Bathroom Issues

Our bathroom is being helped. By helped I mean there is a man that comes in and hangs out for half an hour multiple times a week and says he is "repairing" things. Turns out that even with the cat door bathroom window open 24/7, apparently our bathroom doesn't have enough ventilation. We have been noticing the plaster peeling off in spots around the room. Then, there is the lower wall on each side of the shower. There was a leak and now the wall is water damaged. Did you know that plaster poofs up like big cotton balls and falls off the wall when it gets wet? It sure does. Then the mold started showing up on the ceiling. The bathroom has really become a problem.

We let our nice landlord know what was happening. He in turn, hired Louis. Louis is a very nice older gentleman. Always shows up with a smile. The first time he showed up was last week. I showed him all the cracking and peeling and water damage and caulking that was needed and the cabinet that needs to be better fastened to the wall. He brought a bunch of stuff in, scraped some things in the bathroom, got putty all over the bathroom...and I mean all over the bathroom,  and then took off. He was here for half an hour. I really thought that he'd be here longer. He didn't really do much. He got about half of the scraping and filling finished...why not do it all though?

So, when he showed up a few days later, I went in with him and went over all the problem areas again. I just want to make sure he will get everything. This time he was here for a whole hour. He did more scraping and filling. He addressed the major water damage under the bathroom sink (this is part of the water damage from the shower...I hope that's the only place the water's coming from at least). After he left I went back in a checked out the work. He still missed some cracks and filling. I was starting to wonder if he was ever gonna finish this part. Had he spent a whole hour or an hour and a half the first time he was here, he could have gotten all the cracks and filling in one swoop. He did recaulk the shower. Yeah...wait, did he scrape out the old caulk? Nope, he just caulked right over the other caulk. Nice. Then I noticed that he still hadn't scraped out the space between the shower and the sink. That's kind of big for me...I've been staring at that eye sore for a long time. He did reassure me he'd get to it though. I decided to check under the sink. Nice. He put some drywall in and spackled it up all pretty. Wait, did he just cover up the damage and not actually scrape out the damaged plaster? Um, looks like it. That is where I became very unimpressed with this seemingly nice man. I can't stand that he's so nice!

So, when he showed up today with paint supplies, I was puzzled. Um, you are really not at that step in the process sir. So, I followed him into the bathroom to go over the list once again. These need to be spackled, that needs to be scraped and filled, that needs to be rehung...should this all be finished before the painting should start? Cause I'm sure it should. But he assured me he'd get it all finished. Half an hour later he came out and said he was finished for now....ugh really?...but he'd be back in an hour when the primer was dry.

There is no way he did all the pre-painting stuff first. I went and took a peek. He had primered the whole bathroom except for the spots he still needed to work on. What's the point of that? Why didn't he just do the work first and paint another day? He showed up an hour later to paint. Of course I followed him back into the bathroom. He was already attacking the paint. What did he tell me? There is too much moisture in the bathroom for the painting...but yet he was still painting and the paint was running down the walls.

So, I left the room. The end result better be finished properly. I know, I only rent, but I still have to live here. I understand there are people who think, who cares it's not my house. I just donn't think that way. I don't like that just because the landlord isn't here overseeing the repairs, he feels like he can cut corners. He even made comments about about if he can finish the wall between the sink and the shower because he might not be able to reach it. Well, he should have taken out the sink and cabinet, repaired the wall and then reinstalled the cabinet and sink.

Of course this was right after he told me that the koreans are taking all the painting jobs and making a mess of  them and he gets hired to come in and make it look good...right. I haven't heard the koreans being blamed for taking painting jobs before. Oh well, I'll be on his ass again tomorrow.