The Shower Saga

So in our master bathroom there is no tub only a floor to ceiling glass shower stall. Right now there are only 2 things I can say about it that are positive:

1. The water pressure out of the shower head is pretty good.

2. The steam feature (it is also a mini steam room) will come in handy come the cold and flu season. 

So our home inspector noted that the water went from cold to hot to cold. We requested that the sellers have a licensed plumber come out and fix it. They agreed. Our realtor stuck his arm in the shower during our final walk through and said that the water got warm. Like an idiot I took his word for it and didn't investigate further. 

Well he's right- it does get warm - IF it is the first thing of the day to be used. B/c first you get the cold water that has been sitting in the air conditioned pipe, then you get the warm water thats been sitting in the pipe outside, then it goes back to cold and it STAYS THERE. 

So for the first 2.5 weeks of our home ownership the only way to take a shower and not catch a chill was to turn the steam on and jump in and out of the cold water. I'm sure there is a spa somewhere that will tell you thats healthy but its NOT what I want when I'm tired and want to relax. The reason we don't just use the hall bath is:

A. There's no shower bar in there and shower bars are surprisingly expensive and since we just bought a house we're a tad broke right now. 

B. Right now the cat box is in the hall bath tub b/c its out of the way and that way humans can actually use that toilet with out having to straddle a litter box. 

So upon realizing the shower was NOT repaired I called my realtor, who called the sellers realtor who gave me the name and number of the plumber who was supposed to fix the problem. So I talk to this guy and he sounds very nice and apologizes and says that the hot water was off when they were testing so they just replaced the valve seals and didn't check for temperature. He say's they'll be there Weds (LAST Weds) at 9:30 am to fix it. 

Wednesday at 9:10 am he calls. The last call of the day on Tues turned out to be major and they have to go back this morning. He'll call me around 1-2 pm and give me an update but they will definitely fix my shower by 6 pm tonight. 

5 pm Weds. No call. I call him and get voice mail and leave a message.

I call Thurs, leave message. 

I call Friday, voicemail is now full. I call my realtor and start screaming. I also start hunting for this guy and his business online- he's no where to be found. His company can't be found with any search engine and the only listed number under the same name isn't him (allegedly)....

Saturday, the phone now goes direct to voice mail, which is still full. 

Sunday night he calls me back. Apologizes profusely. Says he went out of town and assigned me to one of his lackeys who apparently flaked out. Swears he will be at my house personally Monday morning at 9:30 am. 

Monday, he's here at 9:10. Jumps right in. Works for nearly two hours at which time he calls me into the bathroom to present to me hot water coming out of my shower. SWEET. I ask him what was wrong- he explained that one of the post needed to be cleaned so the hot water valve was getting stuck shut. He cleaned the post and voila. 

The catch: He tells me that my valve is a $1000 piece but that its so old they don't make replacement parts for it and that its been re-vamped so many times that there's no more brass in the thing to sand down so the next time it dies it will have to be replaced. He also says that the reason its dripping after shutting off is b/c the shower head collects water and it should shut off (or thats what the guy who replaced all the seals told him). I buy it b/c yeah it does drip for a bit and then stop.

Well now it drips constantly. Nice RAPID drip too. Hasn't stopped yet. I've even fiddled with the handle. I called and left a message with his voicemail today about it. He hasn't called me back.

So this evening I go to step into my long awaited luxurious warm shower....... to discover that yes the water does get hot now. In fact it gets scalding. It also gets ice cold. It does NOT get anything in between. So instead of my lovely warm shower I got alternating blasts of hot and cold as I struggled to rinse my hair in the 2 second intervals of warm water between the boiling and the freezing. 

WOW. I am SO AMAZINGLY not happy right now. I'm going to raise holy heck first thing tomorrow morning b/c I am NO HAPPY RIGHT NOW.