OK, so we got to our motel last night safe and sound. It was a bit of a step down from the hotel we were just in for the NY Tarot Festival, but it was clean and had a working bathroom. That's all I cared about.
I finished The Difference Engine. Enjoyed it very much, up until the ending. Up until it stopped, I should say. As the book didn't really seem to have an ending.
Next I started on American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Which I also enjoyed immensely. It was on a shelf at my friends' guest house so I borrowed it. It was a fast read; I finished it last night. Unfortunately, it was a bad printing and pages 373 to 404 were missing. I was still able to figure out pretty much what was going on, but was that ever frustrating! I'm going to have to get the book out of the library and read those thirty pages.
I forgot to mention that we've had a couple more cost overruns on the bathroom. First, there's currently no insulation in the walls, floor or ceiling, which it will cost a couple hundred dollars to add. Maybe I did mention that already. Second, they needed to add a dedicated line to the heater, so there's an additional charge there as well. I think it's worth it though. We used a space heater in there all winter long.
I had asked them to move to light so it was centered over the vanity and the contractor said that would be no problem. But last night we noticed a note on the wall, from the plumber to the contractor, saying that he had moved the plumbing to be centered under the light. Unfortunately, that means he moved the plumbing to the left. But the bathroom is such a tight fit that the door barely opened before. If the vanity is moved to the left, I don't think there will be room for the door.
I called the contractor this morning and mentioned this to him, and all he would say was "we'll make it work." Which I think means that he didn't think of that but he realizes that he should have. He also said that since we don't have the vanity yet, it's difficult for him to reposition the light & etc. Which I can certainly understand, but I thought that's why he needed those specs. I told him that centering the light over the vanity isn't really important to me, but leaving room for the door to fully open is.
I also mentioned that the way the plumbing is set up, it looks like they are fixing to have the sink on the left side of the vanity. But the sink we bought is in the center of the vanity. The old sink was way over to the left of the vanity but I wanted the new one centered so we could get one of those single-surface deals. I know I mentioned that we were going to do that, but it was a long time ago and I didn't repeat it recently.
Anyway, now it looks like the plumbing is way over to the left but the sink is supposed to be in the center. I mentioned that and he said that looking at the vanity specs, he didn't think there would be room for the pipes to have the sink in the center. Which doesn't make sense to me at all, because the example in the store was exactly that. I mean we bought the exact size and shape of the display model, and the sink on the display was centered. I told him that and he suggested I go back to the store and ask them to confirm that the plumbing really fits that way, that it isn't just for show.
I understand that it's difficult for him to set all this up without having the actual vanity to look at. But still, I'm finding this a bit alarming. My friend Pete (who just built a house) says this kind of thing is typical and I shouldn't get worked up about it.
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