I love my house, love it. But, let’s be honest, we’ve had a couple of problems with it. It comes with home-ownership, right? Right. So our first big problem was our smoke detector. During the first summer we lived here, it would just go off randomly. We thought it was a problem with the batteries, and tried to change them. No luck. The BEEPING continued. So we played around with it for a bit and it seems to be okay. We thought. Then a while later it started again. Then it did it again. By the fourth of fifth time, we noticed a pattern: it happened when our house got hot. One day, when it was especially warm it started BEEPING again and this time, would not stop no matter what we would do. It was awful! We tried everything. Finally Bryan pulled it clean out of the wall. And that was the end of the BEEPING. Finally. We thought we probably needed a smoke detector on the main floor so tried to put it back on, but to no avail. Every time the wires touched each other the BEEPING began again. So, we called the builders and had them come in and fix it. They took the old detector and said they’d come back with a new one (but still haven’t, it’s been almost a year… we should look into that again).
The other thing we’ve had a problem with is our toilet in the half bath. At first it was running all the time. We called the builder and he came and fixed it in minutes (apparently all we had to do was bend the balloon thing inside the tank a little bit. Neat.) Then we noticed that it was leaking in the back. We couldn’t figure out how often or how much, so we put a bowl under it to try to gage (and protect the floor) the water. It didn’t work out very well, because Teddy would drink the water, so we never were able to tell how much or when it was leaking (don’t worry, it is the water that goes into the tank, not that flushes out of the bottom… So I think it is clean. Well, he’s not dead yet). Then after a little while, we realized that there was never any water in the bowl. So it must have been done leaking. We picked up the bowl and moved on with life.
I have no idea why I thought that the toilet would have just magically fixed itself. Oh well. Anyway.
So yesterday, I went into the bathroom and noticed there was water on the floor again. Oh no. So I looked and sure enough, it was leaking again from the same place. Stinkin toilet. I called Bryan in to look at it and we confirmed it, it was in fact leaking. And this time because we hadn’t noticed it, there was quite a bit a water. We flushed the toilet a couple of time and it was leaking A LOT and we could watch it leak. This time we knew it was bad. Here’s where our problem was:
A little background: Bryan and I are not exactly handy people. I’d like to be, but we’re just not. So in the coming parts of this story, remember that. We have no idea how our toilet works, or what parts do what.
So me, being all smart, told Bryan to turn the thing right by the leak. [Conversataion not exact] “What does it do?” he asked. I replied, “Well, it turns off the water to the toilet, I think.” “Do you know though?” “No, but just try it. It’s already leaking, I don’t think it can get worse.” So he twisted it and lo and behold, it turned the water off. (I’m so smart). So now we had the water off… He said, “We should call someone” I said, “We might as well take the piece off and take it to Home Depot and see if they have a piece to fix it before we pay $80 for someone else to look at it.” He agreed and we set off to work. We had no idea what to do next so we just started to unscrew things…
And Success! We got the white hose unattached from the toilet! At this point, I remember that my mother-in-law gave us some home improvement books from Time Life. So I ran to get the book to learn all about how a toilet works. Not much help (they were made in the 70s). I did learn all the official names of the parts of the toilet. Then we jumped into the car and went to the Home Depot.
I have to admit, I was pretty proud of us. We went in, we found our part and we were outta there. (Okay, we did call over a guy to double check that we got the right piece. We didn’t want to get home and have the wrong peice and have to go back). Then set to work putting it back together.
We finished about 7 last night and haven’t had any leaking since. I think we’re good. I was pretty impressed with us, for our first adventure in plumbing, even though it was pretty small, I think we did a great job. Now, if our toilet explodes tomorrow, I’ll let you know, but for now: WA HOO!
Well done! I’m not sure why, but for some reason fixing stuff like that myself, makes me feel highly intelligent. :) Congrats on being a toilet expert-ish.
I am always super impressed when people fix their own problems. Tyler did my brakes the other day, and I am still in awe.
Our smoke detector did the same thing. We have had a lot of minor issues with our place too. I think I am actually going to put a together a letter to the builders because I am really not happy about it. Our first place we bought was built new as well and we only had one problem with the air conditioning which was fixed the day we called by the builder. I am not really one to complain but when my ceiling light fell because they glued it to the ceiling (yes i did say glued) I kind of lost it : )
Wow! You guys are amazing. I don’t have a clue how to fix a toilet -(I don’t know if I’d dare to try either). Lucky for me, Aaron is a little more advanced in home improvement.
Good job Katie McPhelphin! I’m so proud of you. Doesn’t it feel good when you figure something out on all your own? With your husband? ;)
Super impressive! Maybe ya’ll should quit your jobs and start a plumbing business! “Plumbing Helps by Phelps”…okay so that might be stupid, but I’m still impressed with your skills!
Hey Katie! Well done on the toilet problem. I am glad I have tracked down your blog, it will be nice to stay in touch somehow. if you are interested, markandamycurtis.blogspot.com.
So I feel really stupid leaving you a comment because you will know I have been totally blog stalking you. But here it goes. You may remember me from a time in your life known as COLONIAL and room mates from Hell, blarring Rob’s music just to annoy our roommates, hiding in closest while a roommate breaks up with her Boyfriend. Yeah it’s Courtney Ray, Hansen. What have you been up to? I found your blog because I was deleting music off m computer and came across a Used album and thought I wonder if they are still making music (I wouldn’t know because that’s not the music good mommies are suppose to to listen to, but I still like it) so I googled them, then I thought about you and blog stalked you. So there you have it .
Sorry my blog is hansenhandful.blogspot