The Happy Ending to a Crappy Story

Something great happened to me a couple months ago and I've been dying to share it on my blog for a while now!

You may or may not remember all the problems we've had with our plumbing over the past two years.  If you scroll down for a while (or click that tag that says "irritating"), it won't take you long to find a post or two about it.  We ended up spending over $10K to fix these issues and they were never resolved.  We finally decided to pursue legal action.

We hired a new attorney, who was just setting up shop in our community.  She came recommended to me by the law director of our town (a friend of mine).  She was young, ambitious, and ready for a fight.  When I explained the circumstance to her and asked if she did this kind of work, she excitedly exclaimed, "Oh yes, I do!"  That's the attitude I wanted.  I hate it when a hired professional acts like they're doing you a favor.  This woman, Angelina, was very grateful for the work and was anxious to begin.

Angelina and I met and we discussed every detail related to the situation.  She commended my organizational skills (which is one of the best compliments a person could give me) and was ready to dive in.  She wasn't haughty and asked my opinion on how I thought things should be handled.  We agreed that she would write a letter to the head guy of the plumbing company.

A quick recap will remind you that, after the plumbers messed up the job, I called them back out.  Instead of admitting their own mistake and fixing it, they tried to charge me $5000 more to fix it.  They also charged me $400 to tell me that they were going to charge me $5000 to fix their mistake.  We declined and they got snarky.  We hired another plumber (who caught their mistake) and a contractor to gut the bathroom and fix the issues.

When Angelina wrote the letter, she requested that they pay for the new plumbing job and the contractor's bill, refund the $400 for doing nothing, pay our family for the hardships of not having a bathroom for over a year, and refund part of the money for grossly overcharging us for the initial $9000 job.  When I tried to settle with the company, I asked for $8K.  He scoffed.  He offered me $2800, I think it was.  Angelina went a little hog wild and asked for $16K in the letter!  I was almost too scared to send it.  She mailed it and they countered with something insulting.  I actually can't remember at this point.,,I think it was somewhere between $5K-$6K.  She countered back at $13K and told them we were prepared to move into court.

Are you ready for this?  They accepted!  I got a check a month later for $13,000!  I wept.  After the worst financial year in our adult lives, we were just thrown a life raft!  We paid the plumber, paid the contractor, and paid the credit cards that were carrying a balance from this mess!  But the best part is, we got a stunning new bathroom out of it!  I'm working on it a bit at a time.  It's nearly done now...I still need to find a mirror for above the sink and a ceiling light.  I'd like to hang some artwork, but I have to find or create it first.

It was a long, painful battle, but we won!  Honestly, I would have rather had the 1970s ugly bathroom we originally had if I wouldn't have had to deal with all this.  But now that it's over, let me say that I thoroughly enjoy the time I spend in there.  Can you say that about your bathroom???  Fights in our house have decreased now that two people can potty at the same time.  God has been good.

Treasure your bathroom today and consider the alternative if you find yourself perched on the throne for a while.  It's a luxury we all take for granted.  Thankfully, this story finally has a happy ending!