oldognewtrick
In memory of
Yesterday I had to rent a sewer jet and unclog the drain that swmbo decided that anything and everything is a candidate for the garbage disposal. I guess they are a necessary evil...
Help Support House Repair Talk:
Flyover
Trying not to screw things up worse
Referring of course to the sewer jet, not the garbage disposal or the SWMBO.
tuffy
well-known member
Yes we have to do that also, but the wife thinks she needs one. but our main line gets full of roots, need to replace it but it is going to have to wait until warmer weather.
zannej
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You guys have been more productive than me. I've been trying to keep up with keeping the kitchen clean, but the cats knocked more stuff on the floor & my brother still hasn't been taking trash out. He's got some sort of arm injury & is seeing the doctor about it today.
He's frustrated with his job bc they were supposed to move him from part-time pay to full-time with benefits over a month and a half ago, but HR never processed the paperwork. He's working full-time hours but is not in the system as full-time so he can't get benefits or accrue PTO. He's tried calling the lady from HR but apparently she only works part-time & the few times he's actually talked to her, she said she was going to put him on hold & then hung up. One of the supervisors (who was unaware of the HR issues) just asked my bro how he's enjoying his promotion to Cook2 & my bro had to explain to him that he's still listed as part-time. The guy said that he had signed the paperwork to approve my brother's promotion & didn't know why it wasn't done & that he was going to raise hell to make sure he got that promotion. My brother's Medicaid is going to expire soon & he'll need medical insurance to cover his medicines.
We are thinking of switching our car insurance bc we just got the bill for the next 6 months premiums-- they raised our insurance by $400 (for 6 months- so $800 a yr). The only accident we've had was caused by someone else & that insurance is supposed to be reimbursing them & us, but they are majorly raising the price w/o explanation.
Kidney stone finally passed this morning- made itself known on the way down. Ugh.
I thought Mom had fallen for a scam from people pretending to be from Dishnetwork that called & got info from her & said they were sending someone out the next day. She claimed they told her that our equipment would stop working in 5 days so it was imperative to get it done asap. I left a message with Dish CS & googled to see if it seemed like a scam & it raised all the red flags.
Turns out it wasn't a scam & she just misunderstood/misconstrued what they said. Our old equipment is being phased out & is now obsolete & they upgraded us to Hopper & DVR. I was shocked when the technician called & I told him how I thought it was scam when they first called. He said he'd show the work order to prove it was correct & I said I needed to do some cleaning. I asked him if he'd ever been on a hoarder house & he said yes. The dog was chasing a possum last night and knocked over the litterboxes & just dumped them all over. I cleaned some of it up, but my back wasn't cooperating. My brother never completely cleaned up the ones in the front room & the dog has been peeing on the carpet in the hallway. I'm mostly nose-blind to it, but I knew it would be bad for a visitor. He told me he'd been in worse places-- ones that other technicians arrived at and flat out refused to enter. The cow came over to see him while he was working on the wires. He told me his mother raises cows & has about 80 of them.
The new primary receiver is close to the size of the old one, but it has a DVR. The remote has a microphone button to do wire tap- I mean, voice command. I believe he connected the receiver to the router but he said it would only use internet when we told it to. Said we can run Netflix through it if we want, but I cited our bandwidth restrictions.
The new picture is so much better- although the TV in my room isn't HD so there's no difference in picture. The auxiliary boxes are itty bitty. Maybe an inch high, 5" wide & 3" deep or so. The power cable can remove from the back of it, but it locks in so it can't pull out accidentally. Coaxial input is now more streamlined. Our old cables were good so they were re-used.
The new remotes are backlit so you can read them in the dark. It will take a bit to get used to them though. Only potential issue is the guy pointed out that the crape mertle trees are now tall enough to obstruct the dish when they grow leaves so we will need to have them cut, but they are touching the powerlines so we'll have to get the power company to do it. I wish I could convince Mom to just let us cut the nearest one down, but it provides shade for her bedroom window.
I did do a bunch of cleaning for the two hours before the guy arrived so I'm tired, but I need to be more active and built up my stamina.
Flyover, I'm glad you are getting your fence fixed & hope there won't be any problems.
My brain is trying to shut down on me. LOL.
He's frustrated with his job bc they were supposed to move him from part-time pay to full-time with benefits over a month and a half ago, but HR never processed the paperwork. He's working full-time hours but is not in the system as full-time so he can't get benefits or accrue PTO. He's tried calling the lady from HR but apparently she only works part-time & the few times he's actually talked to her, she said she was going to put him on hold & then hung up. One of the supervisors (who was unaware of the HR issues) just asked my bro how he's enjoying his promotion to Cook2 & my bro had to explain to him that he's still listed as part-time. The guy said that he had signed the paperwork to approve my brother's promotion & didn't know why it wasn't done & that he was going to raise hell to make sure he got that promotion. My brother's Medicaid is going to expire soon & he'll need medical insurance to cover his medicines.
We are thinking of switching our car insurance bc we just got the bill for the next 6 months premiums-- they raised our insurance by $400 (for 6 months- so $800 a yr). The only accident we've had was caused by someone else & that insurance is supposed to be reimbursing them & us, but they are majorly raising the price w/o explanation.
Kidney stone finally passed this morning- made itself known on the way down. Ugh.
I thought Mom had fallen for a scam from people pretending to be from Dishnetwork that called & got info from her & said they were sending someone out the next day. She claimed they told her that our equipment would stop working in 5 days so it was imperative to get it done asap. I left a message with Dish CS & googled to see if it seemed like a scam & it raised all the red flags.
Turns out it wasn't a scam & she just misunderstood/misconstrued what they said. Our old equipment is being phased out & is now obsolete & they upgraded us to Hopper & DVR. I was shocked when the technician called & I told him how I thought it was scam when they first called. He said he'd show the work order to prove it was correct & I said I needed to do some cleaning. I asked him if he'd ever been on a hoarder house & he said yes. The dog was chasing a possum last night and knocked over the litterboxes & just dumped them all over. I cleaned some of it up, but my back wasn't cooperating. My brother never completely cleaned up the ones in the front room & the dog has been peeing on the carpet in the hallway. I'm mostly nose-blind to it, but I knew it would be bad for a visitor. He told me he'd been in worse places-- ones that other technicians arrived at and flat out refused to enter. The cow came over to see him while he was working on the wires. He told me his mother raises cows & has about 80 of them.
The new primary receiver is close to the size of the old one, but it has a DVR. The remote has a microphone button to do wire tap- I mean, voice command. I believe he connected the receiver to the router but he said it would only use internet when we told it to. Said we can run Netflix through it if we want, but I cited our bandwidth restrictions.
The new picture is so much better- although the TV in my room isn't HD so there's no difference in picture. The auxiliary boxes are itty bitty. Maybe an inch high, 5" wide & 3" deep or so. The power cable can remove from the back of it, but it locks in so it can't pull out accidentally. Coaxial input is now more streamlined. Our old cables were good so they were re-used.
The new remotes are backlit so you can read them in the dark. It will take a bit to get used to them though. Only potential issue is the guy pointed out that the crape mertle trees are now tall enough to obstruct the dish when they grow leaves so we will need to have them cut, but they are touching the powerlines so we'll have to get the power company to do it. I wish I could convince Mom to just let us cut the nearest one down, but it provides shade for her bedroom window.
I did do a bunch of cleaning for the two hours before the guy arrived so I'm tired, but I need to be more active and built up my stamina.
Flyover, I'm glad you are getting your fence fixed & hope there won't be any problems.
My brain is trying to shut down on me. LOL.
zannej
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Ok, I was wrong: The Dish thing *was* a scam. It's kinda my fault bc I couldn't get logged in to our account and went to the verified official Twitter. It linked to @DISH_Answers for customer service. I didn't notice when I clicked the link that it redirected to @dish_answers. Capitalization matters in twitter handles. The latter is a fraud account. They will pretend to be CS, ask for people's acct info, login as them, pretend to be the customer & call to set up a tech visit & installation. Then they will call afterward and demand payment for the installation (which was actually a free install).
After the install, a nasty woman from India called and kept demanding that my mother give her CC# over the phone. I told her "No, this isn't right. Hang up". Mom argued that it must be legit bc the tech came out and did the installation. We were not aware of just how advanced this scam is. The Twitter account gave me a phone # that was supposed to be their verification #-- but it just takes you to more scammers. I called Dish & confirmed it is not a valid # for Dish.
After I told Mom to hang up, I went to the bathroom & the scammer called her back and she gave them her CC#. /facepalm
I called back today to talk to billing & they transferred me to fraud dept-- which has US people rather than outsourced from India. They explained how the scam works, I talked to fraud dept, & I gave them the numbers & fake names the scammers gave. Mom is calling her CC company right now to report the fraud. I'm collecting data to send to the FBI's fraud department.
I'm mad at myself for thinking it was the official/legit Twitter I was talking to, but Mom is the one who fell for the phone scheme after I told her it was a scam. Ugh.
Mom just paged me & for some reason she didn't remember some of the details & it turns out the CC company already paid the $ out & said they won't do anything about the fraud report until Saturday bc somehow my mother claimed that the install was supposed to be Saturday but she told me the day they called her that it was the next day. I have to go argue with her in a minute. LOL.
After the install, a nasty woman from India called and kept demanding that my mother give her CC# over the phone. I told her "No, this isn't right. Hang up". Mom argued that it must be legit bc the tech came out and did the installation. We were not aware of just how advanced this scam is. The Twitter account gave me a phone # that was supposed to be their verification #-- but it just takes you to more scammers. I called Dish & confirmed it is not a valid # for Dish.
After I told Mom to hang up, I went to the bathroom & the scammer called her back and she gave them her CC#. /facepalm
I called back today to talk to billing & they transferred me to fraud dept-- which has US people rather than outsourced from India. They explained how the scam works, I talked to fraud dept, & I gave them the numbers & fake names the scammers gave. Mom is calling her CC company right now to report the fraud. I'm collecting data to send to the FBI's fraud department.
I'm mad at myself for thinking it was the official/legit Twitter I was talking to, but Mom is the one who fell for the phone scheme after I told her it was a scam. Ugh.
Mom just paged me & for some reason she didn't remember some of the details & it turns out the CC company already paid the $ out & said they won't do anything about the fraud report until Saturday bc somehow my mother claimed that the install was supposed to be Saturday but she told me the day they called her that it was the next day. I have to go argue with her in a minute. LOL.
tuffy
well-known member
zannej sorry for your situation with the scammers. I've had a person try and steel my identity once, It was real hard to get it all straighten out. Went to clean out under the bathroom vanity today and throw out the expired stuff and my wife told me that the sink was draining slowly this morning, I found all kinds of hair in the p-trap and wrapped around the pop up assembly boy was I mad I've told my wife and adult daughter not to let their long hair to fall down in the sink. Luckily I was able to get it all out with much trouble.
zannej
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How the hell does their hair get in the sink? Do they wash their hair in it? I can understand hair in the shower...
So, I discovered that I think the mydish website got hacked to link to the fake Twitter account and misdirect people. I immediately called back to let the fraud dept know.. The lady I spoke with this time apologized & said that her aunt just fell for the same scam a few months back. She said she was going to contact their social media people ASAP to get it sorted out.
Since I've been on the phone I haven't gotten anything done in the house other than cooking lunch for Mom.
So, I discovered that I think the mydish website got hacked to link to the fake Twitter account and misdirect people. I immediately called back to let the fraud dept know.. The lady I spoke with this time apologized & said that her aunt just fell for the same scam a few months back. She said she was going to contact their social media people ASAP to get it sorted out.
Since I've been on the phone I haven't gotten anything done in the house other than cooking lunch for Mom.
joecaption
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I pulled 66 gals of weeds by myself.
Sure glad I finished high school and went to college so I can be the smartest weed puller out there.
That's OK at $25.00 an hour I'll pull your weeds all day with a smile.
It's impossible around here to find a school kid willing to do anything so there stuck with me.
The ones I've tried hiring never last more than a day and in 6 hours all they pulled was a 5 gal. bucket full!
Sure glad I finished high school and went to college so I can be the smartest weed puller out there.
That's OK at $25.00 an hour I'll pull your weeds all day with a smile.
It's impossible around here to find a school kid willing to do anything so there stuck with me.
The ones I've tried hiring never last more than a day and in 6 hours all they pulled was a 5 gal. bucket full!
joecaption
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I read this one in Readers DIgest this morning.
"I never knew how poor I was until someone stole my identity once and it ruined her life forever".
"I never knew how poor I was until someone stole my identity once and it ruined her life forever".
Flyover
Trying not to screw things up worse
My wife blow-dries and straightens her hair in the bathroom at the vanity about once every two weeks. She puts a towel down over the sink but there's always tons of hair that gets around it anyway. We had a very slow drain there for a while and half a bottle of Draino wasn't doing anything, so last weekend I snaked it, pulled out clumps of hair (mostly hers, I'm pretty sure) that had accumulated over probably 6-12 months, and now it drains real quick.
Yesterday I had to be a diplomat:
I had three estimates on my fence repair. Let's call them A, B, and C. A's price was lower than B's so I called A and told the secretary "Let's go ahead with the work." She said "OK, what we do is put you on a waiting list and our guy will get back to you within 7-10 days, just leave a message when I forward you." She forwarded me, I left the message, and that was that. Never heard back.
Then a few days later C came out, gave me an estimate, agreed to match A's price and said he could start in a couple days. I said great, he seemed a bit more legit than A anyway, so we signed the agreement and I paid the first 1/3rd up front. He was supposed to start today.
Yesterday I got home from work and A's truck was in my driveway, and his guy was out back already starting to work. I went back there and said "Hold up, we never signed anything, I never paid you anything, and I've already signed with C." So then the guy put A on the phone for me and he said we had a verbal agreement (based on the voicemail I guess?) and that he might have to charge me anyway for sending his guy out.
I wasn't about to pay that but I felt bad about the misunderstanding, plus switching to A meant I might get the work done earlier, and the guy who was there was very professional, so I checked with C to see if I could cancel and get a refund on my up-front payment. I had to be very apologetic etc. and I felt bad about that too, and I detected a note of mournfulness in his voice, but he agreed to refund my money without a problem. Then I came back out and gave A's guy the thumbs up to continue the work. A apologized for the misunderstanding, since it was after all his fault, and had his guy give me the paper work order to sign, and from then on it's been smooth sailing. Hopefully he'll finish up today.
But boy do I hate being in the middle of situations like that! Who the heck sends people out to do work without anything written down and without any up-front payment?!?! That's like a small claims lawsuit waiting to happen.
Yesterday I had to be a diplomat:
I had three estimates on my fence repair. Let's call them A, B, and C. A's price was lower than B's so I called A and told the secretary "Let's go ahead with the work." She said "OK, what we do is put you on a waiting list and our guy will get back to you within 7-10 days, just leave a message when I forward you." She forwarded me, I left the message, and that was that. Never heard back.
Then a few days later C came out, gave me an estimate, agreed to match A's price and said he could start in a couple days. I said great, he seemed a bit more legit than A anyway, so we signed the agreement and I paid the first 1/3rd up front. He was supposed to start today.
Yesterday I got home from work and A's truck was in my driveway, and his guy was out back already starting to work. I went back there and said "Hold up, we never signed anything, I never paid you anything, and I've already signed with C." So then the guy put A on the phone for me and he said we had a verbal agreement (based on the voicemail I guess?) and that he might have to charge me anyway for sending his guy out.
I wasn't about to pay that but I felt bad about the misunderstanding, plus switching to A meant I might get the work done earlier, and the guy who was there was very professional, so I checked with C to see if I could cancel and get a refund on my up-front payment. I had to be very apologetic etc. and I felt bad about that too, and I detected a note of mournfulness in his voice, but he agreed to refund my money without a problem. Then I came back out and gave A's guy the thumbs up to continue the work. A apologized for the misunderstanding, since it was after all his fault, and had his guy give me the paper work order to sign, and from then on it's been smooth sailing. Hopefully he'll finish up today.
But boy do I hate being in the middle of situations like that! Who the heck sends people out to do work without anything written down and without any up-front payment?!?! That's like a small claims lawsuit waiting to happen.
oldognewtrick
In memory of
I don't know about your state, but here in Tennessee we have a grace period to cancel a contract, it's either 48 or 72 hours, I forget.
Just remember, communication on any project, both ways, always makes things go better.
Just remember, communication on any project, both ways, always makes things go better.
zannej
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They will do stuff without contract around here all the time. My best friend had some problems bc he had broken glass in a window & asked a local place for an estimate. Instead of getting an estimate, they went to his house, broke the window up even more, put on a new piece that wasn't the right size-- had a huge gap of no glass large enough for a person to crawl through-- & left. He came back and called the glass installers if they knew anything about what happened. They had to send someone back to put a larger piece of glass in to cover the gap, but it messed up his window so it wouldn't open anymore- but he just wanted the glass to not have a huge hole in it so he accepted that. He hadn't even authorized them to work on the window, they did it while he wasn't home, and left his house vulnerable to burglars. They then sent him a bill & charged for both visits & the glass that they first put in & had to take away bc it didn't fit. He said he would pay for the 2nd piece of glass & labor to install it, but the rest was on them because they messed up. But the owner of the glass place started complaining to everyone in town that my friend was a non-paying deadbeat and even went to my friend's boss at work and told him he would lose a customer if he didn't make my friend pay the bill. The boss was not happy to get that sort of ultimatum but said the guy could take a hike. My friend decided to tell the glass guy to "eat it" bc he never gave them permission to touch his window in the first place & they didn't even do the job right. They threatened to sue but never followed through. They would have lost because there was no contract & he ended up having to spend more $ to get the window fixed properly.
I picked up mail, cleaned up dog crap, & got food for Mom so far today. I really should do some cleaning. I can't remember whether or not I took my medicine yet today.
I picked up mail, cleaned up dog crap, & got food for Mom so far today. I really should do some cleaning. I can't remember whether or not I took my medicine yet today.
Flyover
Trying not to screw things up worse
Funny news and not funny news. Funny news first:
Fence guy finished the work, haven't heard from him since. He never collected payment info, never sent an invoice, nothing. On paper, he didn't do any work. If I was a dishonest person I'm pretty sure I could get away with never paying him. In reality I'm going to give him until Monday and then call.
Unfunny news: We had an attempted burglary on our house late last night. Would have been a home invasion since we were home. Would-be burglars stood 10 feet from where my youngest was sleeping...**mumbling dirty words**... Luckily the idiot tried the front door, found it locked, and then walked away. Turns out it was a couple people who live nearby, and several of my neighbors know them well! They tried a bunch of other houses on the street too. I sent the cops to their place then finally got to bed around 12:30.
I was going to the gym anyway this morning but last night really put me in the mood to work out...probably wanting the feel of a cold heavy piece of iron in my hands. Ended up lifting heavier (arm day) than I ever have before, so at least last night's incident was good for something!
Fence guy finished the work, haven't heard from him since. He never collected payment info, never sent an invoice, nothing. On paper, he didn't do any work. If I was a dishonest person I'm pretty sure I could get away with never paying him. In reality I'm going to give him until Monday and then call.
Unfunny news: We had an attempted burglary on our house late last night. Would have been a home invasion since we were home. Would-be burglars stood 10 feet from where my youngest was sleeping...**mumbling dirty words**... Luckily the idiot tried the front door, found it locked, and then walked away. Turns out it was a couple people who live nearby, and several of my neighbors know them well! They tried a bunch of other houses on the street too. I sent the cops to their place then finally got to bed around 12:30.
I was going to the gym anyway this morning but last night really put me in the mood to work out...probably wanting the feel of a cold heavy piece of iron in my hands.
Ended up lifting heavier (arm day) than I ever have before, so at least last night's incident was good for something!
oldognewtrick
In memory of
Cut the front yards for the first time this year, I have a very healthy set of weeds coming along. This just might be the year I do battle with my weed crop. Mower started right up, thanks to using Sta-bil...
zannej
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Flyover, I'm glad the attempted burglars didn't get in.
I didn't really do much today. Stomach was out-of-sorts. I cleaned up after the cats & cooked for Mom and that was about it. I'm barely staying awake right now.
I didn't really do much today. Stomach was out-of-sorts. I cleaned up after the cats & cooked for Mom and that was about it. I'm barely staying awake right now.
zannej
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I noticed something (that I commented about on the flooring forums) when looking again at pics of my plumbing under the house. It looks my mother's toilet may have had a vent at one time. It goes down to a sanitary tee (incorrect fitting) & goes back and then has another sanitary tee to go up presumably inside the wall. It's between the drain for my toilet & hers so my only guess is that it was a vent. The late plumber told me that when he did the plumbing on this place in the 40s or 50s, he put in vents. He said someone had removed them when he came to look at our plumbing after we moved back. So, I think there may be a vent for Mom's toilet that is venting either into the wall or into the attic (unless it is capped). If it isn't capped, I wonder if it could be affecting the air quality in the house & if the gases could part of why everyone always feels so tired. Whenever we have visitors, they say the house makes them feel sleepy after they've been inside for awhile. I mean, it could be the ambiance & sounds from the AC. There have been some mystery odors in the air from time to time as well. I need to remember to bring this up on the plumbing forums.
Right now I'm tired for no apparent reason. I've been taking my thyroid meds but I'm struggling to keep my eyes open.
Right now I'm tired for no apparent reason. I've been taking my thyroid meds but I'm struggling to keep my eyes open.
tuffy
well-known member
Fixed the gates into our side yard the were starting to sag. Cleaned up the barbeque grill as it was starting to get some rust on it. going to clean the patio area of leaves and dirt from the winter tomorrow.
zannej
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Tuffy, you've been more productive than me. LOL. I still need to fix the sagging front gate & get the automatic gate opener installed.
My sister called & she will be in this state in April & wanted to make arrangements for us to visit her. We could either go out & spend the night in a hotel over in Shreveport or we could bring her home with us to spend the night & drive her back. One is a lot more gas but there will be hotel bills & I'll be away from my pets & my computer. I think having her visit would be good motivation to get the front room cleaned (and might be able to get my brother to help-- *might*). It's a brutally long drive & Shreveport is a total PITA to navigate, so I'm leaning toward having her stay with us. Plus she can see the newer kitties and snuggle her favorite, Sir Hammington.
My sister called & she will be in this state in April & wanted to make arrangements for us to visit her. We could either go out & spend the night in a hotel over in Shreveport or we could bring her home with us to spend the night & drive her back. One is a lot more gas but there will be hotel bills & I'll be away from my pets & my computer. I think having her visit would be good motivation to get the front room cleaned (and might be able to get my brother to help-- *might*). It's a brutally long drive & Shreveport is a total PITA to navigate, so I'm leaning toward having her stay with us. Plus she can see the newer kitties and snuggle her favorite, Sir Hammington.
zannej
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Tuffy, I forgot to ask: How do you fix gates so they don't sag?
My cousin called on the 10th anniversary of my father's death. She's my closest cousin & she was always very fond of him. She gave us an update on what's going on with her life, her kids, her divorce from her cheating a-hole husband. Sometime prior to the divorce he emptied their joint bank account & put all the $ in his own account & started funneling $ to his mistress & he's refusing to pay child support. He's also refusing to turn over the deed to the house to her even though she was awarded the house in the divorce and is required to sell it, but she can't sell it w/o the deed. She can't push too hard bc he's got a violent streak & he owns firearms. She agreed with my assessment that he struck me as the sort who might someday snap & kill people. Despite that, she's working to get a degree in education & is working as a substitute teacher. Their oldest daughter needs 1 credit hour to graduate from college, her oldest son just joined the Marines, their younger son is technically still in high school but taking AP classes (homeschooled), & their youngest daughter is going to a charter school. The younger son shot up to 6'4" so he towers over everyone. He's been helping his mother to make sure the little sister gets to school (since there is no bus). He's always been a sweet nurturing kid & has looked out for his sister since she was little.
I just cleaned up my bathroom floor & pulled back the sheet vinyl & cleaned under it to get ready for my friend to come over to grind down the botched self-leveling job. I was pleasantly surprised to find out it wasn't quite as bumpy, sharp, & pronounced as I remembered, but it still needs some of the highest spots taken down. I have a spare flange in case it gets damaged. I will use a fresh leveling mix to smooth it out & get it level afterward so the toilet & chest of drawers will sit level. When I was removing the painter's tape, part of the wall started peeling (the wood panel was peeling away) several inches up-- higher than baseboard would cover-- so I'll probably have to put some wainscoting on. I'm hoping to have that done & have things fixed up enough that I can get the toilet installed within the next couple weeks. I'm going to use acrylic double-sided tape (specifically for sheet vinyl) to secure the floor in a few key places. Having another toilet will be great. The shower won't be usable yet bc the wall panels are falling off, but I believe the Delta direct-to-stud wall panel system might fit. I have decided to go a cheaper route for the shower control system- instead of paying $100+ for the valve & $80+ for the trim kit, I can get the Delta Lahara for around $80 & the valve around $30. It is still thermostatic & allows both pressure & temp control but instead of pulling out for pressure, there is a 2nd lever that turns. It's not as pretty as the Kingsley, but it's still nice. The MultiChoice valve allows for different methods of connection. I still think I want to splurge & get the nice tub spout though. I just need to figure out if the existing one twists on or if it has a set screw.
The fixes to the DWV system can wait until we are ready to fix up my mother's bathroom. I may have mentioned that I found where I think there was a vent for that side of the house (but it doesn't go through the roof & may terminate in the attic or wall). I will have to find out if it is capped or not. It could be venting gases into the house & that is not good-- but it might explain why we are so tired all the time. I need to find out if the plumber can be trusted to put a hole through the metal roof to run the vent through it or if I should see if it's feasible to run it out through the wall & around the soffit. The latter requires a longer run & is uglier, but it won't risk creating a leak in the roof.
My cousin called on the 10th anniversary of my father's death. She's my closest cousin & she was always very fond of him. She gave us an update on what's going on with her life, her kids, her divorce from her cheating a-hole husband. Sometime prior to the divorce he emptied their joint bank account & put all the $ in his own account & started funneling $ to his mistress & he's refusing to pay child support. He's also refusing to turn over the deed to the house to her even though she was awarded the house in the divorce and is required to sell it, but she can't sell it w/o the deed. She can't push too hard bc he's got a violent streak & he owns firearms. She agreed with my assessment that he struck me as the sort who might someday snap & kill people. Despite that, she's working to get a degree in education & is working as a substitute teacher. Their oldest daughter needs 1 credit hour to graduate from college, her oldest son just joined the Marines, their younger son is technically still in high school but taking AP classes (homeschooled), & their youngest daughter is going to a charter school. The younger son shot up to 6'4" so he towers over everyone. He's been helping his mother to make sure the little sister gets to school (since there is no bus). He's always been a sweet nurturing kid & has looked out for his sister since she was little.
I just cleaned up my bathroom floor & pulled back the sheet vinyl & cleaned under it to get ready for my friend to come over to grind down the botched self-leveling job. I was pleasantly surprised to find out it wasn't quite as bumpy, sharp, & pronounced as I remembered, but it still needs some of the highest spots taken down. I have a spare flange in case it gets damaged. I will use a fresh leveling mix to smooth it out & get it level afterward so the toilet & chest of drawers will sit level. When I was removing the painter's tape, part of the wall started peeling (the wood panel was peeling away) several inches up-- higher than baseboard would cover-- so I'll probably have to put some wainscoting on. I'm hoping to have that done & have things fixed up enough that I can get the toilet installed within the next couple weeks. I'm going to use acrylic double-sided tape (specifically for sheet vinyl) to secure the floor in a few key places. Having another toilet will be great. The shower won't be usable yet bc the wall panels are falling off, but I believe the Delta direct-to-stud wall panel system might fit. I have decided to go a cheaper route for the shower control system- instead of paying $100+ for the valve & $80+ for the trim kit, I can get the Delta Lahara for around $80 & the valve around $30. It is still thermostatic & allows both pressure & temp control but instead of pulling out for pressure, there is a 2nd lever that turns. It's not as pretty as the Kingsley, but it's still nice. The MultiChoice valve allows for different methods of connection. I still think I want to splurge & get the nice tub spout though. I just need to figure out if the existing one twists on or if it has a set screw.
The fixes to the DWV system can wait until we are ready to fix up my mother's bathroom. I may have mentioned that I found where I think there was a vent for that side of the house (but it doesn't go through the roof & may terminate in the attic or wall). I will have to find out if it is capped or not. It could be venting gases into the house & that is not good-- but it might explain why we are so tired all the time. I need to find out if the plumber can be trusted to put a hole through the metal roof to run the vent through it or if I should see if it's feasible to run it out through the wall & around the soffit. The latter requires a longer run & is uglier, but it won't risk creating a leak in the roof.
Flyover
Trying not to screw things up worse
One of the trees in my back yard is dead. It's kinda shaped like an arm sticking up out of the ground, with something like half a dozen main "finger" branches spreading out from the "wrist" (where the trunk terminates) at about 7' up. I've been going out there with a hand saw (partly because that's all I've got, partly because it builds character, and partly on principle -- just like all the other times I use hand tools) and gradually working away at it for an hour here and there when I get a chance.
It's been an ongoing project since about November. If it started out with about a dozen "fingers", it's down to 5 or 6 now. I cut down three big ones today. I had to be strategic to make sure they don't fall on my house or my shed.
With a hand saw it's quite a shoulder exercise! I wish I was ambidextrous so I could work out both shoulders more evenly, but as it is, in order to be efficient/effective my weak arm only does about 10% of the cutting and then I have to switch back to my strong arm. Now there's these huge branches lying all over my yard and I'm too exhausted to go saw them up into firewood, and I know I won't get another chance tomorrow or Friday. This weekend maybe. Hopefully it doesn't rain.
It's been an ongoing project since about November. If it started out with about a dozen "fingers", it's down to 5 or 6 now. I cut down three big ones today. I had to be strategic to make sure they don't fall on my house or my shed.
With a hand saw it's quite a shoulder exercise! I wish I was ambidextrous so I could work out both shoulders more evenly, but as it is, in order to be efficient/effective my weak arm only does about 10% of the cutting and then I have to switch back to my strong arm. Now there's these huge branches lying all over my yard and I'm too exhausted to go saw them up into firewood, and I know I won't get another chance tomorrow or Friday. This weekend maybe. Hopefully it doesn't rain.
