One Sixty: Prepare to Look Away, It's Not Pretty

Prepare to Look Away, It's Not Pretty

I arrived home yesterday evening, looking forward to a relaxing night after a dull dull MLK day at work. It's the usual - I pull myself through the door, block the cats who are meowing and flopping right in my way, put my junk on the coat rack, and head for a hot hot shower.

But the minute I turn on the bathroom light - AHHHHHHHHHH.

No, it's not some knife wielding maniac or overwhelming mildew. It's that stupid green toilet again. And it's leaking all over the freakin place. Again. It's so disgusting, I'm ashamed to show you this picture:

No that's not poo water - it's just clean water mixed with a whole lotta dirt. It's pretty much impossible to clean back there. And yes, that floor is actually rippled from all the water damage. In fact, I just know the day will come when I'll sit down on the toilet and fall right through to the basement.

Those who know this blog know that I have written about my hatred of this bathroom and particularly of this toilet time and time again. And believe me, I'm as sick of writing about it as you are of reading about it.

And if I'm sick of writing about it, you know I'm sick of dealing with it. So I just stuck a bowl under the leak and tried to ignore it. Kamikaze the cat, however, was highly intrigued.

Mike eventually got home and fixed it - again. The basic problem is that this toilet is old... duh, right? Well, the tank is actually waaay smaller than a new toilet tank. So the replacement parts we got for it at one point do not actually fit correctly. The drain, especially. So when the water level gets too high, it doesn't drain out, it leaks out the handle. Our solution for now was to take tin snips and cut the drain pipe thingy so water at a lower level can drain out correctly.

Why not get a new toilet? As I have explained before - this whole bathroom will eventually be demolished and two new ones (stacked on top of one another) will be built in its place. Why buy and install a new toilet just to have to take it out again? But the whole thing is an expensive proposition and I'm not ready to take the plunge. (hee hee, bathroom humor.)

Blog Story

My now husband Mike and I purchased this quaint home back in spring of 2004 - our first home - and, being the handy folks we are, expected to have the entire thing renovated in about a year or so.

And here we still are... renovating away.

This house needed a complete overhaul. Its plaster walls were uninsulated, its attic floor covered in 2" of bat guano, its basement - dirt and snakes, its exterior - asbestos siding, and lead paint windows in every room. The electric had not been updated and light sockets hung bare from the ceiling. Plumbing featured cast iron radiators - and only one for the entire upstairs.

We began by gutting almost the entire house from top to bottom. (sans bathroom - we needed to pee) We rebuilt the entire upstairs, with a new floor (not new carpet or wood - the once unstable framing underneath) and turned 3 small rooms into two. We reinvented the downstairs by turning a closet into a hallway and eliminating interior exterior windows and doors from old half-assed additions.

New insulation, windows, electrical wiring (including phone and CAT-5 internet), plumbing and baseboards, and drywall were all added.

We purchased kitchen cabinets from a yard sale. (None existed previously.) Our families helped us replace and purchase new appliances including the once also missing washer & dryer.

Then we had the entire house lifted - straight into the air - dug out the dirt, and had a real basement foundation poured. We updated our oil tank and burner and created heating zones.

Outside, we took down trees and planted grass. We dug out an awkward hill to create a 2nd part to the driveway and used the rocks our house once sat on as a retaining wall. We electrified and repainted the garage.

And of course, we spent many an hour on finish work like paint, trim, closet doors, lighting fixtures, hardwood floors, curtain rods, dimmer switches, and many other things everyone else takes for granted. We are still working to complete all this final finishing, but happy to report that we are FINALLY nearing completion of all little things in all rooms!

In 2008 we began overhauling the exterior by creating a new french door entryway and building a farmer's porch and garage addition. We replaced our roof and then stripped off our siding and replaced with new clapboards. We then planted two new flowering trees and a maple in the front yard - our first major landscape purchases. I'm happy to report that here in 2011, the porch is nearing completion and the back yard is on the road to recovery with some new loam and grass. More plantings soon to come!

In 2012 we plan to attack the last MAJOR (emphasis on major) job in the house - the dreaded BATHROOM! We plan to first add a second bathroom in the basement. Then, demolish our current bathroom and rebuild it, adding a second bathroom on top for the upstairs.

And that pretty much brings you up to date. The battle continues day to day as we try and complete everything.

4 comments:

Jennifer said...: What a pain!

You could get a cheap used toilet to stick in it's place for a while... it would be worth $25 or $50 to ME to not deal with it! If you have a Habitat for Humanity ReStore, check there! Check craigslist, too, of course.

I finally broke down and did some "temporary" fixes like that... it was taking forever for certain projects to be done, and I just couldn't live like that anymore!; 10:24 AM
kitrainia said...: Not a bad idea. I never thought of craigslist.... I'm going to take a look right now.; 2:53 PM
Fred said...: I've "reseated" two toilets in the last 2 weeks. The first was because one of my sons thought it would be a good idea to put a whole case of dental floss down one. It got stuck in the toilet, which I guess is fortunate because otherwise it could have clogged the lines. I will not tell you what backed up behind that dental floss though!

The second toilet pull was even worse. Two of my toilets on the second floor flow to the same drain pipe. I realized late Saturday night that they were both backing up... which means the problem wasn't in the toilet but was further down the line (and wax rings are exactly known for holding pressure-tight). In any event, I ended up renting a snake from Home Depot (one of the dirtiest devices known to man) to clean the pipe out.

It worked, but the drama wasn't over. Today my wife tells me that there's a leak coming through our kitchen. Turns out that I failed to re-tighten the in-water line on the toilet. So now a small section of drywall is ruined. Looks like next weekend's project is starting to shape up.

OK, well, that was long winded, but I'm glad I got it off my chest.

Fred
Come join us at One Project Closer; 5:06 PM
kitrainia said...: Oh my god Fred - I'm surprised you're still standing. What an ordeal!

And here I am wishing for a second bathroom.... Well, no kids yet, so I suppose I'm safe for now.

Thanks for the link - it's good to find someone else posting nearly every day. I was starting to think I was nuts, so I cut back on my posts when I felt I didn't have anything to talk about... Although I think you have a lot more useful info then my psychotic house ramblings. =)

But you're right about one thing - it's good to get it alll out on paper... er, internet. Very cleansing.; 10:10 AM