Bathroom refit: Day 10

So this is it! The last day of the bathroom refit has arrived and the guys will be coming to grout, and to fit ALL the "furniture" (as the professionals call it). As luck would have it, I'd been called down to London again for another meeting (don't worry - this one did actually take place), so I wasn't there to see the magic unfold. But Nikki, who had to take another day's leave to oversee proceedings, was.

All day long I felt a frisson of excitement. Finally we would have a working loo back upstairs, so I would no longer need to take the cold and lonely trudge downstairs in the early hours to find relief. I pictured myself getting home from the long, hot, tiring and tiresome train journey, flinging off my clothes and stepping into our fabulous new shower, the first time I'd been able to do that in nearly six months.

About midday, I had a text from Nikki. A problem with the shower door. It was too big.

This is the same shower door that has been lying on its side, propped up in its packaging against the radiator in our hallway for almost two weeks. Since, in fact, the day work started. This is the same shower door whose packaging is clearly labelled with (a) the size - including maximum and minimum adjustments - and (b) the handing of the door. This is the same packaging that bears a very large label - yellow with red lettering - spelling out "Warning. Size must be checked before opening this package. Open packages may not be returned." Did they check the size? No. Did they check the hand (whether it opens to the right or to the left)? No. Did they open the package? Yes. Did the door fit? No.

Even with the door slid as far back into its fixings as it would go, the two glass panels overlapped by - wait for it - a half of one centimetre. So the door wouldn't close. Couldn't close. And now they have to come back tomorrow and take the small glass panel to a glazier and hope it can be cut down by enough to allow the door to close.

So no shower for me when I got home, but at least the bath was plumbed back in. With the hot water connected to the cold tap, and vice versa :-\ At least the toilet was working.

I've updated the photo set on Flickr - there'll be no more photos added to this set now until I can take a full set of "after refit" pictures including all fixtures and fittings (like mirrors) in place. Such high hopes for the day, and really we are almost there, but at the moment it feels like "so near, and yet so far."