Update again:
My friend is doing much better and has returned to work. He got a promotion and was awarded $200 by Autozone because he stayed after work for two hours after closing to help some customers who were in a bind. They sent a long e-mail to corporate and he got a personal thank you (along with a certificate of appreciation and the $) from the president of the company. His left hand is still weaker, but he has more mobility and has been working on his new truck (a 1995 GMC Sierra 1500).
Meanwhile, the new year started off with a bang-- as in a loud crash of my 300-year-old water oak tree falling over and nailing the corner of the roof of the porch, the car port, a fence/gate next to the house and both of our vehicles. They were totaled. Less than two weeks later I was driving in the rental and someone ran a red light and took the front off of the rental and spun it around. No broken bones or cuts, but the seatbelt did a number on my innards and the doctor said it might take 8 weeks to recover. I've been up to my eyeballs in phone calls with insurance companies, rental companies, car dealers, and all that fun stuff. Long story short, I ended up with a second rental vehicle from a different company (since the first one wouldn't let me rent another despite the fact that I was not at fault). That worked out ok though, because Enterprise had a rental place on the auto dealer's lot where we bought our new truck. A 2013 Honda Ridgeline RTL. I'm calling it Ridgey for short. It's not the prettiest vehicle, but it has a trunk in the truck bed, enough space for Mom's walker in the back seat (it's a 4-door crew cab), heated seats, GPS navigation, and a backup camera.
The painkillers I was given don't do jack since genetically I have a high resistance to pain meds and anesthetics. Sitting up, bending over, and moving around too much are no fun. So I've been reclining and playing with google sketchup on my computer.
I am trying to figure out how to get sketchup to let me have better control of angles and sizes when doing the plumbing parts, but it is slow-going and I still need to learn how to use more of the features.
For now, I made some mockups of the current and proposed ideas for the bathroom. I figured I would bump the lavatory out 3" from the side wall to allow elbow clearance and I will put a little shelf on the side to keep stuff from falling. I am considering getting some drawer sliders and making a very slim tall drawer to store bathroom supplies. Because the wall behind the lavatory is an exterior one, I want to bump the lavatory forward a few inches (but I forgot to do that in the diagram and it wouldn't let me move the sucker when I attempted it in sketchup-- I might try again later). That would allow the water supply lines to come up behind the lavatory without having to cut in to the drawer at the bottom-- it would also let me put a little shelf behind it. I would get either a surface-mount medicine cabinet to go above, or try to make one myself.
Since the existing doorway is approximately 34.5" wide, I could probably get a 32" door. I'm still undecided about the swing for it. I don't know if I should move the light switch that is on the right after walking through the doorway and have it on the left when people walk in, or have the door open outward instead of in.
Here is a view with the bedroom wall hidden but bathroom wall up to give an idea of how cramped this is. The hallway is less than 35" wide.
(ignore the lines on the floor, I forgot to delete them after creating the floor) Walls are a thin cheap plywood wood-look paneling but I was lazy and just used orange. Note the tubes in the bottom right. The smaller ones are water supply-- but they are on shutoffs and are capped at the top. The middle one is the drain that is also capped-- but it is not properly hooked to the sewer system. I think it instead goes into a buried french drain.
Bathroom wall hidden, but showing cramped shower
Bathroom and shower walls down. I was too lazy to put in the recessed medicine cabinet above where the lavatory should be- it fell off the wall years ago and left broken pipes and water supplies that are shut off. There is also a small cabinet above the toilet that I was too lazy to put in. I also forgot to put in the light switch for the laundry room. Oh, and the crappy light above the medicine cabinet. I was too lazy to make that. It is hard wired and has a 2-prong plug on it.
Here is my proposed version:
It would have a 30"x60" shower tub, curved double shower rod (so one bar can serve as a towel bar), euro style vanity, surface-mount medicine cabinet, plumbing for washing machine (not shown) would be about where plumbing for original defunct lavatory was-- but bumped over into the wall, dryer would now have direct route for vent out of the house, waterlines for washer could be bumped over to serve the shower/tub, I put a GFCI outlet near the vanity, and I could put the ceiling fan from old laundry room in new laundry room and put a vent/fan/light in the new bathroom and maybe re-use the same face plates and some of the wires (biggest issue would be the ductwork for the bathroom vent).
I should note that the sketch has nicer flooring than is currently there. The sheet vinyl is all torn up and the floor is some sort of old plywood or something. The current laundry room floor is all torn up.
(continued because I think threads only allow 4 pictures per, but I can't recall).