Welcome Home, Honey!

The two older girls and I had a lightning trip to CA last week, coming back late last night. The house was relatively clean, the kids were in bed, so all in all, a great return. But here's the big surprise waiting for me in the master bathroom:

Uh...guess I'll find a different bathroom?

Doug decided to fix our toilet. We've spent a few weeks trying to track down the source of a "mystery leak" downstairs. These are the kind of mysteries you never want to have, let me tell you. We thought it was our shower at first, since there are some serious cracks in the grout.

Then came the moment of truth: I was folding laundry and some child flushed the toilet in the master bath. I got to see the leak become a trickle and a small shower. Yuck. Well, mystery solved. Doug wasn't too thrilled, but at least we don't have to wait for rotten floorboards before we figure it out. So while I was gone, he removed the toilet.

And found another surprise. Just as with the rest of the projects "done" on this house, the tile job in the bathroom wasn't quite finished. We figured it was just a few loose tiles and some grouting around the shower. Oh no. They didn't grout under the toilet, making a fabulous place for any loose water droplets to accumulate before spilling over into the downstairs. Again, yuck.

Can you see how much grout that required? All the dark-colored grout is the new stuff that Doug just put in, bless his grouting heart.

There is also now grout in front of the shower. Here's hoping I get a toilet for the new year, but I'm certainly not worried about it today. After all, I'd rather wait for the job to be complete...instead of allowing the not-so-mysterious leak to reinvent itself in the future.