2016 Winner


2016 WINNER: Dave and Emmylou Grosser of Golden Valley

Mere months after buying their home in Golden Valley, Dave and Emmylou Grosser watched as 2014 flood waters filled up the in-slab heating ducts in their basement, creating a slew of problems.

Dave Grosser described it as an “initiation to home ownership.” To fix the damages, Grosser says, construction workers had to jackhammer through a 1959 tile shower to install drain tile, exposing a moldy shower frame overdue for repairs and leaving a large opening in the wall that provided a straight-line view from the basement window to the toilet.

“We had to put a sheet up for privacy,” Glosser says. “If the sheet wasn’t there, people can just sort of walk by and look in.”

The Glossers realized this gutted bathroom room was a perfect candidate for the West Metro Home Remodeling Fair’s Operation Rescue Room contest (see page 16).

“We didn’t feel we had much to lose,” Glosser says. “We figured it was so comical, our entry would at least entertain somebody even if we didn’t win.”

But the Glossers and their pink sheet-affixed bathroom did win, taking the 2016 prize for worst room in the West Metro and the $1,000 check that comes with it.

Up to that point, the Glossers didn’t have the spare cash to finish repairs on the project, but with the prize money, they now plan to redo the room, complete with a new shower and fully functioning walls, after three years of waiting.

Glosser said he absolutely recommends that people enter the contest, even if they feel embarrassed about their particularly shabby room.