Could be a "Pissing You Off" post, but I'm in the glass half-full mood, so here we are.
Been working on redoing my basement shower. The previous owners did a remodel on a rather rustic original setup, and my wife insists that the rare guest we have never want to shower because they're afraid of it. They obviously haven't seen the one in our old farmhouse I grew up in.
Anyway, bought a module kit about 6 months ago, looked things over, gradually tore out a partition...and waited. Nothing happened, of course.
So, finally got more serious a few weeks back, and found out I needed a flat surface, rather than the sloping one that the cement floor had. This required learning a new skill, that is working with leveling cement. What I didn't plan on is how insidiously this stuff can move.....working it's way past my drain barrier and oozing into the trap.

Poked around trying to remove as much as I could, but decided I was beat and needed a pro.... Meanwhile I developed this feeling in my gut when you really mess up with something easily avoidable, and are in way over your head, and going to pay the price.....
So, of course my plumber was on vacation over the Holidays, so finally got him out. He managed not to shame me, bless him... gave it his best shot (he's had a half dozen of these do-it-yourselfer disasters already and 4 of them were easily remedied). Not this time. So he's back with the jackhammer, pulling up the trap, which would get us closer to a solution. Not so fast...there's a bunch of tree roots, and clay tile, so the work was just starting.
So as of right now, I have a huge hole in the basement floor that could hold a body if I had one to dispose of, several baskets of mud and tools sitting around, with the toilet sitting in the laundry room.
So...why the heck am I happy? It seems weird, but I love my plumber...he helped me save money in a project in my office building years ago, and has done a number of other jobs for me. He's a likable guy, straight shooter and I trust him, so having him back isn't in the least stressful. Two of his kids are now working with him, and they seem like great guys as well. So we have a plan, I get a side benefit of getting the toilet moved a bit closer to the wall, which always annoyed me, the pan for the shower can now be aligned more satisfactorily as well. Even though it's likely going to cost the better part of a grand, I'm happy to have these guys working here. Who knows, maybe I'll actually finish the project this year.