Let there be...heat

Last night was the perfect example of how if you don't hire a trained professional, you will have to pay to train yourself. As moving day is rapidly approaching (I have to be out of my apartment on Saturday the 15th), I'm doing my best to get the house at least slightly livable. The nights challenge was to get the toilet working. In my home inspection, it was stated that the toilet plumbing was leaking, as evidenced by the extra yuck and rust on the sewer pipe in the crawl space. So, sawsall in hand I braved the insulation, critters, and everything gross that inhabit the space, to go take a peak at how it was leaking and which parts needed to be replaced. I got down there to find that there was nothing wrong with the waste pipe, everything was good and it wasn't leaking from anywhere I could find...back into the house I trudged wondering what in the heck was going on. The problem turned out to not be the waste pipe but the old, proably lead, toilet flange. It's not one piece like the modern ones, but a flanged lead pipe that fits down into the waste pipe and a collar that fits under the pipe. So after staring into the oblivion that is the pooppipe for a while there was an ahhah moment, and while it was lacking the lightbulb, it got the problem solved...part of the lead flange had gotten bent over the years and with the help of a hammer it's now flush and tight, no pun intended. My education came in the form of the wax ring. Rushing thorugh the process, the box was never read. It clearly explains that you should afix the ring to the toilet not the flange first. Oops, no wonder the toilet sat so cockeyed, back to Home Depot we go. Now that it's done I have a wonderfull flushing toilet, with no leaks. That flange could probably use to be replaced, but the floor isn't level around the toilet so I think I'll wait untill that problem is solved before replacing it.

I also wanted to say thank you to mummy and daddy for my fantastic new source of heat. It's amazing how much this little guy heated up the house. It's just a Homes 2000 watt plug in thing but it warmed the room in a matter of minutes!