How To Fix A Toilet aka My Life For 2 Weeks

Have you ever had a mini-crisis that just grows and grows and grows until you have to step back and laugh?

Yeah, welcome to my life!

We have two boys who have special needs. Both boys love to flush things down the toilet. This is not a new occurence. Nope, not at all. In fact, when we were renovating the house 4+ years ago the handyman that helped us taught me how to remove the toilet after he had to do it twice in a week. Yes, twice in one week. We have found a wide variety of fun things flushed. We have had q-tips, toothbrushes, bars of soap, full rolls of toilet paper, toys galore, and more!

Josiah is the current flushee. What he flushed this last time we did not know. We just knew that whatever it was didn’t always block the flush, only part of the time and that all the plunging and snaking in the world was NOT budging what ever it was that was down there. So finally my large pregnant self decides that she cannot stand having to plunge every other time someone uses the toilet. 

I take a trip to our local Wally World and get a new wax ring. I knew from the last flushing excursion that this was going to need to be replaced. I proudly go home and start the removal process. 

Step 1: turn off the water running to the toilet
Step 2: drain the water from the back down the drain, watch as it slowly descends into oblivion
Step 3: loosen bolts and put all small pieces up HIGH so the kids cannot lose them while I have the toilet off
Step 4: remove toilet from it’s “spot”
Step 5: try snaking toilet from the bottom up

Step 5 was a bugger. I plopped myself firmly onto the floor, holding back any gagging, reminding myself just how awful plunging at least 5 times a day was and get started. Nothing was moving. I could feel the snake get to a spot and then stop. I even tried other items shoved up the toilet to see if I could budge whatever it was that was in there. As I am doing this, still firmly planted onto the floor, I hear my 9 year old from the door way gasp as a loud “clink” comes from the toilet. Any guesses as to what happened? *sigh* Uh, yeah, a big chunk of the front of the weight-bearing part of the toilet broke off. I was no where near this part. The snake was no where near this part. It just fell off the toilet. 

In frustration and tears and covered in sweat. I climb up off the floor in defeat. Now let me add in here that while my husband is a wonderful man, he isn’t exactly…uh….mechanical. He can lift and move the toilet but the rest was up to me. Besides I had the official training. LOL

After a quick shower, I head to the computer to look up prices on new toilets. After looking at the screen in shock, I head to bed dismayed. We did not have that kind of money in our budget. In the past 2 weeks before this my van had to go into the shop, our oven went out the week before Christmas and our fridge died. There was absolutely no funds available. 

I woke up the next morning and after having to walk all the way to the other end of the house (we have an old duplex and have to walk through an unheated garage to get to the other side) to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, I knew we had to do something fast. 

I hop onto freecycle to post asking for a toilet. I almost immediately got a response to check out the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Someone else had gotten one for $5 there! Wow!!!! $5 was something we could afford. Heck, I could probably come up with that in change! So I called. They weren’t open until the next day. Ugh! Ok, I was a big girl, I could make sure to have my slippers and sweater on the chair in our room so I wouldn’t freeze walking to the bathroom.

The next day I make my trip to the ReStore. $40 for a decent toilet. They had a few cheaper but honestly those $25 toilets gave me the heebie-jeebies. Don’t ask….must be a pregnancy thing. They don’t take a check. I have no cash or a debit card because the week before Christmas someone stole our identity and therefore had no debit cards as we were waiting for new ones. Yep, this was the day Josiah discovered that there was a hole in the floor of mommy’s bathroom and that his foot fit perfectly into this hole! ew, ew, ew, ew, ew!!!!!!! Bath for him and I am on the verge of saying lots of bad words. I just want a toilet. Is that so bad? Ugh!

Frustration was really really getting to me at this point. All I wanted was a toilet that flushed right and all I got was one mess after another, after another, after another……

A good friend borrowed us the funds so I went back the next day and got me a $40 toilet. Woohoo!!!! They loaded it up in the back of our truck. Our 9 year old gladly volunteered to help clean it up. We worked together cleaning it outside and daddy brought it inside. I get the wax core thingy put on and we get the bolts lined up and tightened down. I am sooooo excited at this point, but our 8 year old had a basketball game so we didn’t even get to test it out. I showered quick and we watched his team come back from a 7 point deficit to win by 1 point! woohoo! Go Mavericks!

Ok, head home. Fill up the tank. Errrrrr, why isn’t the flapper thingy on the bottom of the toilet not working??? Run to Wally World, again, get the part needed. Run home, install new flapper thingy. Fill tank. Flush! OMG! Did you see that??? The toilet flushed. Party in mom & dad’s bathroom. Quick, everyone come and look the toilet flushes. Woohoo! 

Fast forward a day. It’s now Sunday and I am happily giving kids baths and showers for school the next morning when I notice this huge puddle on the floor. The realization hits that the kids were really good about splashing and I was dry and so was the rest of the floor. Oh crud, the toilet tank was leaking. I promptly shut off the water and drain the tank. *sigh* back to no toilet. Where’s my sweater and slippers?

Monday. day 6 of no toilet at all, almost 2 weeks of the toilet not flushing right. I head to our lovely Wally World yet again to grab some plumbing caulking. I left the top off the back of the tank to dry it all up. Heading back home I am praying that this works because I have NO CLUE what we are going to do if it doesn’t. We still did not have the extra funds needed to get a brand new toilet.

I put caulking all around the bolts and washers that hold the tank to the base. I tighten them a bit more, knowing full well if I tighten too much that the tank will crack. Then I leave it to dry. 24 hours cure time. Another night of no working toilet in our bathroom.

It’s been a week. I am so thankful we have more than one bathroom in our house, but there is something comforting about having a master bathroom. I check the caulking. Seems nice and dry. *big deep breath* I turn the water back on to fill up the tank when I notice the kids broke the floaty. Of course, no on admits to it. Ugh, back to Wally World. I know the plumbing department really well by this point. I buy a new floaty thingy only its not an actual floaty and I worry that it won’t work with the toilet. Did you know that Wal-Mart doesn’t sell those floaty things anymore? 

I decide just to be on the safe side to use some caulking while installing this new part. Part installed….uh, duh…now it has to cure for another 24 hours. *sigh* Yep, 8 days. 8 days of no working toilet. 

The next morning, I cautiously fill the tank. Flush! Phew! ok….feel under the tank, no leaks. Flush again….is it too soon to start dancing? I leave the bathroom to work on some laundry. I am so leary of this thing leaking again that I decide not to even tell the kids or hubby that it seems to be working. We go all day with it flushing normally and no leaks. The kids are using it and don’t even realize it. Silly kids. Hubby gets home. I proudly proclaim that so far so good! I think I can put my sweater away tonight.

Its been about 10 days now and its still flushing and still not leaking….and I have been extremely careful to make sure the bathroom doors are shut all the time. I do not want a repeat of this process any time soon. 

Oh and by the way, it was a toothbrush. Yep, a $2.49 toothbrush that caused this big mess.