Revenge of the Toilet

When most people take vacations from work they go somewhere...else in the world, away from their everyday life and home.

Not this guy.

I took a week off work and spent almost the entire time here at my house fiddling with things. Guess it comes with the territory when you are madly in love with your house.
The first thing I tackled was that damn peach toilet. It’s been plaguing me since I moved in. Constantly running and full of crusted over original equipment, I cringe every time someone used it. 

With one failed attempt to repair it looming over me, this was my chance to regain my honor. This time, my strategy was simple. I was going to replace every single part inside the tank. That way I would be positive to knock out all possible scenarios of failure.

I’m proud to say the plan worked and after replacing all of the crusty vintage internal parts I now have a fully functioning toilet. Thanks to my local ReStore I was even able to upgrade to a brand new never used dual flush system. You know, the kind where it’s up on the handle for liquids and down on the handle for solids. I have to say so far I’m impressed with the system...but the true test will be the next party I have.

Fisticuffs

  Possibly a futile quest, I am determined to fix all those “little things” around the house. For this adventure I challenged the light fixture located in my basement stairs to a duel. Casting aside concern for my own well-being, I delved into the darkness. Striking hard and fast, I dealt blow after blow to my dastardly foe. After what had to have been an exhausting 8 or 9 minutes of grueling fighting the fixture squealed "uncle" and I was victorious. 

  Seriously though, fixing a dead fixture is super easy. Grab some heavy gauge wire and a new socket (found easily at your local big box store) and you can resurrect any fixture. Just make sure you turn the power off and pray to Crom first.

the old wire

check out the burn marks on the old socket

wired up and ready

dig the crazy light patter it throws

lighting my darkest hour

Floor beneath the floor

 I don’t know about the rest of you but sometimes I get the uncontrollable urge to not leave well enough alone. Todays unbridled desire was related to the last thing about my house I can’t stand. The god awful linoleum floor.

 It was at best guess put down in the late 70’s early 80’s and is showing its age. Not to mention it is ugly to begin with. When moving in my fridge I accidentally made a nice little rip in the linoleum. Just big enough to discover that underneath was some wonderful vinyl tile floor. From what I could view through the tiny opening it looked to be in good shape and the linoleum was clearly not profusely glued down. 

 Since I moved in I’ve been thinking about the “floor beneath the floor.” Today in the middle of watching a recently acquired copy of “The Road Warrior” I had the bright idea to peel back the area in my wet bar. If it’s in bad shape I could just cover it back up on the cheap because of its small square footage. 

 The curiosity took over and I stopped the movie. Grabbing a few tool I thought I may need for the process I headed to the bar. 


 Right away I was able to find a separation in the floor between the kitchen and bar, under the door where most wouldn't ever notice. With nothing more then a fingernail I lifted a small piece and throwing caution to the wind I began to peel. Less then 5 minutes later I had a beautiful vintage tile floor before me. 

 I can only pray the rest of my kitchen looks this good. Just in case though I think I’ll wait a little to tackle the rest of the kitchen. I mean they must of had a reason to cover it. Somewhere lurking below is impending doom. I can feel it.