Mistakes happen… That’s my lesson today in my renovations journey.

That mistakes happen and it’s okay, cause we can just do what we need to do to fix them…

Today had promised to be one of those, things are really going to start coming together days, cause the kitchen counter would be going in, and the laminate floors installation (all the nosing and trim remaining) would be finished. So I began searching around for dumpster/junk removal companies and cleaning companies…

Two incidents happened today, that felt kinda like setbacks, but through which I’m that much more grateful for the lessons God has been teaching my heart about not fearing failure and not worrying so much about messing up etc. — and I am so glad that my identity and sense of security is not as dependent upon my “performance” as it once was not that long ago….

First, one of the upstairs toilets I have been noticing always sounds like the water is constantly running… Which made me think about the water bill, which made me think, I better take a look at it since I’ve got time while I’m waiting for the counter people to show up. I found that when I pulled the thing that floats on the water in the tank up a bit (my guess is that it ‘measures’ the water level in the tank so that when it has “filled” up high enough, the water stops trying to keep filling the tank) then the sound if running water stops. If I pushed it to help the water level increase another cm, then I could completely let go of that floaty thing and no running water sound. So I tried adjusting the plastic lever of they floaty thing but it ended up moving too much so then the water was filling up way too fast and past the point I thought it should be going, so I would flush the toilet to make the water level go back down, and try hard to push that lever back in place…. Then try and hold it and squat down to turn the water valve off, only to find I wasn’t quite strong enough to do that… So I flushed the toilet again and decided to just really try and push the plastic lever, and of course, it snapped off. SO now I knew I had to find a way to shut the water valve off, which meant I would need to go downstairs and look or some pliers I could use, so I found a way to wedge the plastic thing in place to keep the water from filling up just long enough for me to go downstairs, find a tool, run back upstairs, and happily I was actually able to turn the water valve off successfully (as that was the first time I ever had to do that personally).

So, anyhow, grateful that I succeeded in managing damage control, I called my father-in-law who lucky for me is pretty sure he has an extra toilet from his building project he can grab for me sometime this week. At the same time I had messaged my husband, and he didn’t see anything wrong with replacing a toilet that was leaking water anyhow (which I guess was what I was thinking anyhow when I attempted to apply force in that plastic lever…).

And so, I survived the first disaster of the day…

A few hours later, after I had seen the counter people arrive and gave them instructions on which drawers they had to make sure could open and shut, and shown them where the sink, faucet and stovetop were that they would need to make sure fit in the holes they would cut out of the countertop, I left to go home and check on the kids (who I kept at home one more day to fully recover from their colds second half of last week and all weekend) and to give my mother-in-law a small break, before heading back to the house to inspect their work and write them a check.

Unfortunately when I got back to the house, they were already gone. I thought it was odd they had not tried to contact me or my father-in-law before leaving, but I figured that would be easy enough to deal with. I went in and saw the counter in place, and it looked good, BUT there was masking tape on the corner of my stovetop… And upon closer examination, I realized they had broken the corner in pieces as it was one of those glass ceramic surfaces…

This mistake I felt really sad/bad about (and maybe a little mad at first, but I quickly realized no one was telling me they don’t care and I just have to deal with it). I wondered if this was why they took off, and I worried about the dynamic that would have occurred between what seemed like a father-son team (ie the father seemed to be teaching his son how to help him with the job). I thought about how I don’t want to be paying for the stove because it was brand new.. But at the same time if I deduct the amount from the cheque they were supposed to receive for the job, it really leaves them with not much at all… Why, oh why, did they not know you’d have to be extra careful with this type of stovetop?  Or if they knew it was too risky, why couldn’t they have waited and let me find someone who was comfortable and prepared to handle that part?  Or was I just foolish for choosing a stovetop (on the advice that it would be easy to clean and maintain) that was at such high risk of breaking (my mother-in-law later today did say if she had known what we ordered, she would have advised again this type of stove too–not in any condescending type way as I’m lucky to have a mother-in-law who doesn’t talk to me like that…but, honestly it wasn’t a concern that had even crossed my mind when I was choosing on my own)?

Anyhow I called my father-in-law and he asked me to find out cost of repair as well as cost of replacement, and because I got the stove at a really good cost (although after taxes and shipping in Canada it’s still a lot), cost of repair (for which I couldn’t get a solid final quote as it depends on how long the technician takes to do the repair) it really wasn’t a big enough difference to me to justify the extra time and effort that would require…

I looked at Craigslist for used options, in case for some reason it ends up my responsibility to pay for a replacement, but Ivan and his dad assured me that that wouldn’t make sense. And it also wouldn’t be fair for them to replace my stove with a much cheaper model or a used model…because it wouldn’t be them taking responsibility to fix what they broke.

And although I wasted a couple hours today searching and calling and waiting and ho humming, I finally decided to just order a replacement, and give Ivan’s dad the total cost to ask the counter company to deduct from their invoice. Try to keep things simple, and hopefully (hopefully!) still have it arrive in time (thankfully we still have over a week!) by not delaying placing the order.

I still feel sad (and a little bit bad, although I know I don’t need to feel bad) about asking the counter people to take the hit of this mistake.. I have thought, what if this puts them in a really tough bind… That perhaps if they came and told me… What would I want to do….

And I feel sad for the stove, being brand new, and needing a new glass cover… What a waste… Unless someone out there who just happens to have the skills to do the replacement themselves, and just happens to be looking for a stovetop of this type and size and color… Well, this one at least I will have more time to intercede for and see it it works out okay in the end too :). I really don’t want it going to waste, even though I don’t have the time to risk trying to figure out how to fix on my own (cuz remembering what happened with the toilet today…)

Anyhow, just thought I’d share today’s debacles… Helps to vent a bit, and then out it to rest, and move on to see how everything will (as it always does) work out in the end!