Electricity can be fun!

Plumbing is not.

Published on June 3, 2006 By lifehappens In Blogging

While working on my bathroom remodel, I discovered to my dismay that the wall behind the toilet (next to the tub) had signifigant water damage. Sigh. So I cut the damaged part out today and I will let it air out overnight. Spray it with bleach too. So I had to stop the painting and wait to fix the wall.

I also went to Home Depot to get some fixtures, light and water. They were doing a kid project and Connor built a tool box. He painted it when we got home....green and yellow splotches. I'm glad he go tto do something fun. When we pulled up, he moaned, "OH NO!! We are here again?!?"

Light fixtures are expensive! Plus the original builder centered the light on the sink, not the entire counter so it' looks offcenter. I found a light that would cover the old lightbox and put that up today. Unfortuantely, there is no way to center it and cover the lightbox, so it's still off a bit. But 1/2 inch off is much less noticable than 9 inches! Waa Hoo! One more thing down. It's not what I really wanted, but it was in budget. Well, closer to being in budget. I was WAY off on how much it would cost.

Then on to shower fixtures. I didn't realize that the entire industry has moved to the single handle faucet instead of the 3 handle faucet for the bath. Wow. 400 options narrowed down to 3. I suppose that makes my job easier, but I DON"T like any of the options. Sigh. I finally get one that's a) nto too cheap looking and

not $200. I get home and decide to check it out and make sure I know what I'm doing. After all, I'm not putting them on until after I tile, but I want to be prepared.

GOOD THING I CHECKED!!!! Apparently, not all faucets are made the same. So when you put a new fixture on, you can't use the old pipes, You have to actually remove all the old stuff and put new everything on. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! I ALREADY put up the hardi-backer board. AND do you know how freaking hard that was? It's HEAVY. In fact, I had to cut one piece in half becuase it was too hard to hold in place and nail it in at the same time!

Breathe.

Breathe.

Breathe.

That's okay. I can deal with this. I have 3 options.
1-call a plumber. Tear down the sheetrock and put in new pipes. (In which case, I'll take the old stuff back to HD and get a one faucet setup)
2-go back to HD and see if the ultra-cheap (looking, not priced) set is the same brand and will fit on my existing pipes. or
3- hope that my tub spontaniously grows new pipes overnight.

Actually, I already called a plumber. This way I don't have to wait all day for him to come. I scheduled it for Monday afternoon. Now I have between now and then to see if I can find and adapter for the pipes or if the cheap stuff will work. At $80 an hour, I'm not happy with that. Plus, I'm at budget now, the rest of the money was for a family vacation. Sigh."

Comments

Dr Guy

on Jun 03, 2006

Plumbing is a nightmare, but it wont kill you. Lectricity will! (I took it in HS).

AngelaMarie88

on Jun 05, 2006

3- hope that my tub spontaneously grows new pipes overnight.

That's definitely the option I'd hold out for. How'd it go?

lifehappens

on Jun 06, 2006

I opted to go try and find cheap-o replacements. Guess What? Lowes and Home Depot do not carry what I wanted and the "universal" replacements were AWFUL. So back to the handy-dandy plumbing supply store. The pros that frequent this place are always really nice to me when I stop in to ask questions. They carried the right part at 1/3 of the price the big places wanted. Waaa Hoo!

I decided that I'm not living here forever. I'm not going to spend $287 to have a plumber come in and fix it. (And then spend $200 on the fixtures that I *really* liked) once again the cheapskate in me helped me decide what to do!

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