This Old House: Episode 1

Warning: I get a bit nerdy about home repairs in this post...

Our house is about 60 years old, and while I love it, there are some things about it that occasionally need tweaking. The good thing is, I love tweaking things around the house*.

Most recently, I basically took apart the inside of the toilet. I've done some minor plumbing stuff in the past (replacing nobs, handles, flapper valves, etc.), and I thought this would be another routine replacement to fix a drip.

I initially replaced the old flapper valve, but upon testing my fix, I realized that while I had fixed the drip. I had apparently created another issue: the water wouldn't shut off all the way. This was no bueno, and I had definitely not fixed the problem.

I proceeded to do some googling, and found that I should probably also replace the whole valve. However, we've been a bit busy lately, so I didn't get around to fixing things in a super-timely manner (Amar had to bug me a bit...but the delay gave us a clear signal that we would not do to well in a 1 bathroom living establishment for too long).

Today, I (finally) stopped by the hardware store on my way home today and got the necessary parts (keeping my fingers crossed that this was the root cause...). After a few minutes of wrestling with the existing fixtures, I was able to replace the valve and tada - no more dripping toilet!

On the next episode, I'll finish painting the baseboards!

*Note: I do have a tendency to get in over my head at times, but never to the point where we need to call emergency services...at least not yet ;)