I Did It Myself!

Who knew it would be empowering to fix your own toilets! I have lived in this house for twenty years and I do manage to do some of the small maintenance jobs myself. I have replace the flapper and inside parts myself but when they both started leaking from below the tank, I thought I needed a plumber. I went online to see what could be wrong (mainly just so I wouldn't get ripped off) and after reading about it, decided maybe I could do it myself.

So off I went to Lowes and bought the parts. The man in the plumbing isle was very helpful and I bought two sets of tank bolts and gaskets. He also said that if the bowl itself was wobbly then the seal underneath may be leaking.

The instructions were easy enough - turn off water, flush to drain tank, remove old bolts and replace. However, it was the remove old bolts that caused a problem. The nuts were rusted tight and after an hour fighting with them, I ended up getting the hack saw. I should have done that first, they sawed in half in a blink.

After putting both tanks back on the bowls and tightening the wing nuts (whoever invented wing nuts, I love you!), there were no leaks! I did decide to check to see if the bowls wobbled and sure enough one did. Guess what? When I checked under the little caps that cover the bolts on the base of the bowl, the ones that hold the bowl down, one side had no nut and the bolt was just wiggling in the wind.

Apparently the idiots (workmen) who installed my bathroom tile, didn't think both sides of the toilet needed to be fastened to the floor when they put my toilet back in place. I was not pleased, but as that company is long out of business, I guess they got their due rewards.

I can't tell you how good it feels to have saved a ton of money and at almost forty nine years old

(birthday coming soon) learned to do something I never thought I would need to do. Take it from me ladies, if I can do it so can you! Next up, maybe I'll try some minor kitchen renovations.