The Plumber from Hell

I had asked my son for a good plumber. He recommended a company his company uses. I called them on Monday, and it took until noon for them to call me back. I was in no hurry. It was a job that I just wanted done before guests...before the wedding. Our middle bathroom potty rocked. The flange is old cast iron that is rotted away, and the bolt was not holding on one side anymore. Hence, the potty shifts and if you lean over when upon it, it leans with you. I could just imagine dire things happening with guests. The dang thing clogs easily as it is.

The plumbing company head honcho promised he knew exactly what to do. And promptly passed the job off to someone who called about 2 hours later and said they would be by today, and call at 8am before arriving at 8:30am to do the job. I knew Bob was wanting to empty the potty and get it out of the way to save them time. And so, Monday night, Bob did the hard part. I should have let him heft it into the garage and hide it. Oh, such regrets...

Because when the "plumber" finally showed at 11am after no calls at all, he was dirty, and had obviously been busy at a feed lot somewhere and by the time he finished installing a new flange, he left more work and a bigger mess than the original job. The grit and grime and waxy smudges were not to be believed. $160. 00 for one hours work. I even found dirty smudges on the front door latch from one of his many trips in and out. And the black powder ground into the tiles took scrubbing and bleaching. I scrubbed, and scrubbed that floor. I wiped smudges off the walls, and potty and floor. I dumped bleach upon the tile and grout after vacuuming. And opened the window and set up the fan to send the fumes outside.

Whoa. If the guy had done a descent job, we might have asked for an estimate on the bathtub repairs needed next. But, no way now. The potty lid is all scratched and ruined. I guess he set a tool box on it or something. I should have waited until Bob could be home to supervise. No telling what kind of flange he installed. Probably plastic. And it will be all for nothing if Bob pulls the potty for remodeling and the thing comes off.

What a day. What a nightmare. I was literally mopping the floor on my hands and knees balling my eyes out at the awful mess. It looked like a bomb had gone off in there. And all I could think of was trying to get it clean and sterile for our granddaughter to use in a few weeks. Good grief.

Bob had to get down on his hands and knees to clean behind the potty where I could not reach, and we went through a dozen wet wipes as he kept coming up with brown and filings. If only I'd let Bob hide the potty in the garage, he would have had to wrestle it back, but at least he could have seen the job and see if it was done properly, and see if we got our money's worth. And then the potty lid would not have gotten scratched. If only.

Oh, well. Always something with a house.