Toilet Saga, Part II & III

On Monday, I put a new wax ring down and reinstalled the toilet. First few flushes were ok, then it started to rain in the basement. I'm thinking/hoping it was a case of not enough wax, but I sealed up the new "extra" tapped holes with epoxy paste and filled in the small gap around the flange with silicone. I also purchased a double thick wax gasket as there was significantly less wax to remove the second time I pulled the toilet than the first time.

First flush went well, let's hope I don't have to wrangle the toilet again for a while.

The toilet, continued

s it turns out, the new $16 replacement flange would not fit in our pipe. Despite the Home Depot guy insisting that it would, not all 4" pipes are created equal. So, that's going back to H.D. along with the CFL dimmer bulb that not only dims, but flickers.

Here's a shot of the "SuperRing" installed over the old cast iron ring. See those little half-round tabs around the circumference? Those are the reason why this solution wouldn't work. A spanner flange would have worked, too. Hindsight is 20/20 of course, and we finally ended up going with what we should have done in the first place.

I removed the "new" superflange and today, we got the broken bolt drilled out and a new one installed. It took some wire and JB Weld, but it should be good to go. I also took the opportunity to steam clean the surfaces around the back of the throne, and while the rust didn't want to budge, I'm not too worried about it. As soon as I find a replacement (low profile) vent cover in the appropriate size, I'll pull that rusty old thing out and refinish it and hopefully place it over the new one. It's pretty, but one does freeze their ass off sitting in that corner.

Going to set the toilet tomorrow afternoon, and hopefully we'll be flushing upstairs now, too!

Foiled! Window Treatment

Obviously, I'm not Martha Stewart - I'm all about the practical. I'm trying to bring some softer, feminine touches into my life, but it's difficult to get the "look" I want.

Anywho, our "Master" bedroom has a West Facing window that doubles as a heat sink. Before we moved in, the only room I managed to get "clean" was the Master Bedroom. By "clean", I mean washing walls, shampooing the carpet, and removing old window treatment stuff. This left me with remarkably clean (and liveable) walls, wood putty spots on the window frames, but at

least there was no mold or hair left stuck to the walls and baseboard. Ew. The mold was probably due to a water bed or humidifyer. Big no-nos in my house. Mold = bad pookie.

Since I'm a day-sleeper (any one who works 12-hour night shifts should be one), black out shades were needed for the normally sunny room. Draperies are expensive, so I opted for $4.88 Black Out Redi-Shades from Walmart. Two of them. As the summer heated up (and quickly), I decided that the West window needed some more 'stuff'.

our feet of 24" foil insulation ($10.48 at Home Depot for a 10' roll), and we have this. Oh, and some duct tape cuz I didn't feel like doing anything special with this project. We'll get around to painting eventually.

Drop the Redi-Shade, and it's like the foil was never there. Save for the immediate temperature difference.

Week One - Toilet

One week after we moved in, we found a small puddle on the basement floor directly under the upstairs (master) commode. I believe the first words out of my mouth were "Oh, F!#&". Pulled the biffie and while the original cast iron curtain ring (which is leaded onto the original iron pipe) was intact - no obvious corrosion, the wax ring was evidently buggered. While trying to remove the 2nd stem bolt (in Oregon, and only in Oregon, the curtain rings had 2 or 4 holes tapped into the curtain ring into which you thread your stem bolts to secure your throne) it snapped off. Extraction efforts, including a blow torch didn't work. So, my father and I set out to mount a replacement (steel) "Super Ring" over the old cast iron. That required (according to the directions on the "Super Ring") drilling and tapping new mounting holes directly onto the old ring. No problem, once Pa brought his DeWalt hammer drill and tap set. There was some profanity involved, but he got the new ring mounted on the old. Two shiny new stem bolts sticking up ready for the Porcelain Goddess.

I go to plop the toilet down on the new wax ring & bolts and ...ugh. Bloody thing wouldn't seat. Turns out the nice little flanges on the "Super Ring" (for mounting to your sub-floor, should you have a plastic and not cast iron ring) are too wide for the toilet to sit flush on to the wax ring and for wax splooging to occur.

I knew our local hardware store was a) closed, and b) wouldn't have what I needed, so I hit the road and drove 40+ miles to Home Depot for a better solution. $80 and 80 miles later, I'm home again with a Very Expensive dohicky* to fit into the pipe and over the old ring. We'll see if this works, eh?

I'm doubly thankful for a Father who is a) handy, b) generous with his time, and c) not getting Old Man Cranky Pants over this. Also, the 2nd "bathroom" in the basement. It's nothing more than an ancient toilet and a newer sink in one corner of the basement w/ a privacy screen, but it's better than pissing in a 5 gallon bucket with kitty litter.

We won't discuss how Johnny wandered into the Master Bathroom last night and peed in the disconnected toilet, yet some how neglected to flush.

*One simply cannot drive that many miles, and only buy one $16 plumbing fitting. I picked up some other stuff that was needed for The House, as well.