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September 4, 2012

You've Got to be Kidding Me...

When the Hubs and I found out I was knocked up at the beginning of 2012, we made a plan:  Remodel the Downstairs and Main Bathrooms, add 700 sq feet more wood flooring and finish the steps all before the third trimester.  Basically, work our booties off for 6 straight months so that at the end of it all, the house would be in order, and there would be nothing left to do but rest and decorate our little one's nursery.   You know, the fun stuff.   And then this not-so-fun thing happened.


Picture me in the Dinning Room one evening, seated at the table sewing some crib sheets for the Nursery.  Captain Chaos was fast asleep and the Hubs went upstairs to take a shower, so I was enjoying the quiet moment listening to some music and creating items for my little baby's new room.  Bliss.  

Suddenly: Drip.  Drip.  Drip.  At first I thought I was imagining things... maybe I bumped the vase and spilled some water.  But there it is again... and it's definitely coming from the ceiling.  A slow but obvious drip.  That's when I took a look up and noticed this little brown spot on the ceiling:


And the rust that appeared to be building up on our gorgeous new chandelier. 


My heart sank, and I knew that what appeared to be a little problem on the exterior, was going to be a lot larger inside.  I can't believe we didn't notice it sooner actually, but to be fair we don't spend a lot of time in the Dining Room, and certainly never when someone is in the shower upstairs.  And really- how often do you look up and inspect your ceilings?

For those of you that have been reading this blog for awhile, you know that this isn't the first time our Dining Room ceiling has been ripped open.  The Master Bathroom that Bath Crashers created for us is located directly above the Dining Room, and the first hole happened when one of the Bath Crashers contractors literally fell through the ceiling while working, and the second hole happened again about 2 weeks after they left when we found the first water leak.  From the look of the rust on the light we knew that this slow leak in the ceiling had been going on for a long time, most likely the full year since Bath Crashers left.  We immediately contacted our show's producers to tell them what was going on and show them the photos, and they replied, "You're on your own on this one.  Have a nice weekend."  Fan-friggin-tastic. 

Step #1 was to take down the light.  Bad. News.  As it started to come down rusty brown water immediately began pouring out of the top of the fixture.  The electrical wiring was discolored from the rust and literally sitting in a puddle of water.  It is a miracle that our house didn't start on fire any one of the hundreds of times we've flipped that light switch on and off this past year.  I didn't get a picture of the moment, because we were too busy panicking (or cursing if you're the Hubs.)  Here's what the top of our fixture looks like now though, imagine 1/2" of standing water in there.




Step #2- Cut open the ceiling.  The good news is that we have a great friend that is a plumber, and was willing to come over to take a look.  The bad news is the only way to find out what's wrong is to open up the ceiling. We started at the most obvious and still damp brown spot, and unfortunately had to make our way across the ceiling. 

 

 All the while finding damaged wood, soaking insulation, and puddles of brown water.  Awesome.


And to our surprise we found, not one, not two, but three leaks in the plumbing of our "new," fancy & expensive Bath Crashers shower.   The biggest one was coming from this drain pipe that was never sealed correctly with ABS glue.

The black shiny stuff at the joint is the glue that holds the seal.  There was no glue on large portions of the seal when we opened it up.
The next leak was coming from the trough drain that was installed.  They never used any grout or silicone to seal where the drain and the tile came together, so water got up under the tile and leaked down through the ceiling. 

 

The third leak is much more unfortunate, as it is coming specifically from one of the body sprays in the shower.  We're pretty sure that there is a leak at the connection point, which is in the wall of the shower, and we're still waiting to find out if we're going to have to tear out the tile in the shower to fix it.  I don't want to talk about it.


Even if the tile doesn't have to be torn out, we still have the issue of repairing that ceiling, which means patching, scraping, skim coating and sanding.  And can I say that for this pregnancy, I've had enough of that?


Especially now that I look more like this:

This happy photo was clearly taken before we had to rip holes in our ceiling.
So much for having all the tough work done and enjoying the third trimester.  Now its all systems go to get the plumbing fixed and the ceiling closed back up before baby gets here, as I definitely don't want all that Sheetrock dust around for baby to breathe in (much less the rest of the family.)  Wish us luck, Lord knows we're going to need it.

15 comments:

  1. Oh my god, Erin! What on earth?? I'm not especially impressed with Bath Crashers by now. Between the plumbing issues you'd already encountered, the number of items left unfinished after filming was cut, and now this? Seriously, you need to file a complaint with somebody (I have no idea who).

    I am so, so sorry! I hope you get it all resolved quickly and easily. Woman, don't DIY this one! Hire it out and relax some. Surely your insurance could cover that?

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  2. Boy, nothing is truly free, is it. I truly appreciate you being the cautionary tale for these types of shows. Somethings just weren't meant to be done in 3 days.... All my best to you, and I hope that your insurance company is way more awesome than the bath crashers team.

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    1. Somehow in our craziness, I didn't even think about filing an insurance claim. Thanks for the advice Carrie, we'll give that a try. *fingers crossed*

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  3. I feel so bad for you guys! I can't imagine how stressful this must be - especially with a little one running around and another on the way!
    The show really won't do anything to help?!? That is disgusting! I wonder if you contacted the Network and got word out there? If all else fails, call Mike Holmes! :)
    I wish you all the luck and hope you can get it all taken care of quickly!

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    1. That is a hilariously ironic idea Lizzy- I love it. Bad work done by an DIY Network Show? Bring in another HGTV show that fixes the errors of bad contractors. I might have to write into MIke Holmes! :)

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  4. Oh my, I am so sorry. They don't have inspectors come out or anything like that?! Shame shame. Also, any help if homeowners would cover some of it? Water damage is scary!

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    1. They do have inspectors come out, one after the frame in and others at the end (or in our case multiple times as the work failed a couple of inspections after the crew had left- specifically lighting and windows.) Everything goes so fast with dozens of contractors all working on top of each other. Looks like in our case no one took the time after the plumbing was done to run the water and make sure all the seals were tight.

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  5. Wow, that really stinks. I'm disappointed, but not completely surprised, that the show producers left you hanging. I hope your insurance company or a good lawyer might be able to change their mind.

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  6. Erin, I'm so sorry you are still dealing with problems with that show. You were very honest about Bath Crashers from the very beginning, the good and the bad. Did you sign a contract with them? Aren't they liable for their mistakes? Their plumber, at least, needs to be dissed on Angie's List.

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    1. Surprisingly the only legal documents we signed with the show were ones that gave them permission to use our images and footage of us, so we'll definitely have a more detailed conversation with the Executive Producer in the future about liability. We considered calling up the plumber that did the work and asking him to come back and fix it, but considering he had already been back to our house to "fix it" once, and this is now 4 different plumbing leaks in the same shower, we'd prefer to move forward with another plumber that we trust.

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  7. That it truly shocking! Wow. You guys were so lucky (I know it doesn't feel that way right now!). Sending you lots of luck and positive vibes and wishing for a fairygodmother to come over and fix that bodge job for you!

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  8. That really sucks, especially given the national popularity of those types of shows. Makes me wonder how many other people featured on the show are in your situation. Have you thought about sharing your situation with Julia at Hooked on Houses? She does features on house shows like this, and some publicity about it might encourage the producers to help.

    At least you caught it now-- before, as you said, the house caught on fire. Good luck cleaning everything up. Hope you can get some rest while the hubby does the work! :-)

    Erin @ The Great Indoors

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    1. I've been wondering the same thing- is it just my episode that had this problem, or are there others out there like me? Up to this point I haven't gotten too "noisy" about our experience, mostly because I don't want to appear ungrateful, but we may decide to go that route if our producers don't plan on making this right for us.

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  9. I've heard of varying results from Holmes on Holmes up here as well. I think it was a porch that ended up sagging a month later. After H on H built it. Like anything else, it depends on who he hires to do the work. Or rather, who he gets to donate the work....

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  10. As someone who is around the professional residential industry this is so incredibly frustrating to read. I watch those diy network type shows but my husband (a project manager for custom high-end residential homes) and I honestly laugh at them. First, there's no way things of that magnitude can be done correctly in that time frame. My husband says there are three things you can have in construction: quality, price and time - now choose two. Price and time were chosen in this case and quality was lacking. :( I'm sorry you're having to deal with this. I'm with everyone else that you should get insurance involved. Here's to hoping because some of the repair work has already been done they will still help out.

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