I woke up angry Wednesday morning. Steam coming out of my ears angry - just like in a cartoon.
What made me so angry? My bathroom. All the problems I've had with my bathroom and no one listening to me when someone came to fix them (like me saying - there's still a leak and the man ignoring me and finishing the drywall).
I have superhero hearing and can often hear things only dogs and hawks can so when I say I can hear something it's usually true, yet no one else can confirm the sound.
One time I called my apartment manager and told her I thought there was a leak in my shower pipes in the wall. She came to listen and thought I was crazy. Several weeks later, my wall started getting wet and when the worker opened up my wall, he discovered a pinhole leak springing from one of my pipes.
Friday, May 23, 2008 - Workers removed my bathroom ceiling and part of my walls due to water damage (independent of the shower pipe leak - a new leak - yippee!). Their number one priority was finding the leak that caused the damage in the first place. They claimed they couldn't find anything.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - Workers put up new drywall in my bathroom.
Thursday, May 29, 2008 - the spot on my wall where the water damage was the worst started showing again. I told them that the leak had not been fixed and showed them the new water damage. The workers told me it was how the drywall tape dried (um, drywall tape is not supposed to bubble and change color when it dries - how do I know this? I've helped my dad put up drywall before).
Friday, May 30, 2008 -The workers sanded, primed and supposedly put two coats of paint on my bathroom walls all within a few hours (did anyone say dry time?). They also broke my bathroom light fixture, got paint on my fancy environmental light bulbs, scratched my counter (with long cut marks) and put holes in my floor.
They promised my apartment manager that the work was guaranteed.
A month later my walls started to split and crack. I lived with the damage since I didn't particularly enjoy moving my bathroom to my bedroom for two weeks and spending an extra 30-40 minutes each day cleaning up my bathroom so I can use it. Plus, going into Fall and the holidays - my time was limited and blocking out time for workers to tear through my bathroom just wasn't happening.
Saturday, December 13, 2008 - It starts raining in Los Angeles which quickly turns into a downpour. Just around 11:30pm Saturday night - it starts raining in my bathroom.
Cliffhanger! Tune in tomorrow - same bat time, same bat channel - to find out about the joy of indoor rain and the love of bathroom ceiling holes. I promise that tomorrow's post will be bliss-filled and uplifting.
How do you embrace challenges? What's one thing you can do when you're angry? Allow the anger? Question the cause? Get to the bottom of what's really going on?
I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries.
I have experience along these lines! Few things can cause me to become unglued as much as dealing with people who "fix" things and a non working bathroom, including walls, floors, and ceilings. Bathrooms are nonnegotiable! Truth be told other parts of the home are, too. It is all so unsettling to my sense of order.
Posted by: Toni | January 15, 2009 at 09:17 AM