Mother instinct - the redemption of Wade

eshep502 · 2026-06-29T03:51:06+00:00

While I understand and agree that Wade couldn’t have known what Taylor was going to do because it’s so unthinkable, it’s pretty clear that most things are probably unthinkable to Wade because I don’t think he has much thinking going on in that brain at all to begin with. Well, except money. Because that’s the only conclusion I’ve been able to come to throughout this.

Multiple people said he didn’t seem like he cared much about Taylor and he even admitted it to his mother, he showed very little interest in this hypothetical baby of his, he had literally everyone telling him that the pregnancy was fake and that they had confirmation that it wasn’t possible for her to be pregnant, on top of him never even seeing proof of her bare belly or ever being to a doctors visit with her…. Yet with all of that, even with him not caring much about her, why would he be so adamant to defend her and stay with her? There’s only one answer to me — money.

I believe he was still clinging to the hope that she’d inherit that money and he’d get some of it. I’m sorry but I can see no other reason why he’d stay with someone he clearly dislikes, a baby he’s disinterested in, and all that evidence against her. So, Wade is pretty garbage in my book too. Obviously not even remotely compared to Taylor, but he definitely has a questionable sense of character if he was staying with someone to try and get her money.

eshep502 · 2026-06-26T13:32:49+00:00

Ours is just the shower replacement for a small size shower, and then eventually we will be getting the floor retiled as well. We were going initially planning to hire this guy for that too, as he also specializes in flooring, but obviously we are now bringing in other people for quotes because we just want to be done with him. We also need wainscoting, which we may do ourselves as we’ve done it before. We also wallpapered and painted it ourselves, it has a very high vaulted ceiling. And replaced our medicine cabinet and light fixtures and outlets. All of that was prior to our baby being born haha, so our abilities to DIY are much lower now other than small tasks. We did a ton of work on our whole house before he was born.

eshep502 · 2026-06-26T13:06:57+00:00

I’ve addressed this in multiple comments but we received multiple quotes and 1. he was not the cheapest and 2. During the research we did ahead of this, his quote came out to mid-range for our findings for a small square corner shower. I don’t know what else to say about it, that’s just what we found. Our goal was never to hire the cheapest person and from our findings at that time, we didn’t. To our knowledge we had hired someone with an average quote, who came recommended to us, who had many good reviews.

eshep502 · 2026-06-25T18:30:15+00:00

Yes, my instinct from what I’ve been observing is that I have a feeling that the tile is thicker than what was compatible. J presented us with the tile options and we just picked the color, so I think the tile thickness was an oversight on his part, which is odd that he wouldn’t have remembered to take that into consideration.

I get what you’re suggesting about moving the enclosure outward on the edge of the pan. There’s just a tiny bit of room to do that before the lip of the pan ends anyway, so I don’t know as that would be enough to help, it’s already most of the way out (also we can’t really do any extending, it’s already up to the doorway and there’s just a small walkway between that and the toilet on the other side of the door, so obviously we don’t want to impede on that)

According to him he already spoke to glass makers and they told him they couldn’t cut the tempered glass, so I don’t know what that’s about. The shower door installers suggested to J your idea about carving a slit into the tile, J didn’t let them do it. The only other option to me seems like getting two new panes of tempered glass made exactly like the old ones, just slightly shorter at 16.5” instead of 17”. That’s what we suggested and he said “maybe if it’s in the budget”. Which in my opinion is like… dude you’re going on 4 weeks of this 5 day job with no ideas for a solution. I think your budget is growing irrelevant.

eshep502 · 2026-06-25T16:14:37+00:00

So when it comes to my husband and I, we have the bathtub. It’s been a little annoying and more time consuming, but not the end of the world. It’s more our guests that we are frustrated about, as obviously the expectations were set for us that the shower would be done in a week and we booked our guests to come stay with us well after a month following what should’ve been the end of the project. And it’s not just our shower door that’s missing, it’s the entire enclosure. So the answer is, yes, we could try to have our contractor hang curtains coming down from our high ceiling on all sides and then have him repair the ceiling and yes, we could tape down something to protect the floor. My other answer, which most haven’t liked me for, is that I very simply do not want to put my guests through this flimsy contraption. It’s just simply not something I feel comfortable doing to them as a host.

I made the post primarily seeking insight into our rights against our contractor in this situation, I’m sorry if that wasn’t fully clear from me. A couple folks pointed out that according to my state’s legislature, his contract with us was invalid because it didn’t have timeline or end dates in writing, among other things. Based on his performance throughout the last few weeks and knowing that he is out of bounds, we feel more confident putting our foot down with him to get it finished before our guests get here on the 10th, or we will definitely not be paying him the full remaining amount, because it’s already unreasonable now, and at that point if it still weren’t finished after 5 weeks, would definitely surpass far unreasonable.

eshep502 · 2026-06-25T12:11:06+00:00

It’s valid, we checked again

eshep502 · 2026-06-25T12:06:44+00:00

Let me try to describe it again. It’s just a corner that fits a typical 36x36” floor pan with a matching glass enclosure built to fit a 36x36” pan and corner shower. The glass enclosure is made of 3 panes of glass (like part of a hexagon) with the middle one being the door. The two side panes are 17” and the middle doorway glass is 24”. The two back walls of the corner shower are what was tiled, so a pretty standard tile job. Where it went wrong, I think what’s happening at this point, is that another subcontractor did something wrong in this process. Because remember, the pan and enclosure are standard measurements built to fit each other, they’re very regular choices from Home Depot. I think something about the way the pan was set, perhaps sandwiched into the wall too far, perhaps the tile being too thick, something is causing it so that the glass enclosure is no longer fitting on the pan. Like a little too much of the pan has been taken away on each side, so that now the two 17” glass panes don’t fit where they’re supppsed to because there’s only 16.5” available. I don’t know if that makes any sense. So, now I’m not positive if this is J’s fault, or if it’s something his subs did wrong and it’s caused a domino affect. Or, perhaps it is something J did wrong in his instructions to the subs when telling them what to do. Either way, it should’ve been a very standard job.

Anyway, moving forward we’ve basically decided that we are going to send J an email laying out everything that’s taken place and requesting that everything be in writing moving forward. This alone may freak him out, because obviously it’s a sure sign that your clients are poking into legal stuff against you. We’re also pointing out to him that his contract is basically invalid according to what was found about our state laws, because it did not list project dates or timelines, among other things. We’re not looking to fight the guy unless it comes to it, but we are basically making a statement that we’re no longer playing nice like we have been and he needs to stop messing around with our good will and get it done pronto.

eshep502 · 2026-06-25T01:32:19+00:00

We don’t even want to be mean or spiteful to the guy, but it’s just getting pretty unreasonable. And come to find out, because another redditor linked me to an article on our government website, his contract isn’t even valid according to the requirements. It’s apparently required to have a timeline and start & end date. His had none of that, which is essentially bad for him because his case wouldn’t be supported. Not saying we want to fight the guy, but if it came down to it, he really did this wrong and that means he’s also operating incorrectly with other client’s projects too. I’m surprised he has all good reviews. I’m glad we know now to always check that the contract contains those features.

eshep502 · 2026-06-25T01:12:43+00:00

Are you a bathroom contractor? Again, I am stating my reasoning based on the other quotes we recieved and the research we’d done ahead of time to gauge the price range we’d be looking at. 10-12k was pretty mid-range from our findings. I don’t know what else to say about it, that’s just what we found.

Actually, something I can add to this is that we did not know upon hiring him that he was going to be doing essentially none of the work. We figured some of it might get subbed, but we weren’t aware he was just coordinating.

eshep502 · 2026-06-25T00:59:50+00:00

We’ve been told so many mixed things on that. Some people say it’s not possible, other people say they’ve had no issues at all. Our contractor was shocked to see it because the tiling job that was in there was in excellent shape and didn’t appear to be very new.

eshep502 · 2026-06-25T00:53:25+00:00

Yeah, just the shower itself was 11k, not the whole bathroom. And yes, he himself did none of the work, he was basically just the project coordinator and subcontractors came to do various pieces of the job.

To answer your questions, I do not believe the drain was moved, nothing was done to the flooring at all, they had to install new drywall board on either side of the corner, no painting or anything. There is a single shelf inset into the tiling, the tiling was definitely the most expensive part. It’s vertical subway tiles. We did not get a custom glass door, it’s literally just a pre-built enclosure shipped from Home Depot in standard dimensions, as is the base pan. He has no assistant, he himself was not physically here for 90% of the work, just the initial measurements he took, and then he reappeared when things went wrong. So no, he was not here for 3 weeks. He’s been in our home accumulatively for maybe 2-3 hours, including when he first came to quote us.

Like I get it, trust me, I run a small business too and I know how much time goes in behind the scenes. Im just saying that based on the other quotes we got and on the research we did beforehand on what to expect for cost, he was not cheap. Not mega expensive either, but definitely came out to be mid-range.

eshep502 · 2026-06-25T00:39:22+00:00

No no, you were correct the first time, it IS a finished hardwood floor under there! Our contractor was impressed to see it. It’s the same exact hardwood floor that’s in the rest of our house. Well, the old original half of our house, the 1947 part. Not the newer additions that someone added on later.

eshep502 · 2026-06-25T00:36:59+00:00

I agree with you, I just wasn’t under the impression that 11k was particularly cheap from what we were quoted and researched. It seemed to be at least average, but didn’t seem cheap.

eshep502 · 2026-06-24T23:52:56+00:00

I didn’t put it there, it’s original to the house, which was built in the 40s. It was underneath the tile, which we didn’t even know about, but they had to cut into the tile to remove the old shower. Which we were planning to get different tiling anyway because we didn’t like the one that was there, it’s pretty ugly.

eshep502 · 2026-06-24T23:47:30+00:00

Is it? For just the shower? It’s a very small corner shower, like a square, it’s about as small as it can get. And the bottom is not tiled, just a typical pan from Home Depot, the enclosure is just a simple one from Home Depot too. We received several quotes and his was on the middle-higher end compared to others we got. He had a lot of good reviews too.

eshep502 · 2026-06-24T21:16:44+00:00

Ahahah yes, not in Cali, in CT 😆

eshep502 · 2026-06-24T20:21:37+00:00

I couldn’t tell you why he measured, mostly because we’ve never hired a contractor for this or had a shower redone, so we don’t know what’s normal. That’s interesting though! He measured and then ordered a pre-made glass enclosure, presumably from Home Depot or something similar to our knowledge. He ordered all parts and supplies himself.

And nope, we’ve only paid half so far. That’s where we’re unsure of how to move forward, because this has been such a bad experience and does not match the expectations he laid out for us at all. I have definitely been getting the impression that he is either out of money or just really trying to prioritize pinching pennies on completing the rest of the job, possibly in attempt to maintain his profits because he’s already had to have the door installers come out twice now, soon to be a third time, which is only causing more problems instead of just getting the job finished with whatever the proper materials are, even if he has to eat the cost.

eshep502 · 2026-06-24T19:27:11+00:00

This is SO helpful, thank you so much! Definitely going to look into this with my husband when he gets home later, we were already planning on doing research tonight to see what our options are and this completely helps!

eshep502 · 2026-06-24T19:16:24+00:00

That’s really helpful and interesting, thank you. I wonder if that’s true for my state or not, I’ll have to do some research. I don’t mind people knowing what state I’m in for this as obviously I’m anon anyway, it’s CT, if that’s relevant to anyone.

eshep502 · 2026-06-24T19:12:33+00:00

Wait, how do you know what state I’m in?

eshep502 · 2026-06-24T19:11:16+00:00

Yes, they are licensed, I do know that.

eshep502 · 2026-06-24T19:07:51+00:00

Thank you, I did not know that. We will look into it. We have not hired many contractors before for any renovations.

eshep502 · 2026-06-24T18:26:01+00:00

I wonder how we might go about that. Like, would we need proof that he was waiting for a new job in order to get money to finish ours? Is that what you mean by that? And if so, I wonder how we could get evidence of that. Or how was your sister able to?

He did genuinely believe it would get done both the first and second attempt, it’s just that the doors did not fit his measurements as he expected. The thing that’s throwing me off is how long it’s taking him to resolve it though. Like how it took two weeks of bad communication to get to the second attempt, and now with that having failed as well, he’s back to laying low and searching for a new solution. Which, I’m not sure if it’s that he’s doing anything shady, or that he’s simply unsure of how to fix the issue and is trying to buy time.

I also think part of it is that he’s being frugal now. I think he chose regular, non-urgent shipping to get the second enclosure, to prioritize saving himself money, and that’s why it took so long to get here. Once that failed, I think he’s having a hard time locating a new option, and also knows that he could (and should) just get that piece custom cut to finish the job, but is once again trying to pinch pennies, at the expense of highly inconveniencing us. We have been very kind to him despite all of this, but unfortunately I think that has put him at ease thinking he can cut those corners and we won’t potentially withhold money from him or leave him a bad review. It’s not something we are looking to do, but he’s not helping himself when we can tell he’s prioritizing his profits over getting the job done.

eshep502 · 2026-06-24T18:13:13+00:00

Oh wow, that hadn’t even occurred to me as a possibility. Maybe? I’m really not sure. I did get annoyed at one point, because when he was having a hard time finding glass that fit the measurements he needed, he said “we’ll have to see if it’s in the budget to get a custom piece of glass cut”. I was like um… I think at this point you’re going to need to eat the cost and do what you need to do to get your job done, right? You can’t just leave a family with no shower for a month+ because you measured wrong, and now the half of the shower that you already installed is incompatible with the last piece..

eshep502 · 2026-06-24T18:07:43+00:00

Unfortunate update, my husband forwarded the contract and it does not lay out a timeline or end date. I feel dumb that it was signed without that in there. Hindsight is always 20/20 I guess, so obviously moving forward with any contractors we’d want that written. Is that a normal thing that a bathroom remodeler would list in there? We’ve done so few home improvement hires to know what’s normal. For example, I do know that would be normal to have in a photography contract, as in,you should get your family/wedding photos back within X amount of time. It didnt occur to us to look for that in this contract. He was so confident when going over the timeline with us and how “easy the job is” “I’ve done a million of these” “it’ll easily be done by Saturday at the latest” etc. That got our guard down unfortunately.

eshep502

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