Larissa P, Amatuer Plumber

I came into our new home with a small pool of ideas.  I had to start small, as once I started exploring out further, I found myself paralyzed with options.  There is still a lot of sifting yet into what we can do compared to what we want to do and what we have available means for.  So I tried to focus on a few pieces at a time, understanding those would naturally evolve into a few more pieces as I got my feet underneath me.

*Insert Action Pose Here*

Some of those ideas centered around one of our bathrooms.  It is important to me to have a comfortable and welcoming bathroom space--my life mandates that I spend a little more time in the bathroom than the average bear, and I am determined that it not be worse than it has to be.  So, I found a few décor pieces for that room, including a rather fierce looking toilet paper holder and some properly quirky artwork.  Andy pointed out that we could make a small but significant difference in changing out all of the handles on the cabinet drawer--eight chrome knobs in all.  We were able to replace these with an oiled brass look, matching the shower curtain rings I had already found, and it stands out lovely against the white cabinets.  Sure enough, it was a small difference but a significant one.  I started eyeing the silver, chrome towel ring on the wall more thoughtfully, and then cast a significant eye at the chrome sink fixture.

One successful trip to Home Depot later and we had a new faucet, drain, towel ring, and toilet flusher lever thingy.

The towel ring seemed the most familiar in terms of actual procedure--get the old one off somehow, drill, drill again, slide the ring over, profit.  This would take at least a half hour, I figured, with figuring out how to get the old one off and measuring where we wanted the other one to set.  The toilet paper lever, though, that I was told should take less than ten minutes.  What a good way to cut my teeth.

One thing that I absolutely love about the world we live in now is that if I want to know how to do something, I can often find a YouTube tutorial that is breaking it down step-by-step for me.  I found two, both less than five minutes long.  Seemed simple enough--I was confident I could figure something out.

I pulled the lever parts out of the package before the videos, to get an idea of what I had to work with.  I lifted the lid off of the tank and checked the parts there.  One of the screws holding the old lever in place had a bit of corrosion, but everything still turned pretty neatly when persuaded with a wrench, if necessary.  I accidently flushed the toilet about two and a half times trying to unhook the chain from the bar, the part that lifts up the cover to then let new water fill the bowl, but it was just a little water.  I thought to myself that maybe it was encouraging that it was a little difficult to get the chain off of the bar--that maybe meant that it was not going to fall off later without a fight.  My previous experience to toilets was a couple that had loose chains, where a quick pull directly in the tank worked better than relying on a lever that wasn't actually connected anymore.  On this one, though, apart from a momentary frustration with the corroded screw, I managed to fish it through the hole and off of the toilet entirely in about four minutes (eight if you count finding a flathead screwdriver).

Success!  I am a master of my own home!  

Then, I went to slide the other piece through the hole--all of the pieces were WAY too big.  I took the extension off the bar, the part that would be negotiated around to connect to the chain.  The next pieces were also too wide for the hole cut into the ceramic.  Sitting backwards on the toilet, I stared at the pieces and referred back to the video.  Their unit they easily fished through the hole.  Inspecting the piece in my hand, I checked to see what parts would come off.  A-HAH, it could be broken down into its bare pieces, eventually, I managed to align the parts that needed to be outside of the hole and the parts that needed to be inside the whole, my single piece item broken into about nine by this point.  I found what rubber parts and plastic nuts needed to be on which side and had managed to affix the main unit.

Okay, minor roadblock but you've got this.  The rest should be easy!  You can do the thing!

I stil had three or four pieces left in my hand.  Now, I had to figure out how to negotiate the lever arm around the existing parts in the tank.  The extension in question was made to be tilted and then tightened into position, both vertically and horizontally based on how I tightened and placed a few pieces.  This took a fair bit of finagling.

No one is going to be able to flush this toilet again.  What have I done?

By this point, I had accidentally flushed the toilet about eight times, jumping each time I bopped something.  In retrospect, I absolutely could have shut the water off, but it was not part of either tutorial because this was supposed to be the easy thing.  Well, my toilet tank was shaped oddly for the kind of bar that I got, feeling rather claustrophobic and noting that my fingers on one hand were rather wrinkled by this point.  At one point, I set the arm too high, where it would have been pushed down by the tank lid.  This meant removing two pieces to get back to the one I needed to and about three more accidental flushings.

Finally, I found a position that seemed to work and not disturb any of the other parts of the tank that it wasn't supposed to with the right depth and angle for a successful resting position and flushing position.  All that was left was to reaffix the chain to the arm and we were golden.  My damp fingers did not manage that clip very well, which lead to the realization that I had managed to put that arm back on upside-down, which only mattered in trying to put the chain through one of these tiny holes, that the tiny holes were closer and less blocked by other parts of the arm.  Took that off, flipped it over, and I attached the chain first this time, before affixing it to the rest of the bar, patting myself on the back for that bit of foresight.  A little more fighting and just a few more accidental flushes later, and I was ready to give a test flush.  Success!  I put the lid of the tank back on and gave it one more test flush.  Success again!

I am amazing.  ...or at least capable of following simple instructions and troubleshooting without complete panic.  

I have found a few videos to learn about how to replace the faucet next and have already found that using the right tools is very helpful.  (Yes, I will make sure that I turn off the water first this time.)  More to come on that soon!