Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Calcified Infirmities - Pt. 2

Maybe this one isn't calcified at all!!

So, this past summer we had our hall bath redone. It was really a nightmare and I think we are still recovering from it. We chose a family business to complete the job, their bid came in about $3,000 less than anyone else, and now I know why!! They are bathroom remodelers at all - they are just plumbers. For starters, I can't think of one thing they did correctly in the entire room, except for maybe the floor tile. It was installed correctly, just not ordered in the correct amount! Here is a list of my biggest complaints (I'll leave out the little ones):

1. The five day job turned into a two month job.
2. The toilet (they ordered that incorrectly, also) tank sits at least 4 inches away from the wall - could they have possibly ordered or installed this incorrectly?????
3. They totally busted the vanity cabinet when they installed it. It is cracked, uneven and has huge gaps under the countertop. They never put the drawer/cabinet pulls on and I never reminded them - enough damage already! They also ruined the inside of the cabinet (3 TIMES) by putting a can of adhesive down, lifting it up pulling off the finish. They suggested spray painting it!
4. The medicine cabinet, when they went to install it, had a big crack in the back of it. Thinking they would be done in a week, I just had them install it because it would take a couple weeks to order and receive a new one. 2 months later, I wish we had just ordered the new one!
5. All the dry wall work they said they would do, about half of it is finished.
6. After 3 trips to the home improvement store to purchase enough of the tile floor trim (which they installed incorrectly at the corners), the very last day they were here they actually finished the job with one last piece of trim that does not even come close to matching any of the other pieces of trim.
7. I had to finish caulking - yeah, me. With the "Quick Caulk" they left in the bathroom drawer. I thought that stuff was for touch ups, not for the whole bathroom, but what do I know??
8. Finally, attention to detail was never a forte throughout this entire job, but even worse was the lack of knowledge these guys had. The tile for the shower, which we have almost 2 extra boxes of! Apparently did come with bullnose tile. We decided to trim the shower with white tile to go with the rope border tile that they never ordered the pencil trim tile that was supposed to go above and below it. When they were almost finished the tiling, guess what they found? The bullnose tiles in the trim tile box. Now, why didn't these guys know that's where it would be.

Bottom line, I was so excited to have this bathroom done. T never likes to spend any amount of money of redecorating so this was big for me. Of course, he went off to Brazil while I stayed home for all this drama, lived without a shower for a couple weeks, got locked out of my own house by these bathroom guys, but still happy to be having this project we'd waited almost 4 years to complete. Today, this bathroom is still not done. Why? Because I have so many reasons why!! Bottom line, it did not measure up to my expectations, and when I am in that bathroom, all I see are the things that are wrong with it that should have been fixed but we were too chicken to make them fix. This is why I have high blood pressure (among several other reasons!).

Today in the mail I got a little notice that we still owe these guys money. I'd love to call them up and say "Come on over and pick up your check!! While you are here, let me show you all the things you messed up in my bathroom!" Instead, we'll put a little check in the mail and never call these guys again, and I'll just sit back here in my house with my messed up bathroom and be irritated with T because he didn't say anything either!!

So, my calcified infirmity? I'm feeling like a bunch of them are surfacing through this experience! Probably the least recognizable is my fear of standing up for what I know is right. I hate confrontation. It's so much easier for me to confront the people I love than it is for me to make strangers fix a problem they created. It ends up being misdirected anger and it's usually my family who pays the price. I'll have to delve into this a bit deeper, but it's one issue for now!

Off to write a check....

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