Thursday, January 14, 2010

Remodeling the Bathroom

I hate home repairs/remodeling. For those readers of the In Your Neighborhood blog spot might have seen my posts about getting the south side of our house in Ilwaco, WA resided. It turned into a disaster. The contractor, who will remain nameless, bought and installed the wrong windows, promised to change them and then disappeared. Over last winter the shingles began coming off the side of the house and my husband had to make repairs last summer because the contractor was nowhere to be found.

In the past we’ve had trouble with a shady character my husband hired to finish reroofing our house in Gig Harbor when the sun and height began to take a toll on him. Had I been home at the time Dave struck a deal with this man I would have put a stop to it, but I was in Ilwaco. That mess had to be corrected by a professional roofing company and it would have been cheaper to hire them in the first place.

There was the Gig Harbor kitchen remodel. Following a little kitchen fire the insurance company recommended a particular outfit to do the repairs. It took them three months to do it while I washed dishes in the old sink set on saw horses on the patio and cooked on a barbecue. Thank goodness it was summer. We ate out quite a lot, but that gets old pretty fast and rounding up four people to go out three times a day is a pain in the youknowwhat.

Now the time has come to do some more remodeling. We’ve drug our feet and cannot any longer. For a while we’ve had a little leak from the upstairs bathroom into the downstairs little bedroom which has served as my son’s “art room.” What was a little spot of mold on the ceiling has become two spots the size of tennis balls. Because the house was built in 1972 and remodeled in 1980 the fixtures, etc. are dated and ugly. We knew that if we ever want to sell the place that having updated bathrooms would be important. Our daughter-in-law and grandson’s departure for two months in Brazil seemed a good time to get the work done since the art room is going to become a bedroom for grandson so before Christmas I began to look around for a contractor.

Although the disappeared contractor had been a recommendation, I asked some coworkers who they would recommend and came upon someone who seems honest. The work will begin on Monday, Dave's second day of "retirement," and I will let you know how it goes. If things go well I will tell you who we got. If they don't...

“What fun,” my mother exclaimed. Yes, packing up all our vitamins, medicines, cleaning products and supplies along with the linens and our entire closet is sure fun.

6 comments:

Lorrene said...

I had one of those shady repairmen once. He did most of the job, but gave me some song and dance about needing the money up front before he could finish the job. I never saw or heard from him again.

Kim Thompson said...

I'm with you-I hate home repair/remodel stuff!

Stephanie Frieze said...

Grandma L, that's exactly what happened to us two years ago in Ilwaco. The character weedled more and more money out of my husband and never finished everything he was supposed to do.

Kim, you will have to come over and use the bathroom.

Keleigh said...

If it doesn't work out, let me know; after 15 years of trial and (mostly) error, I actually have a guy that does great work!

Stephanie Frieze said...

Thanks Keleigh! My fingers are crossed on this. The demo begins Monday. If this works out we have another bathroom that needs to be brought into the 21st century.

Lorraine Hart said...

Ooh-la...how I hate ze remodeling no? Back in NY, my husband totally remodeled his Grandmother's house...bought by her mother in 1917. Nothing had been done...wiring was dangerous...and the plumbing was iron pipes, all stopped-up. The shower was tin-lined and sounded like thunder when you leaned against it...as one little dribble of water came out of the showerhead.

Hubby was happy as you-know-what doing it...and I just kept leaving and coming home when something was done. It was absolutely gorgeous when it was done...and selling it enabled us to move out to Washington State. Happy Ending!