Rock Toilet
Tuesday morning when Alison got up, the toilet was clogged. This happens every couple weeks or so, so she grabbed the plunger to fix it, which is usually a 30 second job. As she worked, Gideon walked in and asked, "What are you doing? Are you getting the rock out?" Uh-oh.
All day Tuesday the toilet wouldn't flush by itself, but the plunger could still make it work. When Mike got home, Alison asked him to try and fix it. He worked all evening, but the rock only got more stuck. Finally we decided to just replace the toilet, because it was old and gross anyway. However, at that point we realized that the former homeowner, who messed up all the wiring, also thought he could do plumbing. The toilet was resting on top of an iron pipe with not flange or any connection, in the middle of an 8 inch square hole which was too large for the toilet bolts to go into the floor; they were just dangling into the hole not connected to anything. The only thing holding that toilet up was a ridiculous amount of wax on the bottom of it.
Well, we couldn't stick a toilet back on top of that, so we were toilet-less. We called a plumber to come the next morning. He said he could replace the cast iron pipe with modern pipe and put a flange on it, but someone else would have to replace the floor before we could put a toilet on it. He called a repair company he knew, who sent someone out. They suggested that we see if insurance would cover the floor replacement on the grounds that it was water damage, because if they would, they would pay for us to go to a hotel for the week or so it would take to get things repaired. We spent the afternoon at a friend's house, and Alison ran out to buy a camping "toilet" (five gallon bucket with a toilet seat and trash bags). Mike had to go do the Church audit that night, so the rest of us went to the grocery store to use the bathroom before bed.
The insurance man came Thursday. He said there wasn't enough water damage for a claim, but that we could just cut a slightly larger hole to reach the nearest floor joists and put in a small piece of plywood to attach the toilet to, instead of replacing the whole floor. He also gave us the numbers of some other plumbers to try to find someone who could help us sooner. So we decided to do the floor ourselves and talk to plumbers. None of them could come before next week, but one of them replied to Mike's text with an explanation of exactly what he'd do, including the names of parts. So Mike went out Thursday night and bought those parts and got to work himself.
Friday night Mike worked hard and got the new floor in place and the pipe ready to have a flange put on. All morning Saturday we ended up scraping off the old vinyl so that we could replace it, since it had ripped when the toilet came out and we couldn't match it. It was way harder to remove than we expected, but the new vinyl looks very nice. Finally at 5 pm we got the new toilet attached and working. Hooray! Alison insisted on a one-piece toilet that's supposed to be easier to clean. We'll see how it works.
We finished just in time to shower before the babysitter came so Mike and Alison could go to our special Stake Conference Young Married Couples Devotional. We had enough time to get a dinner at the new local Chinese restaurant. We had orange beef, kung-pow chicken, and cashew veggies. It was very good, and the stake conference was also very good.
On Sunday we went to the rest of stake conference, which was good as well. We had elder Renlund visiting for the conference, so we got to hear from him as well.
Other things happened this last week, however those are the most important ones.
All day Tuesday the toilet wouldn't flush by itself, but the plunger could still make it work. When Mike got home, Alison asked him to try and fix it. He worked all evening, but the rock only got more stuck. Finally we decided to just replace the toilet, because it was old and gross anyway. However, at that point we realized that the former homeowner, who messed up all the wiring, also thought he could do plumbing. The toilet was resting on top of an iron pipe with not flange or any connection, in the middle of an 8 inch square hole which was too large for the toilet bolts to go into the floor; they were just dangling into the hole not connected to anything. The only thing holding that toilet up was a ridiculous amount of wax on the bottom of it.
Well, we couldn't stick a toilet back on top of that, so we were toilet-less. We called a plumber to come the next morning. He said he could replace the cast iron pipe with modern pipe and put a flange on it, but someone else would have to replace the floor before we could put a toilet on it. He called a repair company he knew, who sent someone out. They suggested that we see if insurance would cover the floor replacement on the grounds that it was water damage, because if they would, they would pay for us to go to a hotel for the week or so it would take to get things repaired. We spent the afternoon at a friend's house, and Alison ran out to buy a camping "toilet" (five gallon bucket with a toilet seat and trash bags). Mike had to go do the Church audit that night, so the rest of us went to the grocery store to use the bathroom before bed.
The insurance man came Thursday. He said there wasn't enough water damage for a claim, but that we could just cut a slightly larger hole to reach the nearest floor joists and put in a small piece of plywood to attach the toilet to, instead of replacing the whole floor. He also gave us the numbers of some other plumbers to try to find someone who could help us sooner. So we decided to do the floor ourselves and talk to plumbers. None of them could come before next week, but one of them replied to Mike's text with an explanation of exactly what he'd do, including the names of parts. So Mike went out Thursday night and bought those parts and got to work himself.
Friday night Mike worked hard and got the new floor in place and the pipe ready to have a flange put on. All morning Saturday we ended up scraping off the old vinyl so that we could replace it, since it had ripped when the toilet came out and we couldn't match it. It was way harder to remove than we expected, but the new vinyl looks very nice. Finally at 5 pm we got the new toilet attached and working. Hooray! Alison insisted on a one-piece toilet that's supposed to be easier to clean. We'll see how it works.
We finished just in time to shower before the babysitter came so Mike and Alison could go to our special Stake Conference Young Married Couples Devotional. We had enough time to get a dinner at the new local Chinese restaurant. We had orange beef, kung-pow chicken, and cashew veggies. It was very good, and the stake conference was also very good.
On Sunday we went to the rest of stake conference, which was good as well. We had elder Renlund visiting for the conference, so we got to hear from him as well.
Other things happened this last week, however those are the most important ones.
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