The Ick Factor

It’s the story, of a crufty bathtub which was growing nasty mold upon the grout…(to the musicians, sing to the tune of “Brady Bunch”)

Okay, my bathtub has ISSUES.  My house is almost one hundred years old and the tub is nearly that old.  Not charming, claw footed, and Victorian old.  Just old.   I looked into replacing it, but the length is smaller than is standard today.  There is a slender wall that separates it from the commode which cannot be removed without the ceiling coming down.  I said commode because I think it sounds more genteel than toilet.

I had the tub refinished which worked well for ten years. Then the grout between the tub and the tile got icky.  Icky is a professional plumbing term.  I tried everything to clean it.  Then I asked the handier member of the house to take over.   The project just kind of sat because he’s kinda busy.  Then he happened upon a product that is a sort of a tape which can replace traditional grout.  Eureka.

Only it wasn’t applied right and kept peeling off.  The grout underneath was ickier than ever.  So I pulled the tape off.  I shut my mouth about the public housing project appearance in my tub, cleaning it as best I could.  Finally I asked that it be scheduled for repair. Three months later an expert job was done that looks like this.

Okay, are you kidding me?

What is up with that color?                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

So I went nuts over the two-year bathtub saga with my good friend, Terry.  She gave me wise words of reason.  Finally, I addressed the “plumber” saying “Hey awesome job that you did on the tub.  I was so blessed by not seeing the nasty grout this morning.  What was your thinking about the color?”

“That’s the only color it comes in.”

“No, I just went to Lowes, they sell it in white.  They were just out of stock.  You got the color they call “biscuit.”

“Biscuit was a color?”

“Yeah, what did you think?”

“I thought biscuit referred to the round shape the roll of tape came in.”

Seriously?

This post brought to you by “Men Are From Mars, Women are From Venus” and the exclamation “arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”