Good Times

[Nick Ostrowski]

My wife's sister and her family (husband and daughter) flew in from Minnesota and have been staying at our house over Christmas. Since they don't get back here often, my wife wanted us to host an open house the day after Christmas for anybody who could make it. We already were hosting Christmas day for her family and we had 12 people on the 25th.

Now, our house is small. 1,200 square feet tops and one bathroom, no powder room. The day of the open house, it got warm and rained melting away the 10+ inches of snow on the ground. The ground got saturated and I had to vacuum water off our basement floor every half hour during the party. About 30 minutes into the party, our 6 year old son is upstairs and we hear glass shatter. He starts yelling and crying so we run upstairs to see blood on his face. He was swinging a Christmas stocking around with some present inside and hit the globe on the ceiling fan in our room. The broken glass hit the bridge of his nose and the side of his nose. All cuts were superficial and easily cleaned up but it was scary with how close the broken glass came to his eyes.

Two-to-three hours into the party and we have about 40 people packed in our house. My wife says "Hon, somethings going on with the toilet". That is the last friggin' thing I needed to hear. Turns out the toilet fill valve picked this day out of all days to crap out and stop filing the toilet after an initial flush. I ended up using an empty sewing thread spool to wedge the toilet flapper open and keep the water running for another 2-3 hours. The party was great but it couldn't end fast enough for me. We got through the rest of the night, I went to the big orange this morning for a new fill valve, and got our sole toilet back in operation.

Good times.

[David Bell]

Should have gone to wal-mart for the repair valve,,they sell ammo too!

[Jerry Peck]

Nick,

I lucked out better than you did. :cool:

First, back track a week ... we were just finishing remodeling our bathroom (replace regular tub with a Jacuzzi tub, ran two 20 amps circuits, one for the motor and one for the in-line heater, new tile on floor and walls, etc., and replaced the toilet flush handle with a prettier one to go with the new colors) and installed the antique copper toilet flush I took from our bathroom in the toilet in the hall bathroom as it matched in there and looked better than the 30 year old corroding chrome handle which was there. In doing so I told my wife "I'll have to replace the tank-to-bowl bolts soon, they are severely rusted."

Fast forward again ... My sister-in-law was up for the holidays and then left, my wife tells me the hall toilet is not flushing properly now. I go in and immediately notice that the tank is now at a serious angle to the toilet, that one of the tank-to-bowl bolts had broken off ... yikes! ... but almost no water on the floor ... lucky me! :cool:

I lucked out, unfortunately, you did not. Hope your holidays are better after this. Here's to a good week and a Happy New Year.

I also found out that Lowe's does not carry SOLID brass tank-to-bowl bolts, only brass PLATED ones ... so I bought some stainless steel bolts, washers, nuts, and wing nuts - those suckers ARE NOT going to rust off ever again. :D

[John Kogel]

Good Times, indeed. Great story, Nick, and you kept the flooding and flushing under control. Next year, may I suggest helmets and a low sugar diet for the kids? For the adults, a PortaPotty in the back yard?

Jerry, it sounds like someone used your ancient toilet tank for a backrest or a grab rail. For next Christmas you might consider installing a grab rail? :)

( horizontal and 33" from the floor. :))

[Randy Aldering]

Ahhh . . . the joys of the season! Nick, that just sounds too real. The last time something like that happened, I jammed the engine control full-speed ahead, went to Menard's and got the whole fixture (and ADA height to boot - not getting any younger). After pulling the old fixture, I had to correct some improper piping in the wall, which started a small fire (inside the wall). After dousing it good with a spray bottle, I was back to work. It all came together nicely, and Wifee was v-e-r-y happy with the work. But that reminds me: it seems that people who do not live in our homes always have some sort of fixture-specific peculiarity. Faucets, sinks, toilets, showers - it is just plain odd. And they never tell you themselves when they have broken something!