Day 81: *@$%€ bath panels

Today I tasked myself with fitting the bath panels. Simple task I thought. Just a couple of screws I thought. Will be finished by lunch I thought. Boy was I ever wrong. 

Turns out that the panels we bought do indeed fit the bath perfectly. Only that's in the showroom, when it's set at the exact manufacturer's prescribed height, when it's not plumbed, on a perfectly flat/level floor and not surrounded by tiles. I'm sure you know where this is going...  The panels didn't fit. The floor tiles brought up the floor too high..  And we're talking less than 1cm. And since the bath is recessed into the wall the side panel is 1cm too long. 

So I had to measure and cut. Cutting involved my 12" saw with a fine blade and when the saw got in the way... Just the blade by itself, a neat trick for softer materials. And now that the panels are cut, I'll need to reinforce them with a wooden frame and attach new fixings to the bottom. So my 10 min job was nothing like it. I've posted photos of what it will look like for inspiration. 

After looking on the internet, I discovered that this is not a case of builder incompetence, and is quite common. The one size fits all is a one size fits none which is why so many people just build their own panels. In a way, I'll be doing that too. 

After the better part of 2 days, I've got the panels roughly fitted now. It will take a little more finesse - but that's for another day. In the process, I added a new tool to the family. It's my get out of a jamb Stanley mini saw thingy. Basically a piece of plastic that holds 10-12" saw blades. Great for cutting bath panels with minimal swearing.