Bathroom Updates on Halloween

The bathroom is driving me nuts.  The last I mentioned this room the floor had been laid, toilet set in place and new shower ready to go.  The contractors promised to be back in a couple of days to repair the plaster and install a larger door.

The delays began almost immediately.  The workers were supposed to complete the work last Wednesday but never showed up.  I heard they got tied up on a job and it was relayed to me that they would be here on Saturday.  Saturday my son sends me a text telling me they would be here Monday instead.  Monday, you got it, no phone call and no guys showing up to work.

Monday, being Halloween, I had plans to be away for the night with these two cuties.

Each Halloween I spend the night at my son’s house where I sit outside bundled up in layers to hand out treats so both mom and dad can experience trick or treating with their children.  This year was the nicest night so far being that the temperatures only fell to the low 50s and the first year I was close to comfortable sitting outside.

This was the first house the children visited.  My grandson had spent the last couple of weeks gazing at “Monster” and couldn’t wait to get close to it.   Having recently turned two this was the first year that he really got what Halloween was all about.  Dressing up and getting candy makes this one of his favorite days.

I, on the other hand, hate these big plastic blow up things but I was able to look beyond my personal feelings and enjoy the neighbor’s excitement.  The family recently moved here from a large city where crime was so bad that no decorations could be outside and to safely hand out treats they stood behind the fence surrounding their yard and stuck candy through the holes in the fence.  Watching these homeowners’ having fun was almost as enjoyable as watching the children.

Back at my House

Just in case the workers decided to show up Tuesday morning I left the key outside and had my son message them as to where they could find it.  Sure enough, I arrived home to find the guys working!

That’s the good news. The bad news is that almost everything they did that day needs to be redone. Here are some pictures of the problem areas.

Love the new bathroom door and happy to see the outside door and the bathroom door won’t open into each other any more.  Problem is this is all the further the door will close without being forced.

This door came with the framing attached so the only way they could have messed this up is to not have properly installed the frame.

When their boss realized I planned to put in a larger door he said he would do that for me. I asked if he could leave me one of the flooring pieces so I could lay it when done. He shrugged me off and said he had  plenty leftover and would lay it for me.  Guess his guys didn’t know that.

Instead of replacing the last piece of flooring (which is easy to do by the way you simply use a hair dryer to heat the glue strip and lift it off), they filled the gap between the floor and the door jamb with plaster!  Plaster? Are you freaking kidding me?

The door frame was enlarged only on the side by the shower so imagine my surprise when I spotted more plaster on the other side of the door frame.

So what about the plastering on the walls?  They did a lovely job of that. I was impressed by how seamlessly they blended the texturing in the existing plaster to the patches. But then there was this gap they completely skipped.

This is the corner between the toilet and the shower base.  This small section had water damage so needed to come out. Yes, I do plan to add baseboards in here but I’ll need to smooth out the plaster before I can do that.

Another thing that bothers me is how the flooring was cut to fit around the water line.  With this flooring the guys had to cut a slit to make the hole or remove the valve to shut off the water. They opted to slice the flooring from the wall to the water line to fit it.  Problem with this is that now the flooring doesn’t lay flat so cleaning this area is going to be a pain.  The instructions for the flooring state that if any seams or corners want to lift up to secure them with super glue. I’ll probably try to secure this section with super glue but I have no idea if the glue will adhere to the tile underneath.

And the guys were messy.  After caulking the shower they left caulk all over the vanity top, faucet and even all over the front of my cabinets.  This is after scrubbing and working on this one section for a while.  I have lots of caulking to clean up even today.

So that’s where the bathroom stands. I can touch up the paint, but have a lot of cleaning still to do and will have to hold off on finishing work such as the trim around the door and baseboards until the problems have been repaired.