A Royal ... Flush

In November of 2018 we bought this condominium with three bedrooms and three full bathrooms. One bathroom is downstairs, geezer friendly, with an "ADA" toilet, a shower with a low step-in entry, and grab bars for security and easy ups and downs. We have a guest bedroom upstairs with its own bathroom attached. No geezer accommodations included. Bathroom three is upstairs, off of the room designated as the office. We keep a litter box in the tub, and only I go in there and only to clean the litter box. With one notable exception.

In October of 2019 we had friends from Nashville come stay with us for a few days. One fine morning, Carmen was accompanying them on an adventure - I don't have the vaguest recollection what or where - so bathrooms one and two were in use. Not to be too graphic, I needed to use one, and the only one was three. Now, I'm sure that we, and the Inspector, flushed that toilet to ascertain that it worked. I'm also fairly sure that it had not been "stress tested" by anyone since the previous owners, if then. The bottom line is, when I came down to the kitchen a few minutes later, I found that much of what I had done upstairs had also come down to the kitchen. It was not a joyful discovery.

I called our home warranty folks, and they arranged for a plumber to come. The plumbing company asked if I wanted a water damage remediation company to come, and I said yes. Meanwhile, I, a bottle of bleach and a roll of paper towels cleaned the cabinets, counter and floor. Not a joyful project.

The plumber ascertained that the wax ring under the toilet was at fault. He replaced it, and the plumbing part of the story was finished. Simultaneously, a guy from Dri-Maxx was there assessing the water damage situation. There was water behind one of the cabinets and the drywall - well, wet-wall. He told me about how my homeowner's insurance would pay for the lion's share of the drying and rebuilding process, and we signed an agreement.

Later that same day, two guys with implements of destruction and two drying fans came, tore out one cabinet (yay, only one cabinet!) the drywall behind it, and part of the soffit above it. They taped up a sheet of plastic with a zipper in the middle over the kitchen entrance, and turned on the fans. They left, but returned each morning for three days to check the drying progress. Oh, and they took the cabinet door with them to match for the rebuild.

Meanwhile, the first Dri-Maxx guy called. "Uh, well, your insurance carrier does NOT pay anything for drying and rebuilding. Sorry. We can still rebuild you for nine million dollars (maybe a slight exaggeration) or we can leave that to you." Thanks, but leave it to me. And bring my cabinet door back. He did.

So, the plastic and the fans were taken away, and we were left with a gaping hole between two upper cabinets. I began researching cabinets for sale, and discovered that pretty much every company was interested in designing us a whole new kitchen, not replacing one "box." Two local companies I called were willing to fix me up with a 21" X 42" X 12" upper cabinet box. One wanted three hundred bucks, and one said two hundred if I was willing to wait until they ordered another kitchen. Otherwise, the shipping would be another hundred. I went to Kitchen World, paid for my cabinet, and the waiting began.

The condo two doors down has been undergoing extensive renovations. A scrap of drywall appeared on their back patio one day, I measured it and found that it was just a little too big to be a perfect replacement for the piece torn out by the Dri-guys. I asked if I could have it, and soon had patched part of the gaping hole. Carmen taped a piece of plastic over the soffit hole, and for months that was the best our kitchen looked.

Monday, February 10th, 2020, Linda at Kitchen World called to say that the cabinet was in! we picked it up on Tuesday. Yesterday I installed it. Four months later, the saga finally ended. And I haven't had the courage to flush toilet number three again.