Thursday, August 8, 2013

Toilets versus Sara

I think I've mentioned before how much I love the movie The Money Pit. I really do. I love the enthusiasm of the young couple, and the fake sadness of the owner saying goodbye. I love how they start one project and have everything around it go to shit.

I kind of feel like that right now.

Not that things are drastic or falling apart. But because it has literally be one thing after another. I know that part of buying a new home is that you discover random odds and ends that need to be updated and/or repaired. I know this but when it happens it's always like, come on now. Really? You're just going to start leaking for no fucking reason right now?!

We actually have three bathrooms in our house, one on each floor. So far, and most surprisingly, the basement toilet is awesome, though we never use it.

The toilet on the main floor is bizarre. If you don't clean the bowl for two days, you see this:

 God I'm embarrassed to even show this. But I don't know what it is. It's hard to clean- like you have to scrub this bitch with your bowl brush. So far, my best guess is that it's sand and/or sediment in the water that settles? Which is disturbing since oh hey- this shares the plumbing with the kitchen. I've tried cleaners, I've tried the things you hook on your tank that make the water blue, nothing. You can get the bowl clean and it will stay that way for a max of two days and then this. And the longer you let it sit- the darker and grosser it gets. I will give you a $1 if you can tell me what the mother fuck is causing this AND how to fix it.

Next up? Upstairs bathroom, which is right above my scrapbook room. Now- this stain was not here when we moved in. Trust me- I would have noticed it. It's kind of big.
 But what alarmed me is that shortly after we moved in, and came back on vacation I noticed weird ass puddles on the bathroom floor. At first I thought it was pee, but then it didn't smell like pee. So Matt replaced the things that connect the tank to the bowl since they were cracked and he saw water coming from that. Curiously, the stain is directly under the toilet and along the left side. Obviously you can see this.

Fast forward to the next weekend when oh yippee- it is leaking again. So we take yet another trip to Menards and he decides we're getting a new wax ring. We get that and some new bolts because Matt said the others ones were iffy and since we're taking everything apart, why not.
Well.... as it turns out it's a larger project. The wood that the toilet is actually screwed to? Rotted. Then I hear, "Holy shit, Sara! The toilet in this house might actually fall through the ceiling!". Not awesome to hear, but ironic considering when we bought our old house, the seller tells us (after we sign papers) that the toilet had fallen through the ceiling. We never found evidence of that, but surprise, surprise- we get that here. But the mystery here is that there is no other leaking around or under it. WEIRD. The ceiling of my scrapbook room? A good foot, possibly two from the floor of the bathroom. WEIRD, but nice. Matt has no idea what the fuck is actually leaking. We also know how much Matt enjoys plumbing. (Seriously, click that link. It's just as funny now as it was then.) So he is thoroughly confused. He changes all of the parts where leaking could happen, puts the toilet back on (and finishes painting the wall, yay!), but does not caulk it. Just in case.

And we're good for a week. Then bam- on Saturday I stepped in a god damn puddle. Right in front of the toilet. So I don't know what is going on. Do we just say goodbye toilet and buy a fancy new one? What else could be wrong with the damn thing. The other alarming thing is that Matt is freakishly good at house stuff. He can make and fix almost anything just by looking at it. The fact that even he is confused and not sure what's wrong worries me.

So again, if you have a suggestion- I am all ears because I am sick of stepping in water when I'm not fully awake.


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9 comments:

Kim said...

This could be totally completely wrong, but the first toilet with the sediment stuff, try cleaning out the tank part in the back.
Story-we rent our house from a family friend and have been doing updates. One of the first things we did was replace the GREEN 70's sink and toilet. Well our friend had an extra white toilet in his garage...for some reason...?....and we used that, but we'd get that sediment like you have. It had been through a flood and all that grossness was up in the tank so every time it was flushed that water with the sediment in all the pipes or whatever is in the back section of the toilet was bringing it down little by little and I was constantly cleaning gross toilet. That was until that water bobber thingy and the chain broke and needed to be replaced which necessitated draining and cleaning out the tank.

So all of that to say I don't actually know what I'm talking about but maybe I sort of do?

Kattrina said...

I hate house problems, and I don't even own a house. If I had a ton of money, I'd love to fix a house up. Or hire people to. We rent and it's still obnoxious because they owner doesn't like to fix anything. I sure wish Ivan new how to fix house things. However, since he had a latrine and a cement block house with a wood-burning stove...things like plumbing and plaster don't come easily. I hope you find the reason for the leaking. Is there another pipe in the ceiling leaking? And the toilet thing does look like sediment, but not sure. What does the toilet tank look like? I would think if there was a lot of sediment in the toilet bowl that you would be able to see sediment in the bottom of the tank. Just a thought.

Brenda said...

Damn, I totally feel for you guys. when we bought out fixer-upper--lol, more like a-should-be-condemned-piece-of-shit---we went through hell, complete with huge-assed rats living in the ceilings. We had to poison them--we had no choice. Now imagine rats dead in the ceilings...yeah, we couldn't live in the house until we did some major fixing.
As for the toilet stains--we get them and they are caused by hard water--minerals and shit in your water. The only way to get rid of them is to buy a gadget to soften the water--or just keep scrubbing the toilet, lol.
As for the leaking, did you try the seal around the toilet tank where it attaches to the toilet bowel?

ComfyMom~Stacey said...

We had something similar with the toilet in our main bathroom recently and ended up replacing the toilet. We still have no idea what was wrong with it. We looked all over for a hairline crack somewhere or evidence of a leak. Nothing.
But no more random puddles with the new toilet.

middle child said...

Um...have you thought about moving?
I mean...again?

Missed you.

Unknown said...

I was going to say to clean the tank too. It's full of crap. I found Aaron cleaning ours recently and had never even though to do it.
As far as the toilet leaking. ...I'm sure a conversation on the phone with my dad could help, but I'm too lazy to make a phone call.

The interwebs say
Have you checked your toilet tank lately? Often silt/dirt/things-that-grow will accumulate in a toilet tank - and come out in the flush. This would not be true of tap water as that does not sit in a tank often for days before it is used. Lift the top off the tank and clean around inside with a large sponge or brush - and see if the water doesn't clear up after a few flushes.

Unknown said...

oh btw...I'm not sure what freaking minerals are in our water, but our toilets get PINK rings if we don't clean them...and even if we do. It's ridiculous.

Ruth said...

For the upstairs toilet, do you get much condensation? Our toilet sweats sometimes. More so when we had the older toilet than now. But, it would get wet around the base of the toilet. We thought that the floor was rotten because of it. Thankfully, it was just right around the base so subfloor was all we needed.

Anna said...

Ugh, how frustrating! But, thanks to the comments, I am going to clean the shiz out of my toilet tank to see if that will make the bowl stop getting dirty every 3 days. Fingers crossed.