Improper plumbing & trying to remodel bathroom/laundry

I have a metal roof. Had the shingles taken off a loooong time ago. Tree Preservation guy is coming out around 3pm today. I gave him directions because gps is not reliable. It probably would have tried to send him out Reed's Bridge Rd and that road is terrible. I don't think the bridges are safe and trucks aren't allowed to drive on it.

I will as the guy if he knows anyone who might want to buy the wood, or if there can be a discount if they take the wood to sell. I might have them take a look at a tree around back that is growing next to the house. I cut that mofo down when it was a sapling and hacked away the roots as best as I could and it grew back.

Thanks for the link!

I might see if one of the guys out in my area still has his log-splitter thingy and if he could help with anything. He used to have a dog that would run off and come to our yard at 3am and we would drive the dog home, so he likes us and said to call if we need anything. But I think he sometimes works offshore, so I don't know when he's available.

after turning onto reeds bridge and going over bridge....take a right or left on s river rd?

left to chapel ? LOL

Heh. The guy said GPS told him to take Reed's bridge, but I told him the road is narrow and the bridges are not safe. Plus his trucks can't drive on them (there is a sign that says "no trucks" and the weight capacity of the bridges is not very high. I don't go out that way so I don't really know which direction.

The GPS sometimes sends people out S River Rd but then tells them to take Old Tram Rd-- which no longer exists.

But he made it and said that the water oak still has a lot of life in it. Its going to be over $3k to trim that one, but the live oak was a concern for him because its heavy on the side hanging over the house. He said that would be over $4k to trim up-- but it needs to be done. Said it would be about $3.5k to remove the tree from the barn and $250 to get rid of the stupid myrtle that thinks its an octopus and keeps growing back. He said those are a pain to remove because you have to cut and then apply a poison right away.

Mom already eliminated the barn from the work list. She was all upset about the price.. The total for all would have been under $12k. But it will be around $7k for just the two trees that are essential. Which is much less than I thought. It's still a large chunk of change. I forgot to ask if he knew anyone who would buy the salvageable lumber. He's going to e-mail me later so I can ask then.

Uh, get another estimate. Just my :2cents:

I had 4 trees taken down last year - 3 oaks & a maple - nothing as ancient as you have, but they were full grown mature trees, and it cost me under a grand. They just cut them down; I took responsibility for cutting, splitting & stacking. My yard was a mess for weeks because i had to move all that wood, but that's what I bargained for.

Well, I think the reason its high is because they are tree preservation people-- but I talked to my brother-in-law, who used to be an arborist, and he said that is actually a fair price for what they charge.

We had a guy who wasn't a pro cut up a branch that fell before and he charged $1k just to pile the wood up where it was still blocking the driveway. He said he wanted another $1k to haul it out of the way, and he stacked it in such a way that we would have needed to rent special equipment to move it. We ended up finding another guy that we paid to move it, but we traded an old tractor we weren't using anymore as part of the payment.

I think the fee includes the cost of having to get special equipment to get over the roof and cut the branches and keep them from falling on top of the house. They also do some treatments to help the health of the tree and then mulch up the small branches and spread them around the trees. So its more than just cutting the trees. Its actually less than what they charged last time to trim both trees and cable/rod the live oak.

If I knew of another reliable arborist, I would ask for a 2nd opinion, but I don't know anyone trustworthy and I'd rather have guys that I know will do the job right than get some loon who might drop a branch on my house.

I do appreciate the advice though.

A little sumthin' to psych you up...
https://youtu.be/EObQaWjXLUg

The tree just before this was really cool. They took the entire crown off in one cut. It made me dizzy when the whole top of the tree just started spinning when the cut was complete and the crane held it up.

I'll have to watch it later. I need some cheering up. My bro joked about a car wreck-- which I knew wasn't true, but our best friend actually *was* in a car wreck. We happened to run in to his girlfriend and she was crying and freaking out. All she knew was that he was in an accident and was being taken to another hospital. So we had to find that hospital and get up there and then got to see him. He was stable but unconscious. He woke up while I was there and tried to answer questions, but he was not lucid. He was able to answer a couple of things, but was just too confused and in too much pain. His arm is broken in 10 places, his teeth are broken, and he has a pretty nasty concussion. His head was wrapped in a bandage and his face was covered in blood. The cop that came in to try to find out what happened said he was amazed anyone survived the crash. I'm hoping he will be ok.

Well, thank God he's alive. Our best wishes go out to him and his family.

Yes, hopefully life dosn't change to much for him.

Yeah, I'm pretty worried about him. Got an update: he lost his teeth (probably from steering wheel or airbag-- not sure which) and he had some swelling around his brain so they can't give him pain meds (because those can be problematic with head-swelling). They are continuing to monitor him. I'm guessing they may have to drill a hole if the swelling gets too bad. I'm hoping it won't get to that. He will need surgery on his arm.

Since his family announced on facebook that he was in the hospital, my brother is over guarding his house in case any scumbags think its a good time to go rob the place. When a tree fell on his house, people broke in and stole his air conditioners and stuff. It's not the best neighborhood. I'm really hoping there is no permanent brain damage. And I feel bad that I know he's in pain and will be in a lot of pain later.

I have to agree with his girlfriend-- wish it was an April Fool's joke. The last message he sent me was that if I got the chainsaw fixed, he'd come cut up that tree branch that fell. I don't think he'll be able to hold a fork with that arm for awhile, much less a chainsaw. I just hope it will heal up ok. I was going to bring him some food when he woke up, but he'll be on soft food/liquid diet for awhile, I think. Poor kid.

Watched the video. Love flight of the valkyries. That is pretty much what they are going to have to do with the branches on my live oak tree. They are right over the roof of the house.

Went to see my friend last night. He was still zonked out after surgery, but around 10pm he started to open his eyes a little. His useless mother made an appearance for a few minutes and brought some of his sisters. The sisters were clearly more concerned. I managed to not punch his mother before she left. The new nurse thought that I was his mother.
I didn't get to visit him today, but they said he was able to stand up and walk a little bit, but now he's sleeping again. He might be able to come home tomorrow or Monday.

He has a fracture in his c7 vertebrate. Some of his fingers are broken, his arm broke all the way through. Apparently the tire rod on his truck broke and the front end just started swerving out of control. He was trying to get it back under control when the truck flipped over and rolled several times (and rolled more heavily on his side). They had to use the jaws of life to pry him out and then transported him to the hospital in a helicopter.

meanwhile, I'm waiting for an e-mail from the tree preservation people. If I don't get one on Monday I'll call them back.

hope your friend gets better....does he have insurance?

my life flight ride cost 27 thousands dollars,,,it aint cheap

frodo said:

hope your friend gets better....does he have insurance?

my life flight ride cost 27 thousands dollars,,,it aint cheap

Click to expand...

Unfortunately he doesn't have medical insurance. I don't know if he will be covered by the vehicle's insurance because the vehicle and the insurance were still in the name of his cousin (who was selling him the vehicle). I admit that I was pretty worried when he said the door fell off of the vehicle and I was concerned that something else would go wrong. I had a bad feeling about that truck and kept thinking he might get in an accident-- but I certainly never thought that the tire rod would break on him. The car insurance probably won't cover him because he wasn't specifically named on the insurance. Poor guy had just gotten caught up on all of his bills and was finally getting ahead of his finances for a change.

have his family contact the hosp.bill dept ask about medicare/caid....if if qualifies for medicare
tell him to pay the deductibles. at $1.00 per mth to keep the lawyers away

I think he used to be on medicare/medicaid but they took him off it for some reason. Or maybe that was his girlfriend and kids who are on it... Not sure.

My brother seems to think that he's on the car insurance policy, but I don't know. His great uncle and cousin are going to try to salvage parts from the vehicle to sell to see if they can get any money for him. So I'm sort of guessing that the insurance isn't wanting to cover it.

My friend finally woke up and was able to walk a little. His last memory before waking up yesterday was getting into the truck. So he doesn't remember the things he said and what people said to him for the last few days. He might get to go home later today.

Meanwhile, a friend's kitty just had a litter of kittens.


My brother called dibs on one of the white ones. He's naming it Cracker.

In the ongoing saga of farm life, the wire linking the compressor pump (with pulley wheels that pumps water into the holding tank of my water well) to the float valve in the holding tank got fried from surges during power outages. So the pump wasn't turning on and the tank was empty-- but the jet pump was going crazy trying to find water to push and wouldn't shut off. I flipped the breaker on it until the pump guy could take a look and figure out what was wrong. He fixed the wire and water was working fine.
A few hours later the tank was full, but it didn't trigger pump#1 to shut off so it just kept going and overflowed the tank. Pump#2 wasn't running for some reason (possibly if the holding tank filled and it overflowed it might have triggered a safety feature to shut off, but I don't know).
So, I currently have no running water. Pump guy is coming back tomorrow to look at it. I was just mentioning something to him about getting a different thing to measure the water level instead of that old faulty float (which tends to stick sometimes). I was previously told about something called a solenoid valve. Mentioned it to my guy and he said its what they use in commercial places. Not sure how it would work if set up... But I just want my water back on so I can flush my toilet, give the dog a bath, and take a shower.

I figured I'd update this thread.

Something with the wiring to the float valve wasn't done right so it wasn't detecting that the holding tank was full so it overflowed and then the pressure sensor thing on the jet pump was triggered to shut it off so it wasn't pumping water out to the house. This time the pump guy checked to make sure that the sensor worked and stopped filling the tank. The faucet I replaced at the back door came in handy because I was able to use that to check the water pressure.

My friend is recovering. He has a metal plate with a bunch of screws holding his upper arm together and has metal pins in his hand that are sticking out. His arm and neck still hurt. I saw the x-rays and his wrist had broken very badly and the bone in his forearm had actually come out of the skin and jabbed his upper arm somehow. They said he had a punctured lung. The whites of his eyes had turned red for a couple weeks but they have returned to normal, but the vision in his left eye has not returned to normal. His crackhead father gained his trust by acting all worried and offering to take care of him and help him out. He was cleaning the floors, washing dishes, and decided to start painting the front door and the trim and such.. But then he stole some of the pain meds and proceeded to steal all of the cash he could find in my friend's desk and stole $1200 worth of electronic equipment. Also stole his tools and phone charging cords. My friend did manage to get him to return one $600 item, but hasn't gotten the other stuff returned yet.

I never heard back from the tree people and haven't been able to get in touch with them again.

Ever since the problems with the pump, the water pressure has been unstable. I'll go to wash dishes and the water will be running normally then it will stop running for a moment and spurt very hard and knock things out of my hands. There seems to be air in the line, but I'm not sure how its getting in. The water has been running enough that I think air should have been cleared out. The water is also much murkier and I had to put a Brita filter on my bathroom faucet to appease my water-obsessed cat. She was not happy with me when I presented her with a bowl of murky water. She sniffed it, looked up at me, and then pushed the bowl into the sink to dump it (she normally pushes it into the sink when its empty and stands near the bathroom door and yowls until I go refill it for her). She was happy with the filtered water though.

My brother still hasn't taken trash out and he left some bags of trash in the middle of the floor in the front room (which doesn't have any working lights) so I tripped over them in the dark and some of the stuff spilled out because he didn't have the bags closed properly.

Trash has just been spreading all over the kitchen floor and the dog dragged some of it into the hallway. I finally got tired of it and filled up a 33 gallon bag with some of the trash. I need to pick up more of it later, but my arrhythmia started acting up.

I've been trying to eat less junkfood and smaller portions, but its not easy to change my eating habits. My cholesterol was very high so I'm on statins to reduce it. I need to start incorporating more healthy food into my diet-- more vegetables.

I still haven't worked on my bathroom and I really really need to. I wonder if I could be hypnotized into no longer procrastinating. LOL.

Meanwhile, I can't help but think about the remodel project because I'm a bit OCD about it. I finally found the source of the claims that lavatories had to be 4" from the wall-- it was erroneously labeled as IRC R307.2 but was really from IRC R307.1 up until at least 2006. I found online reference to proposed changes to remove the 4" rule from the diagram since it was not referenced anywhere in text and was not sensible. That means I could have my euro-style vanity at 2" from the side wall (since it is 26" wide and would need 2" to be a full 15" from center). I also discovered that my brother likes brushed nickel finish rather than polished chrome (I like polished chrome-- my mother likes polished brass).
I found a less expensive window trim kit for the shower surround (one that will go up to 8" deep on the sill). I also am considering making my own magnetic storm window to cover the window in the shower when it is in use. If we want to open the window, it could be removed. Basically it would involve using an acrylic sheet and magnetic strips. I could use the kind that are similar to what is used to hold a refrigerator shut that are covered in vinyl. I saw a website that described how to make the windows. I'm seriously considering using that to cover my own bathroom window and adding some sort of frosted stuff to it so I can get rid of my nasty spider-filled blinds. Hell, I'm thinking of using it on my bedroom windows to insulate them better-- but that is a project a long way off. My bedroom windows are huge. Too bad I don't like sunlight. LOL.

Now I'm just babbling... It's been raining all day and I have 6 cats in here with me.

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).

Top view of current vs proposed ideas:



I could probably fit a trash can (for lint) between the dryer and the side wall (which has the main vent that I forgot to draw in. I *think* the vent is 2".

I already mentioned the door dilemma. I'm also trying to figure out what to do with the positioning of the tub. The kit I want to get is direct-to-stud and is 30"x60". The walls are >61" apart so that gives me a little bit of space. Not sure if I should bump it over toward the exterior wall or away from it-- if I still have that space left after getting the walls squared out more.

I plan to do more sketches showing the plumbing routes and what I need help with is figuring out where things should connect. I want the most efficient / cost effective routes. Not sure when I'll have that done though.

Any thoughts?

PS. Please excuse the wonky doors. I just slapped them in there and they didn't want to rotate properly.