Johnny Quest & Bandit

Out of bed near 8am, it was yet another cloudy, rainy start. It was warm and very humid, already in the low 70s. And even though I cut the lawn on Thursday, it was already looking like it needed cut again. I played around online while enjoying coffee for quite some time. Didn't leave for a run until almost 10am. Ran the usual weekend 3 miles.

Mindy was up soon after my return. She reminded me that Lindsey and the boys were coming over to do laundry. She told her to come over around 1pm. There were a few quick breaks of sunshine but by and large the rain and clouds prevailed. It was noon before we knew it, but both kids were still in bed. Yikes! I decided it was as good a time as any to get cracking on toilet repair. Not only was I replacing the 1st floor guest bath faulty toilet valve, but also the wax seal. Easy enough. After all, I watched two YouTube videos on replacing the wax seal. "Even a girl can do it".

I consider myself a pro with toilet valve replacement. I've rebuilt all the home's toilets more than once. Never done a wax seal, though. Once the water supply was off and the bad valve removed, I opted to do the wax seal before installing the new valve. I asked for Mindy's help moving the toilet out of the way of the toilet flange. Easy enough. A snap, really. Oops! One faux pas. Didn't consider there would be additional water in the toilet's trap. As we tipped it forward and back, the excess water ran onto the hallway tile floor. No biggie. A couple old bath towels later the simple mess was addressed.

Now to the flange and the old wax seal. Oddly enough, the old wax seal didn't appear to be smashed as much as it probably should've been, which is likely why on occasion I would get a minute whiff of a urine smell, hence the reason I wanted to replace the seal in the first place. Before one can install a new wax seal the old must be scraped away. Comes up easy enough, though it's sticky/gummy. Surprisingly, the open toilet drain really didn't smell and appeared clean. I certainly expected much worse.

Once the old wax seal was scraped away it should've been an easy job to mount the new seal on the toilet and then simply move it back into place. However, there was a problem, a BIG problem. The flange was incorrectly installed around the toilet drain. So much so that it would be impossible to install the T bolts parallel to one another. And on closer inspection, I could see why. The builders - M/I homes - cut the hole for the toilet drain too big. In fact, almost as big around as the flange itself rather than the 3" drain pipe, which for all intents and purposes made it nearly impossible to mount the flange to the sub flooring. What they did was rig it to where there was just enough wood under one edge to drive a screw as a serious angle into wood, and then used a round headed nail for another as the same wide angle. I was furious! This explained a lot, one, why the toilet was never snug to the floor and why the wax seal never really sealed. Making matters worse, there really wasn't an easy solution. I began swearing like a drunken sailor.

It would've been so easy for the builder/plumber to fix their mistake during construction, but now that tile was down it was next to impossible to correct, at least easily. Again, I was agitated beyond belief, so much so that unbeknownst to me, Mindy texted Lindsey asking her not to come over to start laundry until 230pm. Mindy was a big help. We eyeballed the problem and discussed potential fixes. But again, there was no obvious, easy fix. Mindy pointed out that while it was definitely a case of shitty craftsmanship, it had worked fairly well for nearly 20 years. But I couldn't bear to half ass the job.

I removed the screw holding the flange at the incorrect angle, but couldn't pry up the round headed nail no matter what I tried. Mindy suggested our oscillating tool, which I considered getting too. However, I was finally able to knock the head off with a large screwdriver and hammer. The loud pounding and swearing apparently woke Jacob. He quickly dressed and headed out to play, not interested at all in hanging around inside for the comedy.
With the flange finally loose, we now had to figure out how to best remount it so that the T bolts would be square to the toilet holes. Happily, we made the best of a bad situation, and were able to move the drain pipe and flange enough to overlap the sub flooring enough to drive the screw straight. It's by no means ideal, but would simply have to do.

Together, we moved the toilet back into place. But that proved a bit trickier than it should've been, too. Since there was effectively no wood under the sides of the flange, the T bolts wanted to move as we tightened down the nuts. I had Mindy hold one of the T bolt heads from the basement. Once the toilet was remounted to the floor it was time to install the new valve and flexible water line. That phase was simple. Had the toilet up and fully operational by 130pm. Just ahead of that, Mindy and the kids headed off to deliver the pug to Gloria, who agreed to keep her while we were away in New York. They were gone for about an hour. Lindsey and the boys were over near 230pm. No sooner had they arrived when Lindsey left again to fetch laundry detergent and fabric softener. Ashley texted that she was bringing Olivia and Avery over around 4pm. If so, it would be our first encounter with GD, Avery. ON her own, Courtney hasn't yet seen fit to meld us into her web. :)

It was one of those dreary cloudy summer days where there was little motivation to do anything outdoors. As a result, I spent most of my day inside where I did my share of reading, moping, and playing guitar. As promised, Ashley, Olivia and Avery came by for a visit late afternoon. Avery was fussy from jump. Sounded like a cry of gas to my ears - painful! She was like that for the first 20 minutes or so. Mindy eventually calmed her, helping her expel some gas and then feeding and burping her. As with most babies, she garnered most of the attention both from Mindy and I as well as the kids. Even neighbor Chrissy got in on the fun. By the time everybody departed it was near 630pm.

Even though we planned on leaving for NY near 830am Sunday, Mindy & I wanted to head out to CBC for a beer and some food. Most of our light packing was completed. All we needed to do was load it in the car. Once again, Bella pleaded her case to stay down at the neighbors. We easily agreed given that we'd be spending the next four days together. Jacob didn't want to join us either. In addition, Chrissy already agreed to let Rocky spend the night with Jake. I'm pretty sure he invited himself.

We left for CBC near 715pm. The bar wasn't too crowded at all. In fact, it was probably as sparse as I've seen it in a long while. Much to my delight, they have a new, lighter IPA on tap along with the two others. The new one is called Bandit. I decided to try one. Decent. Without specifically ordering any food, Vince served us some bread and risotto balls. A chubby fella named Cornelius was sitting across the bar nosed into our conversation with Vince. Initially, I welcomed his input. Vince later indicated that he had a reputation for butting in and is often quite annoying. He was relentless with his story telling. I joked that Mindy can do the same thing. She wasn't flattered. I meant no harm.

We eventually decided to order dinner, the special, which was a blackened trout served over rice. As we often do, we shared one entree. I had a 2nd beer, only this time a Bodhi. Mindy picked up the tab. At home, we walked down to the neighbors to fetch Bella and Jacob, who were there playing and having pizza. Of course Rocky was there too, but the plan wasn't for him to come home with us. Our visit was short. I wanted to get a good night's sleep ahead of our 330 mile drive on Sunday. Home and in bed by 1030pm.