Wednesday, January 2, 2008

My roll as a plumber!

As a wife of a deployed soldier, we are forced to wear many "hats" while they are gone. Maid, mother, boo boo fixer, personal assistant to the soldier, exterminator, dog groomer, lawn maintenance, and finally PLUMBER. When I got back from my trip to FL, I heard the toilet in the hallway bathroom running FAST. So, I just shut the water off and decided to deal with it later. Thankfully, we have 2 full bathrooms! I sat down backwards on the toilet, took off the lid and found what the problem was. The big rubber washer that connects the flush valve to the tank was "askew" as you can see in the first picture below. The boys and I ran to Home Depot today to see what kind of toilet parts we could find. I decided to purchase all new "organs" for my very old potty. It was only 20 bucks and the labor would be free since I would attempt it myself. I spent about an hour, went through about 10 pairs of rubber gloves, and didn't even break a sweat. Voila...TOILET WORKS!!!! I thought about picking up some plumbers putty while at Home Depot, but didn't see that as an "ingredient needed" on the box. MISTAKE!!! I need to go back and pick some up to put around the bolts that connect the tank to the base. Other than that...it works! I still turned the water back off until I can get the putty.

I realize that the following pictures aren't necessarily blog material, but hey...I DID IT ALL BY MYSELF and I'm very proud of that.


Old "organs"
Brand spankin' new organs!

If I recall correctly, I fixed this toilet last March, in my formal dress right before Eric and I went to the military ball. I must have plumber genes!!!!!

2 comments:

The Wietholder's said...

Way to go Miss Kate!!!

The Wietholder's said...

John said "doesn't she know the water in the tank is clean??? what were the gloves for?"