Feeling Flush

Before

Back in June, a dear old friend had offered to do an amazing thing. In his semi-retirement, he puts in new bathrooms for friends in need. His dad was a plumber and I think he uses this endeavor to help his friends, feel close to his father and brother and to stay pretty fit.

During

At the time, my teeny, two bedroom/one bath house held 3 ½ people. This friend proposed to add a decent sized master bath off the back of my bedroom and then add a utility bath/laundry room off the back of the garage and then gut my horrible existing bath and do a makeover. Well, in a perfect world that would have worked out great but, and that's a big BUT, the city "Historical Society" got wind of the changes to my 1920 Spanish style and wanted to have their input before the planning committee had its say. Needless to say time passed and passed. Finally, in an effort to get anything done, my friend asked if he could start with the existing bath, promising that it would be pretty quick and that we would not be without a toilet. Hesitantly I agreed. First day of construction I got a call....."Got some good news and some bad news" he said. I cannot even remember what the good news was. Apparently the leak, that I was aware of, was more extensive than originally thought. The old tub was nearly falling through the floor. The sub-flooring and support beams had to be replaced. What ensued was basically NO bathroom what-so-ever for about 4 weeks and then, finally, a working toilet. A little over 9 weeks without the ability to bath with anything but a wash cloth.

Almost finished

A club membership saved our butts (ahem) and a Port-a-potty in the back yard for emergencies .... fun times. We are near the end of this little redo journey....a few details here and there. The city still has not approved the plans for the two additional bathrooms but who cares....I have a working toilet and a warm shower so all is well in my universe.

Grateful beyond words.