Potty Pooper

The toilet in our half bath has been “tinkling” for the last week or so. It’s been driving me crazy as there is always water running (and wasting).

Dad came over a few months ago and taught me how to fix the flapper-foo-foo valve thingy on the one in the ensuite bathroom. It was a good lesson and I thought that I was quite handy by the end of it.

But when this one started the same issue, practicality won out over handiness.

All the toilets in the house are original (ish) and I knew that at some point or another it would be time to change them over to Eco Friendly.

So hubby and I chatted and decided that the one in the half bath would be the first to be changed out, as it’s the one we probably use the most.

Hubby’s job on Monday: research.

Our job on Tuesday: install.

I figured that it couldn’t be too hard to install a new toilet. Plus we had literally just watched Mike Holmes do it (and teach us, the viewer, how to do it) the day before. We got all the tools together and put the Easy Button within reaching distance (joke: projects are never easy for Weebo and I, so I bought it to bring us better luck...plus when you push it the dog goes nuts, which is entertaining for me). We removed the old toilet with no issues, opened the box of the new one and went at it.

It was all going so well...

BUT! The builders of our beautiful home thought it would look nice to have the counter top extend wall to wall, and the toilet to sit under the counter top….

I’m watching hubby tighten the last few bolts…he turns to me and says “can I turn the water back on?”.

I just knew my Easy Button was about to fail me…It didn’t look right…

“Lets put the tank lid on first, I’m afraid its not going to fit under the counter”, I say.

Ended up being that we were about ½” short on clearing the goddamnsonofabitch counter top.

So I stepped back…

Swore….

Pondered…

Swore again…

Option One: leave the lid off the tank…well that’s just not going to work.

Option two: removed the whole right side of counter top and replace it with a new one later. Hmmm…pretty heavy duty.

Option three: Jimmy out the half an inch that we need for clearance.

We went with option three.

With this decision made, hubby says “let me go get the sawzall.”

Practical me:  “That’s a bit heavy duty don’t you think? Why not try the Dremal? A bit finer work “

“Oh… ya. Good thinking” says he.

In hindsight, I should have walked out when I said to him “I can’t watch”, as he:

1. Started with the Dremel. Cut two two-inch cuts running up.

2. Moved onto hacksaw. Cut off a foot and a half chunk of the counter top

3. Went back to the Dremel because said cut from hacksaw was not so straight (read: shark teeth jagged)

4. Today's project: palm sanding it into something remotely aesthetically pleasing.

We had a brand new shiny white toilet. Within 1 hour of it being installed, it was covered in sawdust and smoke was billowing out the bathroom window because of the Dremel burning the counter top…

It will be a work in progress for a bit and hopefully we can shape it up so that its not too much of an eye-sore.

Only our luck could turn a toilet installation project into a home reno job.

I guess it could have been worse…no floods so far ;)

Cheers!