Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Go Back in the Water

I don't think I will ever learn.  Never. You know how excited I was to have the shower fixed?  About that.  It seems that our new fixtures have a safety valve installed on the "hot" side, so that when you install them, you don't scald yourself testing for leaks.  Good idea!  The installation instructions are very clear about how to remove said safety valve before you finish installing the plumbing.  There's just one thing:  Walker and his plumber friend did not actually read the instructions.  The safety device that prevents hot water from coming out of the pipe is STILL ON THE DANG THING.  The fixture has to be dismantled to remove it.  And yes, I had a nice, chilly shower this afternoon.  I kept waiting for the water to get  hot.  You think I'd learn by now - let Walker go first!

The other thing is, if I know Walker he will try to fix it himself as soon as I leave for work.  No worries there, right?  At least now he has the instructions.  Hopefully he can get at it without doing anything to the new, expensive acrylic wall. 

Where did I put that bottle of margarita?

It's Done!

Oh. My. God.  Finally - no more mini road trips to take a shower.  The bathroom turned out great.  Walker wanted it lighter and brighter.  I wanted it to "feel" like the beach without doing the whole room in seashells and fishie wall paper.  I think we both got our wish.  The hard part now is waiting 24 hours for the silicone to set before we use it.  My mom's basement shower is fine, but our new shower is better.  For one thing, we don't have to don cold weather gear to get to it.  The only things that still need to be done are to replace the fan light and to add two little pieces of trim wood at the bottom of the wall and the whole bathroom will have been updated. . We've asked three electricians about the fan light, so far.  None of them want to do it, as it involves going into the unfinished attic to hook up the motor to the vent pipe.  I'm so excited to have my bathroom functional again I don't even care. Here are the before and afters:

I loved the wall color we had before, but we couldn't find things to match it other than what we already had..  Walker didn't like the old shower curtain.

This is the "tent" we made inside the shower after the tile started falling off.

We put in that sink and counter top about a year ago.  The old sink was the same wonky color as the old tub.

This is what the shower looked like after  the first day of installation.

Ta~dah! The sink area now.  You can't see it but there is a new high efficiency light fixture under the shelf over the sink.

The new shower!

I Need to Quit Making Plans!

First, the progress: 

 

The guest room was about half done this morning when the bathroom dude showed up to install our new tub and shower surround.  I was feeling pretty confident that I would get it done, and I was already thinking about what other projects I could post about, since this worked so well to keep me motivated.  The salesman that I worked with when we bought this shower system told me that installation usually takes two days, but since we did the demo and plumbing ourselves he thought this installation would be completed in one day.  I guess he didn't share that theory with the installer.  The dude showed up right on time.  He was very nice and got right to work.  Ninety minutes later, he left for the day.  He said he'd finish everything tomorrow. Because I expected the work to be going on all day, I took the night off work.  It was too late to change that, as my coworkers had already adjusted their schedules to cover for me.  So I burned a vacation day.  Also, the installer left all his materials and tools here.  He has a lot of stuff, to the point that I wasn't able to get into the guest room to finish the cleaning.  I was also planning to get the bathroom cleaned up and all the finishing - towel bars, shower curtain rod, etc, installed tonight.  Sigh.  There's always next weekend. 

Project Update

Our shower has been completely dismantled. We have to go to my mom's house to shower now, which isn't so bad as she lives in our neighborhood, but it's dang cold out so I have to dry my hair all the way dry before I come back home. I'm not used to spending so much time bonding with the blow drier.

Walker put the old tile in boxes and left them for the trash collectors. We weren't sure they would take them, but we got lucky. Saves us a trip to the dump. Wahoo! The new plumbing was installed today, the tub and surround go in Monday. We have to wait 24 hours after the installation before we can use it. I'm just glad to be finally getting it done. Today, while I was listing to the smoke alarm go off - again! - from the plumber's blow torch, I was wishing I could afford to just go to a motel until the work was finished. I realized that technically I could, but I'd rather use that money for other things. In the end it all comes down to choices.

Good Lord, He's got a Nail Gun!

I woke this morning to Diva hunting for her snow pants and the most obnoxious humming noise coming from the hall.  When I investigated, I found Walker in the bathroom with an air compressor, tacking trim onto the bathroom walls with a nail gun.  What started as some loose tile in the shower has become a major project.  We pulled the trim, painted the walls and ceiling, and stripped and painted the vanity.  Tomorrow, Walker's uncle is putting in new lighting (which we actually need as the fixture we currently have has a broken ballast) then hopefully, we can end the phone tag with the shower people and I can get the tub and shower system ordered and scheduled for installation.  Walker decided to replace the trim because when he first installed it, several years ago, he couldn't get the mitered corners to line up.  It's been bugging him the whole time.  This time around, he borrowed a compound miter saw from his uncle, which apparently was the missing link before.  The new stuff looks a lot better.  Now if I could just get him to wear safety goggles.....

Update: so I went back into the bathroom to take a photo of my handyman and discovered that he has REMOVED all the trim he just put up.  He said he should have started from the other side, so he's doing it over.  Sigh.