Deconstruction continued….

Words to the wise: NEVER, under any circumstance, put any type of floating vinyl plank flooring in a bathroom. It’s one of those choices a person who thinks ahead (not me, remember, I’m the one who bought a Smart Oven with tantrum issues) would never make because eventually what CAN go wrong, WILL. We dipped into the coffer again to replace the accident prone vinyl with ceramic tile, very much like the type in the photo.

But—and you knew a “But” was coming, didn’t you?—they had to remove the toilet to put down a new sub-floor and put in the tile. It’s at moments like this where a person really wants to kick themselves for not standing over the “Professionals” as they work, and say, “You’re resetting the toilet on only ONE wax ring?” But I was elsewhere doing who-knows-what, and call it Entropy or Eternal Recurrence or Murphy’s Law or the Evil Eye, but a couple of months later the wax ring broke, and it happened on a Friday….

***

In between, though, my husband had his repeat scan. There was a disagreement among the members of the tumor board reviewing the scan—on which my husband’s oncologist sat, with some thinking the suspicious areas might still be inflammation, or an atypical infection rather than cancer recurrence; but they all agreed the only way to know for certain was through another biopsy, which was scheduled for mid-November.

***

Meanwhile, back at the house, a third plumber came to change the pipes leading to the radiators from 1/2″ to 3/4″, install an extra radiator in the crawlspace under the new bathroom, and put a pump in to boost the water supply to the radiators.

The contractor assured us our heating problems would then be solved.

That night we sat down in front of the TV after dinner, looking forward to a movie we wanted to stream, and all we got were the words, “NO SIGNAL.” We checked our computers. The internet was out, too, as well as our landline, which comes through the same cable.

To his credit, the contractor was back the next morning investigating and found that the plumbers had knocked out our cable line in the crawlspace. Within an hour, he had all the services reconnected and running perfectly.

***

By now, it’s no doubt apparent that our contractor, while scatterbrained, was not a bad guy. When there were crises, he made sure they were addressed and fixed at his expense. I still give him high marks for his responsiveness, and professional integrity in that regard. I’m reminded of the time a dentist in a group practice did a shoddy job putting a crown on my tooth after a root canal. When the crown loosened, years later, and I went to another dentist in the practice, who had since branched out on his own, he redid the work, this time anchoring the crown with posts, which should have been put in to begin with. When I went to pay the bill, he waved me off, saying, “He didn’t do the work right; and since we were in practice together at the time, I feel like it’s my responsibility to cover his mistake. You don’t owe me anything.”

As I said, high marks. But it still begs the question: why wasn’t that attention to detail, and foresight there the first time?

***

Which brings me back to my husband’s recurrent, and now bilateral lung cancer.

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