The Hole In The Wall

Let me set the stage.........

After our remodeling of the house, we purchased and put up new towel bars in both of our bathrooms. All was well, we placed them where we wanted them and enjoyed the added beauty and usefulness of them daily.

Until, one of them began to be loose. Just a slight jiggle at first, but soon loose enough that the bracket was pulling away from the wall and was making a slightly larger hole where the screws had been placed, causing it to be loose.

The screws had been secured in the wall anchors provided as the instructions had advised.

We thought, no problem, just place the screws in larger wall anchors and this should solve the problem. That did not work. The holes got bigger.

So, Michael removed the screws and filled in the holes around the anchors with Gorilla glue.

Then of course, like all men's projects, it sat there for awhile.......untouched.

You know, you get busy and it just doesn't get done.

So I thought, I can finish this.....it's not so hard......just put the screws back in and hang the bracket and presto.........a usable towel bar.

It sounded good, not too difficult........

I replaced the screws, hung the bracket, but it was still loose. I took the bracket back off, looked at it and devised that the excess glue was not allowing the bracket to hang properly. I sanded the excess glue until it felt smooth and even. I replaced the screws, still it was not secure.

Grrrrrrrrrr...........

Then a brilliant idea occurred to me........

Move the screws over, just slightly, the bracket will be secure and the towel bar will still hang properly. No one will ever know there are two sets of holes, the bracket will hide it. YES, I thought, this will work.

I carefully measured the towel bar.......YES, there is plenty of leeway. I can do this! Michael will be so surprised when he gets home!

I took my handy little cordless screwdriver and put those anchors and screws into the wall, just slightly to the left of the originally holes. Success. Until, I hung the bracket. GASP!!!!!!!

When you drill too many holes in drywall in close proximity of each other it tends to crack and crumble and cause ONE BIG HOLE. Now what am I going to do........

This is Michael's project and I have interfered. The panic button was going off. Should I call someone to fix if before he gets home? What now?

The thoughts of how things like this in the past had played out were going through my mind. Not good thoughts. My stomach was in knots the rest of the day.

Michael called, as he does most evenings before he comes home. I wanted to pre-warn him and I told him that he was going to be mad at me when he arrived home this evening. He asked why, and I began to tell him about the hole in the wall. He calmly said okay, we'll see what we can do. No shouting, no anger.

When he arrived home he came in, kissed me, as he normally does, put away the groceries that he had brought home and then calmly asked to see this hole in the wall. I nervously lead him to the hole. He looked at it, hugged me, sort of laughed and said,"we can fix it". I began to cry. I had been so upset by this and it was no big deal to him. He told me that this is my house too and that if there is something that I want to do as far as decorating it, that I should be able to do that.

He had to reinforce the hole with some wood and then fill it in with drywall mud. After it had dried it had to be sanded and then painted.

Then HE put up the towel bar.

As you can see in the picture, the hole is still slightly noticable, but the towel bar is up and usuable and a reminder to me of how wonderful my partner is!!!