The Rub-a-Dub Debacle

A few weeks ago we bit the bullet and ordered our tub for the master bathroom, the Kohler Bellwether. It was cast iron, a beautiful looking tub, that didn’t cost nearly as much as other cast iron tubs. The decision was made literally after weeks of research, hemming and hawing, and debating what tub to go with. I’m not exaggerating.

The tub was finally to be delivered. I waited around the house last week on Wednesday or Thursday. The tub arrived, there was a slight imperfection on the side…I couldn’t tell if it was damaged or just an imperfection, but it was really no big deal. I signed for the tub, took a few pictures and scampered back to the children.

But there was this sinking feeling in my stomach; that I somehow did something wrong and just completely messed up.

I showed Matt the pictures, told him about the scuff, and that was that.

I called my FIL the next morning and started talking about electrical stuff… “wait…you didn’t get my text, did you?” “Uhh, no.” “Go read my text and call me back”…..”Jess tub drain is on the wrong side”. There it was, my screw up.

I called my FIL and said, “You told me to order a left drain tub: I did what you told me to.”

Long story short: We had to flip flop the shower and the washer/dryer in the upstairs bathroom, but no one told me that in flip flopping the places that I needed to flip flop the drain. At least it wasn’t my fault.

I called the company, told them about the potential damage, and that I ordered the wrong tub: Congratulations! We are now the proud owners of a tub that we can’t use*, and can only pray that we can get rid of without eating the whole thing. I can eat a lot, but somehow I think a 5’ cast iron tub is beyond even my abilities.

And now we were in a dilemma: My FIL is waiting on this tub to finish running the plumbing and drain-work, so that they can close up the walls and start sheet-rocking. There’s no way I can order a tub online and have it here in a few days. Off to Home Depot and Lowes we went, the entire time of which, I was sick at the thought of $500 down the drain {pun intended}.

We went to HD first, since they had quite a few more tubs in stock than Lowes had: Checked them out, then headed to Lowes, then back to HD. We ended up going with Bootz Maui for the tub, $179 for a steel-porcelain enameled tub. The very tub that I had originally chosen online and had decided against, because I was not at all familiar with Bootz and could only find a few reviews {all favorable} online.

Is it my dream tub? No, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a bigger tub than the Kohler Bellwether that we had purchased; which is a plus, especially since we’re planning on making it a 2 person shower {we debated having just a pan shower, but Matt felt strongly about having a tub in the bathroom}. Hopefully it’s a good tub and lasts us a good long while, because I don’t want to deal with a bathtub any time soon.

I keep trying to tell myself that if the tub is our only major mess-up in the house, we’re doing good. Yes it was $500, but hopefully we can sell it and get some of the money back…the whole thing just makes me sick though, and probably will until we’ve sold it.

*We would have to pay shipping back to the company, $200-300, plus a 15% restocking fee.