Toilet Problems

Today's tasks for me were to buy a new toilet for Dad's bathroom and arrange for its delivery on Friday. I went to City Mill after breakfast, found a great toilet that is ADA-compliant, water-efficient, and with a permanent antimicrobial surface. The only problem was that although City Mill will deliver, they do not install. So it was back to the drawing board.


An interesting thing I saw while waiting for assistance at City Mill was a toilet seat with a built in nightlight.


I decided to call rather than drive to Home Depot & Lowe's. Home Depot does not install either. I was never able to get through to Lowe's; I went through 4 cycles of listening to their recording and punching buttons to stay in the queue, then finally gave up because no matter what I tried to get to a real person I kept getting put back in to the message queue. So I went back to City Mill after lunch, bought the toilet, and arranged for a Friday delivery.

In the meanwhile, Curtis came by after lunch while I was out and was working to remove the old toilet in preparation for the flooring project. The floor installers won't remove or install the toilet, you have to do it yourself or hire someone to do it. When I returned, I pulled in just in time to see Curtis hurriedly coming through the back door. He asked me where the water shutoff was for the house. While turning off the incoming water to the toilet tank the valve broke!

He got the water mainly shut off but the valve was still leaking. I called A-1 Budget Plumbing to get someone out as soon as possible to fix the valve so we could get water to the rest of the house. In the meanwhile, we continually mopped up the water. I worked in the bathroom, trying to keep more water from getting on to the carpet. Curtis tried to get the water out of the carpet. It's a good thing we moved almost everything out last night!

I jury-rigged a system to catch the water that was spraying upward as I mopped up around the valve.

We placed towels around the edge to minimize water leaking in to the other bathroom on the other side of the wall.

Curtis used towels to sop up water in the carpet.

We were just barely able to keep ahead of the volume of the leak. After about an hour we noticed that the water leaking in had slowed down to a trickle. We realized that Dad had flushed the toilet and the filling decreased the pressure at the leak, so we turned the water on at the bathroom sinks. Then I went out and turned on the sprinkler that was the closest to the broken valve; the leak decreased dramatically.

Another hour later Peter from A-1 Budget Plumbing arrived. He was able to turn the incoming water all the way off by using the City's meter valve, which is only allowed in emergencies. He said we should arrange to have our main valve changed and we have to coordinate with the City to have the City-side valve shut off while they do the work. Peter pulled the old toilet out. We can request that he is the technician that comes back on Friday to do the installation.

The new valve and the open drain hole.

Peter had to really work on removing the old toilet; he ended up having to saw the bolts off. While he was doing that Curtis worked on finishing up the living room and I brought in the laundry from this morning and hung the wet towels out while we waited for the water to come back on.

After Peter left, we sopped up more of the water in the bathroom and Dad's room. We had already moved the mattress and box spring away from the wet part of the carpet. We set up a fan to try to get the carpet to dry a little more before they come in to remove it tomorrow.

Shiro checking out the fan; the edge of the water-soaked area is behind Shiro.

After Peter turned off the water completely the Cat Genie started beeping. At first I thought it was because the cartridge was empty but I noticed the code that was blinking, it was for "water problem". Once the water was back on and I reset it, the Cat Genie was back running smoothly.


After Peter left we did the final clearing of the living room. We got everything out of there.

Living room, west wall.

Living room, north wall.

Living room, east wall.

After Curtis left, I worked on my bedroom. I organized and packed my stuff but left the other stuff; we'll have the floor installers move those things out along with the beds.

Bedroom, south wall.

Bedroom, west wall.

Bedroom, north wall.

This morning when I was hanging out the laundry, I checked out the papayas. They're doing very well!


Last night I slept in the computer room on a cot. Which was somewhat uncomfortable, its kind of stiff. About 2 in the morning I found myself unable to move; I was hemmed in by 2 furry bodies. Chibi was sleeping between my feet and Shiro was lying next to me, if I turned I would either push him off or lie on top of him. Unfortunately I need to leave the door open so I can hear what's happening with Dad.


Happy Birthday to John, Carlo, Dina, & Seth!