Bathrooms and Other Strangers

I have 2 sons, and while they were growing up, they seemed to need to take infinite showers. They'd both shower until the hot water was completely gone.
I have no idea what they could have been doing in there. (Actually, I have nightmares about it, but let's not go there.)
The consequence of these steaming (don't go there) showers is that black mold blossomed all over the walls. I sprayed it with Tile-X once in a while, and that helped, but the only reason the mold didn't come back was because the boys moved out and bathroom door got to stay open once in a while.
So now our contractor, brother-in-law Skip, has ripped the bathroom down to the studs.
Richard and Skip took careful measurements before the demolition, and we went confidently to Lowes with a good idea of what we wanted.
We found the cutest 36" vanity and 15" linen closet, bright white, with a beautiful mirror and light bar to accessorize.
We hauled our treasures home only to find, after the drywall was torn off, that the fixtures would not work with our plumbing. Back to the drawing board.
To make matters worse, the concrete slab floor requires a tub with a drain that is 13 1/2" from the wall. Bathtubs like that are hard to fine.
Weary and disheartened, Richard and I met at Home Depot after work to see if they had any viable options. Home Depot's selection of bathroom fixtures SUCKS!
You can get any vanity and closet combo you want, provided you can afford the price, have the time to wait (up to 20 days). Let's not even talk about vanity tops.
We decided we will have to make due with a 36" vanity, can the linen closet, and try to stuff towels in the tiney vanity drawers. We looked at 48" vanities, but again, they won't work with our plumbing limitations.
That problem solved, Skip graciously went to Lowes and found one 29" tub that will work.
In our high-rent district, next to the railroad tracks, we can't do ceramic tile on the walls because the vibration would crack the grout, allow water to seep in, and we're back to black mold again.
Richard went to Lowes and picked up the tub. He found a surround unit that would work, but they only had 2 in stock. One unit had obvious damage, so the helpful folks at Lowes, and they are very nice, pulled the other piece down from a top shelf. Richard looked it over as well as he could, and it looked okay, so the helpful Lowes guy helped Richard load up the tub and the surround.
When he got the surround home and opened up the box he found a 5" crack on the edge of one of the pieces. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
Richard took the damaged goods back to Lowes, and Lowes called a store in a nearby town to see if they had the same piece. They did, and they checked it over to make sure it was in tact.
It will be here next Tuesday.
Fortunately, there's just the 2 of us at home now, and we don't need 2 bathrooms, but I'm beginning to wish we had learned to live with the mold. Mold is a living thing. It's one of God's creations so it must be beautiful, right?
All those wonderful home improvement shows on TV never have problems like this. If they did homes would never be improved. We'd just wear one out and move to a new one. Teepees sound very good to me right now.