Guilty to all of the above and many more. Have been known to take a couple of seed pods from plants I've seen in shopping center medians or the parks. I just figured I had RESCUED a few seeds that needed to be transplanted somewhere else. (Like my place) LOL I have even dug tulips up that were in a bar ditch. They are the ones that multiply like crazy and come back year after year. There use to be an old farm house there and now it's just an empty pasture and the tulips take up about 5 acres. Of course when the maintainers (big heavy road equipmnet) come in and grade the road several times a year they throw a ton of dirt on them. They are at least a ft deep in dirt on the side of the road now. I really should go dig some again next spring so I can have some at this house. LOL I've also called real estate people and ask if I can harvest seeds from houses I see for sale or rent that might have a flower or something I'm interested in. LOL Yelp, we're all addicts but I'd rather be a flower/garden/plant addict than any other kind. However when your not working and can't even afford to send postage to others for plant swaps it's not good. You suffer from empty mailbox syndrome. Happy Gardening all you Addicts and Enablers! Love Marian

HOW MUCH ! I wish I would have seen your post before you paid that. The guy @ the shop was full Of S*@%. Sorry for the language but I get very upset when I hear about an unscrupulious/ dishonest Mechanic. If your car came into my shop and we did the same work, You would be out of there for under $ 400.00 and @ that price I'm still making a few bucks. But when one of these so called Pros rips off an unsuspecting consumer, it just gives HONEST MECHANICS another black eye. I've attached a listing for a Catalytic converter ,that fits your car, from one of my suppliers. This is one of 4 suppliers that I can get these from. I am sorry that you where taken for a ride but hopefully it won't happen again. Good luck ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1995 Lexus ES300 Catalytic Converter $155.99 Engine: IMZFE Engine Year Range: 1994 - 1996 Brand: DEC Notes: Direct Fit Catalytic Converter Unit Shipping Options: Overnight, 2-Day or Ground OEM Converters View All Exhaust Catalogs

I leveled the floor in our upstairs bathroom. It was out by 4-1/2 inches over a distance of 7 feet, but I might have left it alone except that the flooring and plumbing needed replacement anyway. I tore up the old subfloor, exposed the joists (which were placed in a pretty haphazard way). I sistered new joists onto those and cut tapered strips which I secured to the old joists, effectively making a 4"x8" joist. This also made it easier to install new plumbing. The most expensive part will be replacing the flooring, because I am using tile instead of the original linoleum. I chose to do this instead of jacking the whole wing of the house because I didn't see much sign that the foundation was still sinking. If there is something going on like rot or a collapsing foundation, that's a different call. The room was small, 7'x9', so nothing was real costly. Aside from my labor, there was probably less than $500 in materials, including the plumbing. Tile will add another $400-$500. Old houses are "old", and you can spend a lot of money trying to make them level and plumb, at which point they are still "old".

First off, that is not a J-bend. A J-bend is a straight length of pipe with a 90deg bend on the end. The pipe is question here has a 180deg bend and it is properly called a "Return Bend". When that return bend was initially made they began by making a straight return bend without a cleanout hole. They then drilled a hole at the cleanout location slightly smaller than the desired finished opening and the tubular brass of the bend was then swaged out to form the finished shape and size at the cleanout location. A short piece of threaded brass tubing was then inserted into the opening and soldered in place and finally they screwed the cleanout cap on the end of the threaded brass tubing. In this case over time the threaded brass tubing corroded and fused into the cleanout cap so that when the cleanout cap was turned instead of the cap unscrewing the solder joint broke and the treaded tube came out of the return bend. If you examine the section of brass tubing extending out of the cap in the last photo you can see where it was originally soldered into the tubing. That problem is quite common when working with old tubular brass fittings and generally Plumbers do not even attempt to remove the plug, but rather they take the entire return bend off to open the line for cleanout. It was mentioned that this is an "S" trap, which is illegal, but that is not correct. It is true that S-traps are now prohibited by code and may no longer be used for Plumbing, but here we run into an issue of semantics. "Plumbing is defined as the act of initially installing a piping system whereas the act of repairing an existing system is defined as "Maintenance". When performing Maintenance we are required to maintain exactly the original configuration, therefore given that an S-trap was code approved when that line was first installed you are required to replace it with an S-Trap. If you were to move that sink or do a rehab on the bathroom that involved changing the location of any fixtures or the physical configuration of any of the piping you would then be performing an act of plumbing and as such, all plumbing within that room would have to be brought up to the code that is in effect at the time the rehab is performed.