Home Improvement

No weather maps today, even though the outer bands of Hurricane Ian are already beginning to encroach on the southern edges of my radar area, because this afternoon restoration of my bathroom was finally complete!

One morning last March, I happened to notice a small little puddle of water on the floor just in front of the water closet and shower above.  The puddle was no larger in area than a dollar bill folded in half, but as I hadn't even been in that part of the house for at least 12 hours, I couldn't figure where it had come from. I wiped it up with a paper towel, but later that day it reappeared.  I couldn't find a leak, so I called a plumber to investigate.

Long story short, within 48 hours by bathroom look like this:

It got worse - if only my bathroom looked that good again over the next six months! They wound up tearing out the tile flooring and the remaining wood floor, and completely demolishing the counter and drawers.  Various combinations of delayed responses from Allstate, different contractors prioritizing other clients over this job, and supply-side issues caused the work to stretch out over an unconscionable duration.  

But they finally finished today. They replaced the wood and tile flooring with the faux slate in the top picture, and had a whole new set of drawers constructed and installed.  Off-site construction of the drawers took the longest time of all and was responsible for much of the delay.

So six months later, I finally have a restored bathroom - almost, but not quite as good as before in some respects, and actually improved in others.

Now, with Hurricane Ian approaching, I'm reminded of the fact that the last home improvement project I undertook - replacing my old leaky roof - was completed shortly before Hurricane Zeta dropped a tree on the house and wrecked that new roof.  Here's to Ian leaving this job unscathed!