The very small toilet

About a month ago, I was cleaning the downstairs bathroom and noticed there was a small puddle on the floor by the toilet.  Knowing how skilled Jeff and I were in plumbing, I called for a plumber to come have a look. By the time he arrived, Jeff was home from work and participated in overseeing this service call.  It turned out that Valve Fill needed to be replaced.  Even with the discount offered by having a plumbing maintenance contract, the cost of the repair would be $230.  Yikes!!  The plumber was super nice and said the repair is very easy to do and would talk Jeff through the steps necessary for him to do it himself.   At this point, I had to leave the house, but I knew the remaining time the plumber was in our house was limited and Jeff was in a good hands.

I got home about 2 hours later and come to find out that inadvertently while Jeff was moving part of the towel that was absorbing the leak, the lid of the toilet was resting on another part of the towel and it slipped.  Yes, you know where this is going.  The lid shattered in a few pieces.   The plumber said the replacement part for this can not be bought in a Home Depot or a Lowes.  The part would need to be ordered through a plumbing supply store.  Lovely! 

At this point, I am calculating all the cost and time involved in fixing an already older toilet and tell Jeff it would just be better to replace the toilet with a new one.   He agrees and we get our neighbor on the phone to find out what he would charge to install a new toilet for us.  We are given a very good deal and proceed ahead with getting a new toilet.  We will purchase it and our neighbor will put it in for us. 

Sounds great, right?  I do my research and read reviews on various toilets.  I know that we can get a good one with high ratings for $200.  We go to Home Depot as a family and pick it out.  Kohler, here we come!  The sales guy agrees with the model we were looking at and says it is one of his best sellers.  The models on display are on the highest shelf.  There is no way to get up close and test it out.  Not test it out like you are thinking, but more like see it on ground level and make sure it looks like the right proportion.   Because, guess what?  It wasn’t until the toilet was out of the box and installed that I finally got to take a look at it up close.  It looks like a toilet for little people.  Seriously, the toilet we ended up with needs a magnifying glass.  I don’t get it!   The claims on the review said it will never clog!  It has a more powerful flush!  It is water efficient!  It gives a cleaner bowl!   Why oh why did no one say it won’t fit the average size human???

I stayed out of our neighbor’s way while he was doing the work.  It was only after he left that I noticed how small it looked.  I told Jeff it just didn’t look right.   Jeff said it works fine and that Sam had already christened it.  Well of course it worked fine for her, it was just her size!

Finally Jeff measured it and said I was right.  The new toilet was an inch to 1.5 inches smaller in size in each direction than our old one.  Who knew an inch would make that much of a difference?

I am bummed!  It takes a lot for us to do work on the house and when we do fix something, replace it, I want to do it right.  Now I can’t stop walking by the bathroom and giving our new toilet the stink eye.  It looks silly in the guest bathroom.  There is actually so much room between the back wall and the tank that I could stick a big, tall plant.  Maybe I will disguise the toilet all together and give it a plant to hide in.   And let me tell you, the size of the tank is about as wide as my ceramic Kleenex box.  Yes, that’s small.

Here is the crazy part to the story.  When we were at Home Depot getting the new toilet, Jeff saw the part we originally needed to replace.  It cost a whopping $10.  And Jeff was pretty certain he’d be able to pull off the repair himself.  I guess we will never find out.

We will survive having a very small toilet. But let me tell you, the minute that I can get this one replaced (in what, 10 to 20 years?), I am most definitely taking any potential new ones for a test drive in the store first.  

Out with the old, in with the small.

Learning some life skills

Ian is far from independent.  He is very content to let me pick out his clothes (not only in the stores, but what he will wear daily), get him his breakfast, make his lunch, dinner and whatever snacks are needed.  The only thing I don't do for him is brush his teeth. 

As Ian approaches his 8th bithday, I feel it is important for him to start doing some stuff for himself.  I found this list of what chores can be done by age.  For 6 to 8 year olds, the list is crazy long and I was shocked by some of the stuff.   For the past few months, he has been clearing the dinner table each evening and is working on getting his snacks/drinks throughout the day. 

I've decided to take it up a notch and get him to give the bathrooms a quick once-over each Saturday morning.  All I am requesting is no more than 2 minutes of work per bathroom - take Lysol wipes and wipe down the sink, toilet, and empty the trash can.  Believe me, this is a toned down version of what a 6 to 8 year old can do to a bathroom.

The first Saturday I told Ian my new plan was met with much resistance.  Ian was not happy and as we went from bathroom to bathroom, he got very grumpy.  I told him I would help him for the first few weeks until he got comfortable with my expectations (actually making sure it is clean and not just haphazzardly giving it a quick swipe) and then he'd be on his own.   We bumped up his allowance to $4.00 per week.
 
This past Saturday, we reached a new level of cooperation.  When Ian had woken up, Jeff and Sam had already left for Wegman's.  I asked him which he would like to do first -- eat breakfast, take a shower or clean the bathrooms?   Ian's answer...Clean the bathrooms.  Before I could smile my reaction, Ian had gone downstairs to get a trash bag and was already working on his first bathroom.  I simply observed and watched Ian do his thing.  He really worked hard and made me very proud.

As Ian was cleaning his 2nd bathroom (we only have 3), he lifted up the toilet seat, took one look and said, "I need a raise."  I had to chuckle and agreed with him.  Since he had a great attitude while cleaning and there was no complaining, I told him we will start to give him $5 a week.  This made him very happy.

I feel good that Ian is starting to do some things around the house to help.  He will take pride in earning that allowance each week, rather than simply being handed it.   I also feel great that he is getting some life skills that will serve him well later on.

And once I let Sam loose on the vaccum cleaner (this is her dream!), I will be sitting back and enjoying a cup of tea.