The new Bath!

We had a dilema. almost three years ago we had a bath given to us for the cost of getting it to us from where it currently lived. It was a bath that would meet our girls needs perfectly. With a little imagiation and some help from friends we got a £5000 bath for £300 OK it wasnt new but it wasnt tatty either. It worked perfectly!
For two and a half years this bath worked great for both girls and Jonathan and Joshua and Christina loved it too.
Unfortunately over recent months as Eve's condition has deteriorated the bath was not working! I could not bath her alone and even with two of us it was not an easy task. Eve needed a supportive bath seat, but putting her in the supportive seat brought her up out of the bath water....we needed to change it!

Specialists baths are not cheap, following our building problems and lack of availability of funds from the council we knew we could not fund the bath ourselves so we started to look at Charities. It took many phone calls and much internet searching to find one that would look at funding a bath. Eventually though we had the forms to fill in and arranged for two companies to come and quote during half term....then David spotted exactly what we wanted on Ebay!

Another couple of calls and some financial juggling and we secured the deal! Last friday the worlds two most wonderful delivery men arrived at our house with the bath!

It was not an easy task...the bath came in two parts the tub and the workings. The workings weighed one heck of a lot! They brought it on a sack truck to the door...managed to bring it through the patio doors sueezed through the door from lounge to utility and stopped! The next door was significantly narrower! We looked at the bath and looked at the door and looked at each other!
A moments inspiration from one of the guys had them twisting and turning and taking off a foot or two.....As in feet off the bottom of the legs of tha bath not each others feet nor shortening the bath at all!
Eventually after much sweating and heavy breathing but not a swear word to be heard....the workings part of the bath was at the bottom of the lift! Simple now take it into the lift on the sack truck, send lift upstairs and wheel it out!

Not quite....the workings part of the bath was 2 inches wider than the lift! OOOOPS!

The problem was the legs sticking out the front that formed the cantelever....if only there was a way of getting them off it could be twizzled round and into the lift! The legs appeared to be welded.....but were they! Suddenly someone spotted there were plastic bungs and once removed they revealed four bolts! More sweating and heavy breathing and some cross words at a ratchet that was an inch too lone for the space between the leg and the wall...a bit of a heave tot he doorway and tipping of box and Yehaaaa we had the legs off!

Eventually it was in the bathroom legs replaced and ready to be plumbed in!

All the pipe work and tap fixings were already there from the previous bath so just a matter of attatching them right?

Wrong....they were the wrong fixings! Off to the plumbers merchants to fetch new ones....Other man made a start on the electrical fixings and this time it did all just fit back together with the old wiring....PHEW!

First man comes back with fixings and we are off.....plumbing going fine until water turned on and one hose has a crack in it! It must have been sitting in the plumbers merchants for ages waiting for the Hilliers to need it!

Thankfully it is only four miles down the road to the plumbers

Eventually it was all connected and waiting for the bath tub!

Four Bolts attatch the bath to the workings...four bolts i the most difficult of places...good job they had practied their contortionism so well previously I think!

The girls love their new bath...off to Naidex in a few weeks on the hunt for a good bath aid now for Eve...meanwhile the Bee Lift works fairly well if a little short!