The Tool Time Girl

Did you know walnuts stain? Four doors in my house, so far. I think I’ve substantially raised the property value already. I still have half a can of walnut-colored stain left. I love it. No wood surface is safe…I even like the smell.

Saturday, on my second of five trips this weekend through the check-out lane at Lowe’s (plus three to the return counter), I bought new toilet innards. Rob’s dad was at the house, waiting for the cable guy. Rob was working, in case anyone wonders why he never seems to be around during my home improvement binges. When I got home, Rob’s dad said, “Where’s the plumbing stuff?”

“In my car.”
“How am I supposed to install it if it’s in your car?”
“I’m going to do it,” I said. “I’ve been looking forward to it.”
“You’re going to do it?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know how?”
“I think so.”
“Do you have the right tools?”
“I think so.”

So he left and I got down to it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the old parts out of the tank. I remembered that Lowe’s sold tanks with the parts already inside, but I felt like it might be cheating to buy one of those. After a few more tries, I gave up, went back to Lowe’s, returned the toilet innards and went to the toilet aisle, where I was persuaded to buy a whole new toilet, because really, it is not advisable to mix and match these things.

It was much easier to remove the whole toilet from the floor that it was to take apart the tank innards. I set the wax seal and the bolts, blah dee bladda. I kept getting obsessive-compulsive about whether the seal and the bolts were in properly, so all together, I probably installed and uninstalled the bowl and tank about six times.

Unnnnnfortunately, there is a little drip from the lefthand tank-to-bowl bolt. Rob’s dad worked on it a bit the next day, but it persists.

The good news is I found out that we don’t pay for water by a meter. So who cares how much we waste? Except for, like, the Earth.