Improper plumbing & trying to remodel bathroom/laundry

I still haven't gotten around to finishing this as I've had other things to contend with. I had to fix a leaking pipe out back-- it was leaking from the bottom of the shutoff valve. So I replaced that and put a new faucet on (since the old one had broken off).

Then I had to contend with the toilet in Mom's bathroom because it wasn't shutting off. I found a video on how to take apart the flush valve assembly (I'd forgotten since last time). I scraped my knuckles again while pulling the hose off.

We have so much sediment that its really nasty inside the tank:


I pulled the filter out and it was really disgusting. It had some sort of blue crud that was like flakes of plastic. Not sure WTF it is or how it got in there-- unless it was on those stupid snake oil magnetic things my mother put in there because she got them from a catalog that said they would reduce the sediment in the water....


I scrubbed that sucker with a toothbrush. The next pic is from before I fully scrubbed it-- I took the time to really clear out the pockets and such, but I forgot to get a picture after and I'm not taking that thing apart to get a picture.


My mother was all saying "I don't want you to fix that one! I want you to replace it" and I really really did not want to have to get on the floor and try to get to the bottom of the tank to remove the water supply and mess with all that crap. I told her to let me at least see if it would work and it did! Woohoo!

Btw, the rubber grippy pad thingies are awesome. I forgot to get a picture of one... But they are great for removing lids or pulling out filters.

Edit: just realized the rubber grippy thing (or part of it) can be seen off to the left in this pic:

So what's at the top of your prioritized list?

slownsteady said:

So what's at the top of your prioritized list?

Click to expand...

Good question. I need to make a prioritized list. There is just so much to do its overwhelming.

I'm such a procrastinator and I'm mad at myself about it, but I know I need to find motivation and stay motivated. I also have to keep taking care of other stuff that arises-- like stuff Doofusaurus is supposed to do.

The toilet running and the broken pipe were urgent things that needed to be fixed because they were going to damage the water pump if I didn't fix them.

I'm debating whether this takes precedence, or clearing my brother's garbage and laundry out of the hallway to the laundryroom so we can get the dryer serviced-- because I now can't even do my laundry because I can't get back there (although, my brother really should be responsible for cleaning that up, but I know he won't so I will have to do it).

I am going to hold my tongue.........

we need to get your bro married off and out of the house.

i it was me, I would clean the house up. top to bottom. throw everything into his bed room.

years ago, i was working oil field, i worked 12 to 14 hour days 6 days a week..do not even think about taking a day off!!!!!

so, all my meals, i ate on the job.

had some shorty shacked up with me.

I came home to a sink full of dirty dish's...I just boxed everything up.threw it in the dumpster

problem solved.

when she protested. I told her to box her stuff up. or throw it out the window

her choice..but i am not living like that

as i was putting her stuff in the truck,,,,my next ex was watching from across the road. smiling


anyway, back on your brother...STOP!!!!!! PICKING UP AFTER HIS LAZY AZZ!!!!

he will NEVER pick anything up if you do it for him.

kick his chit out of the hall into his room.

dirty dish's...if it was me, they would be under his blanket, ontop of his pillow

you said he has COPD? SO what? i have copd. I pick up after my self

do yard work, house wrk, my work, their work..

he is using it as an excuse.

rant over!!!!!!

Yeah, the reason the house is so bad is because I stopped picking up after him for the most part. The only reason I still do any of it is for safety reasons. Mom has nearly fallen down because of the trash he left on the floor. I have also slipped and hurt my back because of cheese wrappers he just left on the floor. I have to keep certain walkways clear.

I have thought about dumping stuff in his room, but I'm sure he would retaliate-- and he'd probably break something important in retaliation. He once dumped nasty leaking trash on the carpet in front of my bedroom door because he was mad about something.

The good news is, he just got a job (even if its only part-time and minimum wage). He found out that there is a place that charges only $99 per month rent (including gas and water) for people in a certain income bracket. If he can make enough $ he might be able to get one of those apartments. Then I can laugh at him when he sees the electric bill. He wants to get a car (which he'll need to get to work) but he has no idea how expensive gas and insurance are.

If only I could find him a nice Asian girl who loves to clean and doesn't mind being the breadwinner for the family....

He's been making excuses long before he knew he had COPD-- most of his excuses were that he just didn't feel like doing things. I'm beyond frustrated with the situation, but I'm hoping that he'll actually be able to move out. I used to think I wouldn't want him to move out until he was gone for almost a month and it was so much nicer. I'll just have to figure out how to do more of the cooking since my mother won't.

I'm going to have to go outside when the sun comes up to see if I can figure out what the loud crash was that woke me up and scared the crap out of the dogs. I hope nothing is broken out there. Both of the vehicles looked OK at least.

I have always found that a fella will get real motivated when 1 of 2 things happen.

those are, if you do not get up and work, you will not eat.

the second, and most important, if you do not get up and work, you will sleep on the ground,under the stars

and not in a camp ground.

if their is not a safety net for these 2 things.a fella tends to get busy.

but if he knows, they are covered, why bother? dont have to.

When you out on your own, no safety net. for some reason,you get up everymorning, drag your "Idonwanna" self to work.

do whatcha gotta do.

I guess yo being female, your bro thinks he can get away with pouring trash at your door.

My self, not advocating violence, but I would buy a nice 10'' cast iron skillet, and hit him with it.!!!!

Sometimes you just got to get medieval on someone to get their attention.

Go coonass on him,

sew him up in the sheets while he sleeps, then beat the sheet with a bat till he has a change of attitude
.

LOL!

Of course, now I have an even bigger problem.. I mentioned in other threads that I heard a loud crash and my dogs wanted in... Found the source of it. My 300 year old live oak tree is dying. The core has rotted and a branch with a huge chunk of the socket (or whatever you call it) that is taller than me broke off. Hit the barnyard fence....



To put it a little in perspective, see how tiny my cow looks compared to the branch?



If our insurance hadn't canceled on us when the timber company's tree fell on our barn, we'd contact them to contribute to get the branch removed. But they decided to lie and cancel under false pretenses so we no longer have insurance. I have no idea how we are going to get that thing out. I've asked my sister to see if her husband knows how to contact the tree surgeons that previously worked on our trees almost 10 years ago.

pick up truck, a chain, and a bag of marshmellows for the bon fire smores anyone??????

beautiful old tree.

Yeah... We don't have a pickup truck anymore. See that dead branch in the foreground? That one totaled the truck a couple years ago.

I wish I could find those people who buy logs on one of those tv shows.. I'd call them up in a heartbeat and tell them there is plenty of free oak for them.

Gonna have to see if my brother-in-law can find the contact info for the Tree Preservation service we called in almost 10 years ago for prior work.

I hope the tree can be salvaged. I'd hate for it to have to be cut down. The larger tree is in better shape, but I want to have the tree people check it out and do an assessment of the health and trim it up.

Last time they mulched up the branches and spread them around the base of the tree. It looked great.

And I just now realized in the last picture that one of my cows is just on the edge (on the right) looking at the fallen branch-- that was before she and her mother decided it was time to come eat the leaves.

So, my brother is actually in a very good mood and is being helpful today. He's cooking for me right now. He's very happy to have a job and the current manager told him on his first day that he's good enough that he may be able to get a promotion to a management position very soon. Also, minimum wage is about to go up to $9 so he will get more money.

Anyway, he's at least 6'3" tall (possibly taller) and I got him to pose in front of the branches to put things in perspective.
He decided to make funny faces while I took the pictures.

cut it up and sell it for firewood. with lemons,,,make snapple

at $120.00 per cord, you have a grand sitting there

The issue will be being able to cut it up. Cut up a smaller chunk and it just about killed the chainsaw. It needs to be repaired now. I wonder if I can get in touch with the local timber company and find out if they want any of the wood in exchange for getting it off my property.

I'd love to find someone who wants to buy some chunks of it. I hope there's some good wood in there after it gets away from the rotten parts.

dull chain on your chain saw?

i always thought a chain saw blade was a chain saw blade.

so i was buying the generic at ho depo.

till one day, I was in my local saw shop, and bought a chain that he had to cut and make

the difference was amazing!!!!! I get all my chains for him now.

and do not look at that crap in hodepo

little tip on chain saws
1..they do not like gas with ethanol.
2.. they flood easy, to unflood, remove spark plug, shoot hole with compressed air
3.. run it out of fuel before putting away
same goes for weed eatters

zannej said:

The issue will be being able to cut it up. Cut up a smaller chunk and it just about killed the chainsaw. It needs to be repaired now. I wonder if I can get in touch with the local timber company and find out if they want any of the wood in exchange for getting it off my property.

I'd love to find someone who wants to buy some chunks of it. I hope there's some good wood in there after it gets away from the rotten parts.

Click to expand...

i would love a chunk of that big boy to put my anvil on . nice table

Well, the blade started out sharp, but by the time we cut through the tree trunk (err, ok, my friend was using the chainsaw to cut up a tree that fell on his house) the blade was dull.

The local guy who gets paid to cut up trees had to come back several times with different chainsaws because it was too hard to cut up.

But, the good news is, I got in touch with Bob's Tree Preservation (the company that did work on my trees several years ago) and they are going to come take a look at the situation. I know that they have the equipment and do a good job.

When my friend had his oak tree all cut up in nice pieces, he tried to get people to come get the wood so they could use it, and nobody wanted to take it bc it was too large for them to move. People around here just don't appreciate good wood.

I wish you were nearby, Frodo. You could have as much of that wood as you want. I wonder if one of the local guys still has some sort of log-splitter or something.

I know its wishful thinking, but I really hope that the water oak can be saved. I described the damage to the tree guy and he said the description helped to get an idea of what I was looking out-- it didn't sound hopeful, but he's going to make an appointment to come look.

I do not know if the tree guy is charging you or not. but, if you call your county extension office. they will send a guy out to look at it, e-valuate it, tell you what to do. your tax dollahs hard at work for you !!!!!

i called them up to come check out my pinetree beatles and again, to look at the pond, lotta lillys i wanted to get rid of without hurting the environment/fish

I don't know if the guy will charge for the consultation, but he did work for us before and cut us a big break on the price (Did a $12k job for around $8k). The owner of the company was concerned for our safety because if either tree fell, it could crush the house. I stressed to this guy that the house was in potential danger and that we'd already lost three vehicles to falling branches.

Dealing with the local / parish municipalities can be a pain. They can't ever do anything quickly-- but I'll have to look and find out who I would contact and how. I'm pretty sure I would end up needing stuff trimmed. The live oak over the house has branches that are scraping the roof, so we need to have it done and my mother seemed to think that I could go up on the roof with a jaw-saw and cut it myself. My balance isn't that great when I'm on level ground. LOL.

I'll have to see if they can preserve any of the wood enough for it to be useful for something. I'd hate to think of it going to waste. I wonder if any of it will be able to made in to boards somehow.

You might try doing a web search on local foresters. That might bring someone interested in the wood. Otherwise it's probably just going to end up as firewood for somebody.

The branches touching the roof are not a good idea. They provide a pathway for squirrels and carpenter ants to get at you house. They also promote algae growth on your shingles.

You might find a guy with a portable sawmill, up here you can get them to remove it for free as they can sell the wood.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/home...d-a-portable-sawmill-service-zb01303zrob.aspx