouch
• Craftsman and Snap-On mechanical tools.
• Bose sound system
• Apple Ipad and phone

All of which nicely fit in heavy duty totes that stack in my truck, either one.

I don't care whether you consider my life a random collection of actions or not, I do know however that I will not be seduced by the "dark side" of so called achievement, fame or glory. I've had all those and, thank you very much, they have done little to improve my life more than being able to drive a 3 1/2" ardox nail into a board in one blow.

I don't know who said there is as much dignity in plowing a field as writing a poem but they were right. I think we are distracted by this nonsense called "your passion"  I think our passions are tarnished by our concerns about what other people will think of them. There is no calling that everyone will approve of and be so careful about picking what you love based solely on what you think it MIGHT be, it is more important to be clear minded about these things.

I'm not going to apologize for where I am today, what I have or don't have because in every interaction I realize now I am at best half responsible. Failure in love or work is never a completely one sided thing, it's best to forgive, remember and move on. 

If it all ends for me tomorrow, there will be those who are saddened, those who rejoice and those who don't give a shit. As tempting as it is to try and reconcile with each group, simply let it known that I am doing what I love and if I had been smarter I would have figured this out a long time ago.

Drive your truck, fix your sewer, make laws, advocate, help people die, help people live, help yourself live, whatever. Nike, despite their child labour indiscretions, were right:

Just do it.

 

Managing expectations in Belize

A recent Huffington Post report says the Red Cross has only managed to build six houses in Haiti since the earthquake in January 2010 and they have spent a half a BILLION dollars in donations doing so. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/04/red-cross-haiti-report_n_7511080.html (why the hyperlink isn't working I don't know)

If the story is to be believed, and it should not be entirely trusted, this reads like  gross mismanagement of a half a billion dollars but there is more to it than this I suspect.

If we start at the bottom and work our way up, security of tenure is the absolute foundation.  No NGO is going to build houses  on land that offers no security of tenure and it becomes especially problematic in places with a lot of poor people.  We can give them, tin, we can give them lumber and let people build their own, or we can solve the tenure issue and improve lives. 

This is not as easy as it sounds. Belize has a tenure system based on the Westminster model, that, like all things hundreds of years old, moves slowly. Too slow for the single Mom and her six kids who have no house.

The solution needs to be two pronged: Short term and immediate aid, which has already started and longer term security of tenure.

The economy of Belize is in crisis but even this needs to be kept in perspective: In a comparison between sovereign Canada and sovereign Belize two numbers stand out, and in the case of Belize, potentially offer hope.  I use the word sovereign, because the debt numbers I am using do NOT include, Canadian provincial or municipal debt. In Belize they do not have provinces, but do operate a district system with limited ability to borrow. To keep it level:

Belize

2015:

Population:                         351,700

Total debt:                          $1.2 Billion

Percentage of GDP:           75
Per capital debt:                 $3,639.00

Unemployment rate            10.1%
Per capital income              $8,500 bze (pegged 2-1 to the US dollar)

Canada

2015:

Population:                         36,000,000         

Total debt:                          $1.42 trillion

Percentage of GDP:           91.5

Per capita debt:                  $39,634.00
Unemployment rate            6.8%
Per capita income               $48,250 cdn (floating to the US dollar)

On the Surface it looks like Belize should be helping Canada out.  The challenge in a sovereign economy of  only 120,000 workers, is the amazingly low absolute upper limit on total dollars. This is true, whether we talk of government taxation or personal debt. In Canada, there is much more capacity and willingness to pay taxes and take on personal debt. The average Belizean worker has no such capacity.  The tiny place looks better on paper than Canada, but this is absolutely not true and when we deal with expectations this has to be front and center in the minds of those contributing to the recovery.

A sheet of plywood is $20.00 in Canada and takes the average worker an hour of his labour to pay for it. The plywood is also $20.00 in Belize and it will take the average worker NINE hours to earn enough to pay for it. 

That is the problem.

There are no good ways for people to replace their losses in Belize, no insurances, for the most part and a very limited capacity to respond by the government.  They are responding, and advising people to make good use of the materials they have at hand.

Hence the need for NGO's and foreign assistance.

The other issue, and a particularly troubling one from a housing perspective is the lack of skilled workers, this makes coordination very difficult indeed. 

Do we rebuild the houses where they were and worry about tenure later, or do we build in new places where we can offer tenure and raze the old? My preference is the latter, for those who's homes are beyond redemption, but for those who's homes can be repaired, they should be repaired and while we are at it, we should teach some skills.  I'm a carpenter by trade and I have a love affair with the techniques used in Belize. Imagine 1955, you needed a house or a garage you built one. It might not be square or level, but it's "good enough" and Belize is largely built around the "good enough" motto.

The approach should be:

Inspect it all and repair what can be repaired, local labour and material where at all possible. Do not fall prey to the notion that the home needs to be brought up to the current building code, just fix it so it's liveable, get people indoors don't worry about tenure.

Build new as can be funded, be it Habitat for Humanity, Rotary or the Red Cross as funder. New builds will require tenure, once the new is built, assign the housing to those in need. Make they pay something for it, be it time building or a stipend rent. A simple Mennonite style house, perhaps 20' x 24' could be built for $10-15,000.00 usd. This isn't a granite countertop McMansion I'm talking here, it's safe, dry shelter.

We could do a lot of good if we had about a hundred million dollars for this, the employment as well as the improved conditions will require serious commitment and coordination. It's all doable and will produce results, unlike the American Red Cross and Haiti which has managed to build less than six houses in seven years.

What about the poor? Hurricanes are indiscriminate

I like to use a little poetic licence in my writing, the odd quip, pun or witty remark. This blog will have none of that for I wish to address, a more serious and underreported subject: How did the poor fair in all this?  I think to make my point most effectively I need to take off my lens of political correctness, because honestly, most of the poor in Belize had nothing before hurricane Earl took it all away and they still have nothing, some maybe a little less than nothing.

The Cayes, Placentia and parts of the Cayo are playgrounds for Ex-Pats. The poor in Belize are lucky enough to have a roof, whether it is a gable or hip is quite secondary, they aren't the people who live ocean front, unless it's in a mangrove swamp, they are the people who clean your house, rake your gravel, wash your clothes and live at least three blocks away, in  conditions  nothing short of appalling:

A mother and six children lived in the house in the background, they got out unhurt, when their house started to collapse from the forces of nature. A woman, raising six kids in Canada would have little disposable income, in Belize she has none is probably lucky to afford school fees for two or three of them. Squalor doesn't have to go with the scenery, how is she going to fix her house?

Imagine sitting in this house when the roof and the walls vanished, what little you owned  was suddenly wet, or  gone? There is no home inspection solution for this situation, there is no single or multiple failed component here, a tent would have been as durable.

Having a house is only good if you can get to it, In this case, the structure appears to have survived but the area is now so littered with debris and broken that it is not safe at all. Every kid in Belize is barefoot, let's hope tetanus shots are available.

At least the evacuation route is clearly marked, by the looks of the house in the background they tried very hard to protect what they had, it does not appear to have been successful for what the wind did not take off the top of the building, flood water is going to take from the bottom.

We will persevere friends, there will always be poor folks in Belize and help will come where it can and for the most part will be appreciated. The best thing the average home or business owner can do right now, is hire and pay local people to clean up your mess so they have some money to deal with their own.

In my home country, Canada, we have similar conditions on some of our first nations reserves, the big difference, is there is no social safety net in Belize, everything is very personal and for this we should be eternally grateful, because the lady with six kids will get a house, if I have to harass my Canadian friends in Rotary International to NOT build a playground and instead build something that helps one family, I will.

The ex-pats will pay me for my services and I am happy to oblige, but we cannot forget that the country runs, not on the cold beer on the beach, but on the efforts and commitment of the people who live in conditions we cannot imagine and for the most part, do not wish to see.

Help out, all kindness, like politics is local

Doug Elniski

BestHomes Inspection Limited

Belize CA

An examination of damage from Hurricane Earl in Belize

I love social media, I saw pictures of the consequences of Earl, virtually as it was happening. In examining the images, taken by the brave souls in the eye of the storm, literally. I thought it apt to make some observations about prevention measures that could be taken to alleviate some of the carnage.

First of all:
What is a hurricane? Hurricane standards are measured against the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale and are broken into five broad categories based on wind speed and storm surge.

Category 1:     Wind 74-95 mph,                          storm surge 4-5 feet

Category 2:     Wind 96-110 mph,                        storm surge 6-8 feet 

Category 3:     Wind 111-130 mph,                      storm surge 9-12 feet

Category 4:     Wind 131-155 mph,                      storm surge 13-18 feet

Category 5:     Wind over 155 mph,                     storm surge over 18 feet

Hurricane Katrina was a five when it hit New Orleans in 2005, Earl was a one when it hit last night.

According to definition: A category one hurricane will cause: Damage to shrubs, trees, unanchored mobile homes, and flooding of coastal roads  A category five hurricane is generally considered the fist of God hammering down on you, not much survives.

Earl was a category one hurricane, yet when it made landfall yesterday it did damage that might be better described as a category 3 hurricane: "Structural damage to small residences and utility buildings, large trees blown down, mobile structures destroyed." 

What does it mean if a category one storm does the damage of a category three storm?

It means you are in serous trouble if another bigger blow comes along. 

I will  examine some of the damage we witnessed and comment on possible remediation strategies: Rather than assume the people of Belize have unlimited budgets and they don't, I am going to start with some small steps that can be taken and would likely pay off.

Lets start with this house:  Pretty typical Belize house, concrete block walls stood up well, gable roof however did not. It appears the roof was not adequately attached to the wall structure:  Solution $50.00 worth of hurricane ties on the rafters.

If you look at the green and white building you will see what's left of the gable roof. The building itself was adequately protected with plywood on the windows, which likely saved it from further damage, but a gable roof has about a 70% greater likelihood of blowing off from  than a hip roof; when repaired, the owner should install a hip roof even though it costs a bit more. Right now the people who live on the second floor are homeless. This picture and most of the ones that follow are from San Pedro on Ambergris Caye.

Note the stark contract between the last picture and these two buildings on the same beach: A hip roof WILL survive a class one hurricane. As these are very simple and somewhat traditional thatch roof installations, likely over a frame structure, this building is very easy and inexpensive to restore. Most of the damage to this structure appears to be from the storm surge and debris hitting the stairs, as the building appears to be concrete, damage is slight. and with minor repair immediately habitable.

A less robust thatch roof, likely lacking a strong rafter frame, it is so far gone we cannot tell what the original roof design was, none the less, a hip roof should be built. The building was well protected from the storm surge by being stilted.

This hip roof thatch ocean front home survived very well. Little damage is evident.

This building was well protected with plywood on the windows, aside from considerable debris, all of which has the potential to be a projectile, the gable is small and the roof held up well, it appears to be either a standing seam roof with hidden fasteners or a clay tile roof, based on the colour I'm guessing standing seam steel.

Random penetration and virtually total failure of the front of the house.

The owner indicated  that this was a new roof installation, it would appear the excessive unsupported overhang at the bottom contributed to the sheet metal roof failure. As this buildings gables are framed with lap siding, they offered sufficient rigidity to protect the structure, despite their size. The rafters of this frame building are also obviously well nailed to the walls.  Had the bottom of the sheets of tin been supported this building could have easily escaped unscathed.

If there was ever an argument in favour of a hip roof, this is it, the little building  has been completely displaced from it's foundation yet the roof  is intact, which might be small comfort to the owner, but a good lesson for others.

Note the piles of projectiles, during the blow this stuff is either flying around or moving around in the storm surge, all of it represents failure in construction and primarily a lack of structural integrity. It appears there is signage as well as some railings in the front view. That stuff hits you, it's gonna hurt.

Gable roof, total failure, probably would have anyway, looks like "three little pigs" house number two.

We could call this Pier Pressure.  The damage to these structures is as a result of the storm surge waves building up under the pier and lifting sections out. In design, consideration needs to be given to building failure in by reducing the number of fasteners or physically removing every third dock board at the first indication of a storm.  Give the water an easy way out and it will take it. The boat in the second picture is an amazingly rusty old tub that has been moored in Placentia as long as I can remember, since it didn't sink, I think I will buy it. There used to be a diver shop in the foreground.

All that pier lumber moved around by the ocean had to go someplace, it appears to have penetrated this building in several places. This wood frame on concrete pilings building is decidedly out of square as a result of the blow. I've been in this bar, it wasn't wobbly before, even if I thought it was by the time I left.

The hip roof dive shop looks in pretty good shape, hard to tell since the lack of surge provision on the piers virtually made it an island unto itself.

Idyllic scene, until you turn around.

The successes can be as interesting as failures. This building did everything it was supposded to do very well, good quality construction and adequate storm shutters.

This is what they call a Mennonite house; the Mennonites build these cute little bungalows ands set them on stilts both for flooding and to get a cooling breeze underneath, unfortunately, this one suffered damage before it was even finished.  Because it was damaged on the gable end, it is likely this is a wind pressure failure. Note the stain pattern for the walls, you can see the force the wind took as it pushed against the gable. When I move to Belize I will live in a house made of sea cans on stilts.

This is San Ignacio town, this particular spot is about 20 feet above the normal level of the Macal river, the combined impact of being near the bottom a slope, inadequate drains the water having no way to escape.  The structures themselves are probably going to be ok, I sure hope so because that pharmacy sells OTC generic Viagra for $5.00 Bze. a pill, "I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day" or so I heard.

This is the San Ignacio market, it is at the bottom of a series of impressive hills and is about 12 feet above the river. The bridge into town is about five feet lower than this location which suggests it was impassable. There is another bridge of greater elevation that should be ok for access.

San Ignacio, is the most westerly town in Belize, it is located in a valley between the Maya mountains and the Yalbac hills, (more or less). The Mopan and Macal rivers meet just north of town to form the Belize river, which eventually becomes a navigable transportation route. Upstream on the Macal are two major dams designed for both power generation and flood mitigation. an unprecedented twelve inches of rain fell, raising both  reservoirs to flood level.  A lack of adequate drainage in town, if such a thing could credibly exist, contributed to the flooding by pushing the water through the town center.

Like a fire scene or a head wound, the situation often looks much worse than it is, but still this is  fair warning of the power of a class one hurricane.

When you decide to come here to live or buy a vacation rental, look long and hard about what your weaknesses are in the case of a storm.

Better yet, get your purchase inspected, by me!

Thanks to my friend Kate Corrigan and Macarena Rose of Keller Williams  Real Estate and those great souls at LOVE FM, for the pictures. If I happened to have used yours from Facebook, please let me know and I will include you in the credits. 

Let the rebuild begin.

And this was "only" a CLASS ONE hurricane

My recent post about protecting yourself from wind damage is eerily timely given Hurricane Earl made landfall in Belize last night. Images from the Cayes as well as the mainland show very clearly the devastation, god I hate to say this,  a relatively minor hurricane does to the unprotected.  Nature will always win my friends, the choices are either complacency or preparation, there is no middle ground when it comes to protecting assets.

The  National Emergency Management Organization, (NEMO) did a great job preparing the country. LOVE FM, probably the worlds best radio station, was the energizer bunny of keeping people informed about what was going on while it was happening.

Parts of Belize City were under five feet of water, looting started and was quickly brought under control by the National Defense Forces, overall no lives were lost, property can be rebuilt and an already troubled economy will take yet  another hit.

Storm surges and projectiles are the two deadlies in hurricanes themselves.  We are seeing wide spread flooding throughout the country and hopefully we continue without loss of life, all of the  dams are at flood level, the water has to go someplace, the coastal regions are in for a second shock. Flooding.

Floods bring with them uncontrolled septic release, unpredictable water flows and after it dries up, mud, mould and decay.  

It's not a pretty sight on San Pedro this morning, again this was  ONLY  a class one hurricane with sustained winds of 75 miles an hour, it was NOT a major hurricane by any stretch of the imagination.  Newer properties faired better, it is a reminder that when you live in paradise you do make yourself vulnerable  to Mother Nature.

God Bless Belize, still the Jewel.

Protection strategies: how to keep your dream home from blowing away.

Belize does not have a lot of fires, but when they do, it tends  to be devastating:  in San Pedro, an entire city block was lost recently,  displacing twenty businesses and two hundred residents. This fire highlighted numerous weaknesses in the local  fire protection strategies. Indeed much of the fire fighting was provided by local residents forming a bucket brigade. You'd think that living on a island, less than 1,000 feet from the ocean, getting  water  to the fire should not be an issue,  it was.  

The message in this for home buyers in Belize is that prevention and protection are key in ensuring your home survives when municipal services cannot provide adequate protection, and most of the time they can't.  The level of standards enforcement you might expect in Canada does not exist in the Caribbean, as a buyer you need to be much more diligent to ensure you are getting what you need.

More devastating even  than fire is wind:  Belize is a hurricane prone country and is on par with  South Florida. In 1992 hurricane Andrew  made landfall in Miami Dade County as the strongest hurricane in US history,  it did an estimated 26.5 billion dollars in property damage.  Hurricane Hattie struck Belize in 1961 and virtually wiped out the capital Belize City.  After Hattie, the capital city was relocated inland to Belmopan which is approximately forty miles from the ocean.  Fires strike without warning, hurricanes are monitored and warning systems are in place, still, property damage is significant in both. Strategies to stay safe and limited damage are key.

After hurricane Andrew, the building codes in Florida were substantially modified to include serious wind mitigation strategies. These strategies have proven themselves  worth including in any new construction in severe wind locations.  People who own vacation properties can be forgiven for not thinking about hurricane mitigation strategies; the beer is cold, the sun is hot and the clothes are, ideally, skimpy at best. Yet, there is nothing worse than learning you lost your favorite flip flops and roof in a hurricane while you are defrosting your windshield in Edmonton. When hurricane  Blanca hit Cabo San Lucas, Mexico  in 2015, a number of my friends   had sustained severe damage to their homes, and the locals had, in many cases, lost everything. Ex-pat relief efforts, both formal and informal are helping put Cabo back together.

A serious examination of the risks you face when buying property in hurricane zones is key to staying sane. It should come as no surprise that the single largest cause of damage in Cabo San Lucas was the lack of integrity of patio doors. Those glorious expanses of glass where either blown off their tracks or broken by projectiles. Once the windows go, the increased air pressure in the home can cause total structural failure. It does not matter what floor you live on.

Simple strategies:

• Remove projectiles when you aren't home or at least  secure furniture, plant pots and the like.
• Install easy to operate hurricane shutters.

• Ensure all doors and windows are hurricane rated and  made of impact resistant glass.
• Burglar bars may not look attractive, but they will keep most projectiles, like tree limbs and furniture from breaking the glass.

More complex strategies:

• Avoid gable roof construction,
• Look for  tie downs that fasten the roof framing to the walls.
• Carefully evaluate wood frame construction in coast areas.
• Make sure that garage doors  have wind resistant bracing and a hurricane rating.
• Use the Dade county Florida building code as your guide.

All this costs money, history serves a lot of good lessons here. The Ancient Mayan civilization was, if nothing else, a civilization of builders. Kings were constantly changing temples, adding stones to cover last years stone work and a thousand years later a lot of it is still in pretty good shape. It was perhaps Mayan slaves who discovered that burning limestone, mixing it with sand and making a paste of it was pretty good  for smoothing out the gaps between big stones.  Their work stands as a testament as there no recorded insurance losses payable against ancient Mayan temples.

The Mayans who weren't kings often lived in very humble, structures,  either mud wattle huts or the more common thatch playa, which is really just a bamboo hut lashed together with vines and covered with vertical sticks. Not fancy, they were ideal for the climate and if the wind took them, rebuilding was pretty straight forward.  Neither option, however, serves the big screen TV owning scotch drinker very well.

Somewhere in between invincible and disposable are  our homes.  When you live in a compromise property, and you do, you need to protect it to a reasonable standard. Experts, such as those who write the  building code  should be heeded.

On new construction  it is wise to ask very specific questions to the builder about wind mitigation strategies: This is applicable any place that can be subject to strong winds which is really everywhere, Belize is more interesting to contemplate because the climate is nicer than  say, Lethbridge, but it's all really the same.

The whole reason for a  building is to keep the weather where it belongs, outside. Were this not the case, we would likely all live in tents.  In keeping the weather outside, think about how the weather will try and get in and what kind of damage it will do once if it there.  In Edmonton the only thing that keeps you from freezing to death is the furnace and a 1/4 inch thick piece of glass.

In Belize its more of a "where did I put the sunscreen" problem,  but a problem none the less.

You won't freeze to death in the tropics, and undressing for the heat is a lot more fun than dressing for the cold but giving proper consideration to the forces of nature will give you an edge in having your investment survive an onslaught.  

Better yet, have your investment inspected by someone certified in wind mitigation, in Belize, that would be me.

Give a guy a hammer and he thinks he's a carpenter, give him a screwdriver and he thinks he's an eletrician. Which is why people should hire things done professionally

There was a time when people built their own homes, construction occurred with the owners own labour and shared knowledge of friends and family. Today we leave construction to the professionals and chose instead to invest our time paying the mortgage on the place.  It's easier to be a lawyer or company executive and buy what you want than it is to go build it yourself,  people no longer know how to build things.

As Henry David Thoreau said "the joy of building has been left to the carpenters."  As much respect as I have for lawyers, I can't imagine being one as the tedium would kill me. Legal briefs are an oxymoron.  I can  get my head around the construction business.

At the end of the work  day, the Carpenter or the Electrician look at  what  wasn't there yesterday and say "fuckin right I built that", and they probably say that out loud that every time they drive by for years after. I don't know many lawyers who say "fuckin right, I nailed that real estate closing" or think "cool, my shit is in there" every time they drive by the land titles office.  Maybe they do think like that, but I kind of doubt it.

My passion of house inspection, particularly in Belize  is all about helping the lawyers, doctors and retired civil servants get a good place where they can live or recreate.  The average Belizean might also use my service, but it'll be a while before that market matures.  

Everyone deserves a safe place to live, not everyone gets  a beachfront condo in San Pedro, but I am not going to discriminate against people just because they have money. The fees the beach front people pay me will help the people on the third street back from the beach, likely your house and grounds keeper, have safe places too.

A safe place might mean not having bad wiring, or the house collapsing from rot. It might mean asking the service and church people to do more than painting on their mission trips.  It will  mean training local people to understand  structures and teach them to inspect their own.

"Give a guy a hammer and he thinks he's a carpenter, give him a screw driver and he thinks he's an electrician"  This is true: most of the bad things that happen to buildings are not done by the pro's,  it's  amateurs who think they are pro's.

I used to cringe at  do it yourself deck construction until I started to see well intentioned people do their own electrical work.  This can kill you, in Belize or at home.

In  Alberta it is still possible for an owner to take out a permit to do alterations to their home. The work is subject to inspection and must be up to code. The problem begins when people do not get permits and don't know what they are doing.  For example: if  I tell you the neutral and the ground can only be bonded in the main disconnect would you be able to show me:

1) the main disconnect (not your grounds for divorce, no)

2) The ground (not at your feet)

3) The neutral (not  the Swiss)

4) The  bus bar  (a great way for public transit to increase ridership)

5) the sub-panel.  (which better NOT be underwater)

If you are standing in the shower and plug your blow dryer into a three prong outlet that has a false ground, what is the likely outcome?
1) Wet hair
2) A weird power surge like in a Frankenstein movie?
3) A paramedic named Igor shouting "He's alive, He's alive" 

Speaking of which, if they shock you with electricity to start your heart, why does getting shocked with electricity stop it?

The hardest thing to kill yourself with at home is the plumbing; that or soft fruit. 

Electricity, structural failure and natural gas all rank higher than a plugged toilet in the likelihood of death department. However, plumbing definitely has the highest ick potential of all the trades, especially when  combined with soft fruit.  Nobody wants to come home to a basement full of floating turds, be they your own or someone else's. Nor does someone want to see the dishwasher spouting a geyser across the kitchen. 

Electric hot water tanks can be quite dangerous if they are empty and the power is on; they can explode and ruin your whole night (ask someone's brother about that), more likely  they just stop working and your shower will be cold in the morning. You will be grumpy and your wife will be mad because she married an idiot who can't fix a hot water heater.

It's  incorrect to call them hot water heaters because what they actually heat is cold water, this is the kind of technical stuff it takes years to master, it's on the final exam.

Off to your law firm you go;  you ask your paralegal, who seems pretty handy, to get someone over to your house to fix the hot water heater so your wife can stop bitching about it.  Your paralegal, you can't call her a secretary anymore as it's against company policy, says the cheapest guy wants $1,800 and can't do it until Thursday. At this point your wife calls to see if you are still incompetent and says that she knows a "guy" who can do it. Now why your wife would know a "guy" is itself curious, but you say ok and make a diary entry that will likely interfere with your 2080 billable hours target, to be at home when her "guy" comes to replaces the hot water heater.

Her "guy"  shows up the next morning with a couple of wrenches, but no truck or hot water heater.  The first step he says is to take out the old hot water heater, you realize that the "guy" isn't that bright after he asks you to help him carry it up the stairs and forgets to drain it. (ask someone's brother in law about that)  Now with a hernia because a full tank weights 400 pounds, he asks if the seats fold down in your Audi A6 because we need to run to Home Depot and grab the new tank and some fittings.  He picks a new water heater, a nice white one, and 300 dollars worth of greasy black iron fittings that burst from the bag all over your beige leather the minute he slams the back door.  As you drive away from Home Depot the heater shifts and squeezes the tubes of pipe dope  onto the carpet.
 
Eventually you get home and six billable hours later he still has not got it hooked up, after three more trips to different Home Depots to find a 5/8"  frammis nozzle, you realize the "guy" might not have a  clue and you feel much better about your life because if your wife is dumb enough to sleep with him, you are going to get a divorce and buy  a condo on the beach in Belize, which you will have professionally maintained by others.

As you enjoy the first shower with your new tank, you wife hollers  that the down stairs toilet is overflowing.

24 billable hours later, you get up to go to work, realizing you could have showered at the gym and had the water heater replaced professionally, and with that the basement rumbles and  goes boom because the "guy" neglected to install a T&P valve. Or so said the real plumber you hired to fix the other "guys" work.

Total cost, including lost wages, car detailing and minor surgery: $8,000.00.  Actual cost after the dust settles on the divorce: priceless.

It is said  a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. It should also be said that just because you own a screw driver does not make you an  electrician. Hire a pro, it's way cheaper in the long run, divorce can be expensive. 

Tomorrows topic:  Why YouTube videos are not the best place to learn to fix things.