But I have a timeline!
Thursday evening, I was cleaning the tile around the tub at the house, in preparation to have the bathtub refinished the next day. What do you know, the drain stopped up and the water wouldn't go down! That's pretty much a disaster, as we had to have the refinishing done on Friday and today, or we wouldn't meet the schedule. I knew they would need a functioning drain.
So, Thursday night I called as many plumbers as I could, but no one could come out in the morning. Friday morning, my handyman Greg suggested I call the other handyman, Gustavo, for help. Gustavo may not be a contractor, but he has built houses, done electrical work, done lots of plumbing—you name it. When I called him, he was on his way to a job but agreed to take a side trip to take a look at the drain.
Of course, it was pouring buckets yesterday. Because it has rained for months, there is water under the house. Unfortunately, Gustavo had to go under the house to remove the pipe. I looked for all the cardboard I could find to put down for him, but he still ended up covered with mud. I felt bad not only because of that, but because he had his wife and precious little girl (dressed head to toe in pink) with him.
The whole repair took a couple of hours to complete—very messy hours. Gustavo was my hero for doing this at the last minute. I paid him cash and thanked him profusely as he headed off to the other job. What would I have done without him?
The tub drain was fixed in time, but wouldn't you know, the refinisher did not show up as scheduled. Car trouble on the bridge meant that in the end, he was over FOUR HOURS late. I had nothing to do at the house but try to keep warm (it's freezing until we get the heater fixed) and pace. When he arrived, I told him how to lock-up when he was done, promised to meet him early this morning, and headed out. There are some things that I don't need to supervise.
When we arrived back at the house this morning, I opened the door to the most noxious smell ever. I had a migraine already. Being faced with a smell akin to a thousand women getting their hands manicured was too much. I think I started to lose some of my vision in the haze of pain. I ran to the hardware store for supplies once we got the refinisher started. While I was gone, he told Kathy that he removed the caulking around the tub, but that the gap was too big to re-caulk and we would have to grout it. Only, we needed to make sure to use special delicate surface masking tape because, in the process of re-grouting, we could ruin the whole refinishing job.
Ack!
He also left the list of instructions about what you can and can't do with a refinished bathtub. It leaves me wondering, "Can people bath in it? Will that damage it?" Here's what I mean:
- Do not leave standing water in the tub; always wipe it down.
- Don't leave wet towels or wash cloths on the tub.
- Don't drop large shampoo bottles on the surface.
- Don't apply bathtub mats that have suction cups.
- Don't use plastic toys in the tub.
After reading the list, head pounding, I could feel my stress level rising. I thought, great, during re-grouting they'll mask it off, do the grout, then take off the tape…and the refinishing will PEEL AWAY, I just know it! Refinishing isn't cheap -- it cost $550 for this tub.
Luckily, our real estate agent called in time to hear the drama. Injecting a voice of reason, she said, "Oh, hell, we'll just caulk it again. We're selling the damn place and besides, caulking worked before!"
48 hours of Alix-brand emotional spiraling was cut short with those two sentences. Thank you, Cindy.
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