Hi
My boyfriend decided he was going to fit the bathroom in his new house, 2 years ago. He has standard DIY knowledge and his dad persuaded him to do it himself to save money. He has a busy job though so has been (I feel) overwhelmed in doing it.
Every step there has been a problem. Last winter, we had no running water upstairs, hot water downstairs or heating for almost a month. I was using baby wipes and heating up water with a kettle to have a ‘shower’ outside.. in winter. This was in the middle of working in a hospital and trying to do a doctorate during the pandemic. We used an electric heater and ran up a huge bill.
For the last year, we have had hot running water and I have been using the shower in the bath. The whole shower has just been tiled for him to plumb it in late last night and it’s leaking into the kitchen ceiling.. and now we can’t get at it without taking the new tiles off or taking bricks from the outside of the house. He can’t turn on the isolation tap either so we have 0 running water now.
I cannot stay anywhere else, my parents are an hour away and my job is here and his dad has been rude to me in the past, so I don’t feel comfortable asking for favours off him. However, my boyfriend will say ‘well I said you could have a shower around my dads’.
Our arrangement is that it’s his mortgage and I just pay rent, so where I probably would have got a tradesman in, I’m not putting my own money into building work.
Half of me feels guilty and understanding that he is trying he best.. and the other half is at my wits end. It’s turned into a running joke at work, “is your bathroom done yet?’. Others said their house took years so I don’t know whether I’m being unreasonable or not.
Does anybody has any advice on how to cope with this or opinions on whether I am being unreasonable here?