It wasn't the rain showers outside that had a Mays Landing, N.J. family down in the dumps Tuesday.
It was the shower inside, where the sound of water coursing from the shower head triggers a flooded bathroom and a flood of emotion from Carlos Landrau.
"I love my son and I want everything for him to be good," Landrau told FOX 29's Bruce Gordon while choking back tears.
Multiple Sclerosis confines 43-year-old Luis Landrau to a wheelchair full-time.
Among his needs- a specialized shower that allows him to roll into in a portable chair.
But even with the water directed at a back wall, the barrier-free shower put in by contractor Dominic Sabato last fall, leaves water on the bathroom floor within seconds.
"I like to do things on my own," says Luis. "So a shower would feel good."
But he can't use the shower because of the flooding.
"I was mad, actually," said Carlos, when he first saw the water running across the bathroom floor. "I was mad because I said, it's like I'd been taken!"
Landrau says he paid Dominic Sabato more than $1,600 to install the roll-in shower last October.
Landrau claims Sabato and his son stopped short of completing the job, then stopped coming, entirely.
Landrau says he called Sabato and wrote letters, to no avail.
"He even said, ‘we'll stay all night if we have to, just to finish the job.' And that same weekend, he never showed up!"
With a carpenter's level, it's easy to see why the flooding occurs.
The shower floor appears to be perfectly level- no slope to keep the water inside the shower area.
The drain actually sits slightly higher than the floor tile, and at shower's edge, the floor drops off slightly, into a separate- and lower- tiled area with no drain.
Gordon reached Dominic Sabato by phone Tuesday.
He promised to return to the Landrau home Wednesday, to begin the process of rebuilding that shower floor.
Meanwhile, Luis waits for the chance at a real shower.
Not a sponge bath, but a real shower.
And his father, worries.
"I try to, you know, do things right for him to make his life easier..."
We're going to hold Sabato to his promise to rectify the situation.
We'll keep you posted.
A look at the unfinished shower at the Landrau's home. The shower allows Luis Landrau to roll into in a portable chair.
