So, my house, let me tell you...

[etakyma]

So my father has been promising to have someone come in and retile my bathroom for over a year. I've not taken an honest-to-god stand up shower in my own bathroom for about four years now, because the tile was literally falling off the walls and there were great gaping holes in the tub surround that you could put your head through.

I've been saving money for the home improvements I need to make - but Dad promised to do the whole retile project as a gift. Because he's like that. And also my brother is frustrating him because *he* won't allow my dad to hire people to work on his house. So over a year he's been talking about what I want and getting people in and all of that.

I was all, fine, whatever, make it clean and pretty. Plain white tile, cobalt blue trim, replace the vanity. Simple, clean, NOT fifties dirty blue and black (really, tiny bathroom, and they decided BLACK wallpaper was the way to go? Really? Ew.) which was what I had before.

The vanity was a piece of crap (coming apart and never could stay clean, and like vinyl covered particleboard or something skeezy like that), and the sink was shaped so that your feet got wet when you washed your hands. Yup. Screwed up bathroom.

So what does my dad decide to do? Schedule the work for the week I am in Dallas on vacation. Sure, I don't mind having anonymous guys in my house while I am away. Sure, I'll move all my furniture WHILE I PACK so they have space to work in. Yeah, I'll be just fine with all that.

So I was in Dallas, and I get phone calls regarding how I want the tile to go in, and you must pick out a new vanity and shower fixtures over the phone, and btw we finally found the water shut-off valve for the house. Right. No problem if I've never seen the vanity, or the shower fixtures, or anything. I'll just trust it all goes in correctly. Right?

Um. Well. Not so much. I mean MOST of it is perfect and lovely, and just right. But one thing. You see, the pipes in the house are a little... odd in the bathtub. The hot water pipe is on the RIGHT not the LEFT. And the cold water pipe is on the LEFT not the RIGHT. And the plumber, not thinking anyone would mess up piping a house like that, installed his shit and went on his merry way.

Except now my shower starts with hot water and mixes in the cold, instead of starting with cold water and mixing in the hot (and since mine is a tankless system, the hot comes out of the tap really fucking hot - straight from the furnace). OUCH! So he has ordered a part that will go in the mixer and reverse the flow and he is coming back tomorrow to install it. He was very puzzled, because even when I told him twice what I thought was wrong, he didn't believe me for the longest time. BECAUSE it is BUG-FUCK CRAZY ass shit! Nobody installs pipes in a house like that! It's like they were on LSD when they built this funhouse. Except it was the fifties, so probably not.

So while I had my first stand up shower in my new bathroom this morning, I scalded myself pretty good trying to mix in enough cold. Tomorrow, that should be fixed. But had I BEEN here, this all could have been avoided, because I could have told him the pipes were screwy like that - since, hello, been living with it for the past eight years.

But yeah, showers are good things. And while I like the occasional soak in the tub, it gets old when it's your only choice. Waiting for the tub to fill is a pain in the ass. Sometimes, you just want a quick hot shower. And now I can have one whenever I want!

I just have to paint and hang a new medicine cabinet/mirror and the bathroom will be done! nd the money I've saved will go into the next phase of fixing up the house - the kitchen - or maybe the flooring! Exciting life I lead, huh?

Comments

[ksl2025.livejournal.com]

New bathroom....nice. Even if it came with a bit more angst than such things should have.
And it isn't entirely uncommon for pipes to end up reversed. Pain in the ass, but not uncommon. Thinking there were a lot more plumbers who didn't know right from left than anyone ever realized. Oy.
Glad you can at least get the plumber to come back and fix the problem.

[conjured-1.livejournal.com]

Well, yaye! for new bathroom. And who knows if hard headed plumber would have listened the first time out. He's a man, they know more...pppfffttt! LOL You might have had to have him come again anyway. Old houses are the best, I'm telling ya!

I really want to see said bathroom. Keeping fingers crossed that I will soon!

[jennclack.livejournal.com]

Yay for showers! I love home improvement projects. Sounds exciting to me. My next project involves busting a huge hole in my bedroom wall so I'm probably not going to get that done for a long time. Can't deal with it anytime soon. Have fun with your next project!

[elfundeb.livejournal.com]

So, how do your sight-unseen vanity and shower fixtures look? Decisions like that would have reduced me to a blubbering blob of jelly.

[etakyma.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, my plumber hadn't ever come across it before, and he said he didn't even think to run the pipes before installing everything (to be fair, the tile guys were *in* the tub at the time). But the little part he installed today did the trick, and cold water comes out when the dial is at C and hot water comes out when the dial is at H. Took maybe twenty minutes.

[etakyma.livejournal.com]

Fingers, toes, and everything else crossable! And it was more he couldn't *believe* what I was telling him because it was just so crazy. He called it in and they stood around talking about how bizarre it was, and there is this part available for when things are installed wrong and it just swaps the flow, etc. etc. etc. Anyway, I should be done having workmen traipse through my house for a while!

[etakyma.livejournal.com]

A... hole... in your bedroom wall...

Do tell, why, when, and... oh yeah - *why*?

[etakyma.livejournal.com]

Not bad at all, actually. The whole bathroom is *teeny* *tiny* (about five-and-a-half feet by seven feet - really small!) and it is the only one in the house. And since the five-year (to seven-year) plan includes fixing up the house to *sell* it, I wanted updates, and clean lines, and all the chrome to match well enough.

And I got that! So while the choices were kind of taken out of my hands, and it is all pretty darned basic stuff, I think it ended up working pretty well. Also, in the area I live in anything more elaborate would be ridiculous and not fit well with what I could get for the house. No granite counters in the bathroom, no marble tile, etc. While it might be nice to *have* something that nice, I wouldn't get it back in resale.

And hey, no more tile falling off the walls! I count it as a win.

[jennclack.livejournal.com]

We don't have a door to the backyard that is inside the house. You have to go into the garage and out the back door. So I want to put french doors in our bedroom that would lead out to the patio. But then I'd want a deck put in as well. So it's going to turn into a huge project. I think I'll wait until next summer. Jeff is off in the summer and can build the deck then. I think I'll actually hire a professional to do the hole making. I don't think I want Jeff messing with the electrical stuff involved. So that's why I'll have a big hole in my wall. : )