What Did I Get Myself Into....Again!!!!

Anyone out there that has done any type of home maintenance should be able to relate to this one. Here is the scenario....In our bathroom, we have one of those fiberglass 1 piece bathtub/shower ensembles. We have sliding glass doors that attach to a top frame and bottom frame. On the top frame, the doors attach via rollers and at the bottom the doors attach to the frame via guides. We have been having a problem with the lower piece of the frame that the shower doors are attached to. The caulking had got so bad that when we took a shower, water would get under that lower frame and sit there. As a result, mold would form and the caulk on the outside of the tub/shower enclosure was turning black and green, where the lower portion of the frame connected to the tub. So I took it upon myself to do a little maintenance on the lower frame. Now technically this should have been a reasonably easy job. Unfortunately "Murphys Law" reared its ugly head. First I decided to remove the top frame piece. This is where the doors were attached via rollers. There was really not enough space to lift the top frame piece away from the doors. To make a very long story shorter, I was finally able to get the doors removed....took about an hour. Due to the difficulty of removing the doors, I knew that I was in trouble and I should have stopped right there and attempted to put the doors and frame back. But being the man that I am, I continued on my journey. I then scraped off all of the old caulk that was on the bottom frame piece. I lifted the frame up as much as I could and cleaned underneath it. What a mess that was. I ended my first day on this job by propping up this lower frame so that any moisture underneath it would air dry. Now to Day #2....inspected under the lower frame and saw that it was completely dry. I put new caulk where the frame met the tub, both inside the tub and outside. I let the caulk cure for about 6 hours at which time I decided to put the doors and top frame piece together again and putting this journey behind me...imagining myself beaming with pride and joy over completing yet another home maintenance project...what a manly man I am...I RULE the home maintenance world!!!! At least in my dreams, this is the way it would have ended. But once again, reality and that old Mr. Murphy, of Murphys Law fame, gave me a good swift kick in the hiney and a strong slap upside my face, enough so that I awoke out of my pipe dream ending for this story. Anything and everything that could go wrong did. No matter how I tried, there was no way that I was going to get the sliding doors to hang right and attach at the bottom of the frame. I even got Veronica involved figuring that she would be able to change the death grip that lady luck had around my throat. After 3 hours of frustration, yelling, cussing and taking my neanderthal aggression out on 2 bathtub glass doors and one aluminum frame...I finally gave up and called it quits......insert heavy sigh and begin playing the theme song to the tv program Two And A Half Men. I knew that this job had got the better of me and all that I had to show for 2 days work was a caulk job that was totally ruined from me trying to get the doors back on, 2 glass doors that were now just hanging by the top rollers because I could not get them to attach underneath that bottom frame, a sore back and blood pressure that had gone sky high which resulted in a bloody nose a few hours later. I ended up having to swallow my pride and call Clarence, our trusty handyman who does a lot of the maintenance work in our neighborhood. He will be here in about an hour and I have got a feeling that he will take one quick look at the mess that I have created and pronounce the whole project as being deceased. I think that I see a trip to Home Depot in my future....to buy a new tub/shower door set. Then comes the tough decision of either taking out the old frame, cleaning up the old caulking and putting the new frame and doors in myself or having the trusty and sure handed Clarence do the job for me. Wisdom points me in the direction of having Clarence handle it but being the stubborn manly man that I am, I foresee more "fun" in my future.

8 comments:

Midlife, menopause, mistakes and random stuff... said...

Beautiful and so insightful. I enjoy your posts so much.

Have a great day.....getting yourself into all kinds of things!!

Toni said...

hee hee.
oh, Rickster, you KNOW I'm laughing with you, right, not AT you.
hee. ha. ho ho.
Here's what happened as I read this: visions of old Cosby Show episodes wherein Cliff was forever in trouble either because of Appliance Abuse or Attempts to Repair Things ...
do you look good in a toolbelt? That's the main point, don't forget it. You've already got the perfect voluptuous Tool Time Girl in Miss V (step aside, banished, Pamela Anderson).

budh.aaah said...

Rick Rick dont you ever learn..hahaa that was funny but I do hope you let your trusted handyman do the job for you now.

Lynne said...

Hello Rick LoL, I had those shower doors, with beautiful swans on them, and I could not stand looking at them anymore. So hubby took them off for me, not so bad they only cracked one or two tiles and thats about it. I put up a friendly (lol) shower curtain. So much easier for me to maintain.
Take Care
Lynne

Stacey said...

OMG! I laughed till I cried... Worse I recall my grandmother and all the home repairs she used to drag me into.. Hey at least I learned how to drywall... Which I never admit to anyone that I know in person...They might ask me for help! LOL

Take care...and please let Clarence do the rest!. Although if you don't we will all enjoy the story later :)

Tanna said...

LOL! As you can WELL imagine after "saving" seven rental units over the past two years, I can totally empathize with you! Sometimes, you just have to call for backup!

♥ Kathy said...

I would definitely go with Clarence :D haha hope this turned out well..maybe there will be an update a little further into my catching up on your posts :)

Anonymous said...

Keep us posted on the whole thing. You made me laugh, because I saw myself... lol

Related Posts with Thumbnails