Plumbing Nightmares

Ok, so most of you know that we had our master bedroom/bathroom completely remodeled before we got married and I moved into the house. The old bathroom was tiny and had tons of mold and was not only asthetically unpleasing, but probably a health hazard as well. Jay found a general contractor to do the remodel (bedroom, walk-in closet, bathroom) who was licensed and seemed to be a decent guy. Apparently, the contractor we hired had a "friend" who was a plumber and did not know what he was doing. This "friend" also did the electrical work, which Jay had to repair after the remodel was complete. Jay is not a plumber, but he is an electrician and knew enough about the electrical work to get it up to code. We went along just fine for about 2 years and then back around July/August the toilet flusher broke. We discovered this was no fault to the plumber, it was just a lousy design by the manufacturerer. We pulled the paperwork and discovered that the toilet was under warranty for 10 years. Great! No money out of pocket, what a relief! Well, when we called to order the part, they told us one of the parts we needed (a seal of some sort) was on backorder. It took well over a month for us to finally get that part in and get the toilet fixed. But, the part eventually came in and we got the toilet up and running again and we had our bathroom back. Until.......on Sunday, October 14 I noticed some water on the carpet in the bathroom. I just figured Jay had splilled something or hopped out of the shower soaking wet and streaked through the bedroom and it hadn't dried yet. I noticed it still damp on Monday, but didn't think too much of it. Then on Tuesday, it was much worse. Jay and I were getting ready to go to Jeannie's funeral and I brought it to his attention. He thought the leak was coming from the shower and decided we needed to call a plumber. We called Lanini's plumbing who had helped us out before when we were having other plumbing issues. Jake from Lanini's called us right away from his cell and was in the area and stopped by and took a look. He said that the shower drain was not installed properly and to fix it we would have to have the entire shower pulled and the plumbing fixed and to do that we'd have to have a general contractor come in and do the work. He said that he has a general contractor that he works with that used to work for the insurance companies and comes highly recommended. He mentioned the guy's name and I was instantly relieved. I happen to know him from church from working in the children's ministry and he is one of the nicest men I've ever met. He gave Joe a call and Joe came over and told us that we had a homeowner's insurance claim and to contact the insurance company and he guided us in what to tell them. Jay called the insurance company and filed a claim on the phone. We finished getting ready for the funeral, went to Walmart and got a box fan to dry the carpet and padding and went to the funeral. We continued drying the carpet over the next few days while we waited to hear from the claims adjustor that the claim was approved and noticed the carpet was getting wetter and wetter, even though we weren't using the shower. Fortunately, we have 3 bathrooms in this house, so Jay and I had moved all of our shower stuff into the spare bathroom. We looked around the toilet and noticed that water was leaking from the toilet. Great!!!! So, we called Joe and he and Jake came by again and Jake pulled the toilet and discovered that the way the slope was under the toilet was not up to code and that they had installed the toilet over a piece of wood about an inch above the flooring and mold was growing on the wood and he said that we needed to have the slope increased and we needed to go after the general contractor that did the original remodel. Now what???? We have this outstanding claim with our homeowner's insurance, we've had a plumber and a contractor out for two house calls and now we have to go after this guy who we don't even know is still in business. So, Jay called Joe and he checked online and the guy is still licensed so we called him and left a couple of messages. He came out this morning and had his *new* plumber (even he knew the guy that did the original work was not reputable) come out and take a look. What the new plumber discovered was 1) the shower drain is a mess and he has to come back and do some tests and if there is a leak we need to move forward with the claim and 2) the slope issue is due to the way that the sewage line was installed and he can't increase the slope by going under the slab, there isn't enough room, so he's going to raise the toilet further by installing tile under it which will be more sanitary than the wood and will **hopefully** stop the leak. So, that's where we're at right now. Both the original contractor and his plumber are coming back this afternoon to see what can be done. Here are some photos of the mess. To be continued...