Toilet Plumbing

I have an update I never wrote about. I upgraded the plumbing in the toilet.

This came after an incident when my cousin, sister and nieces came into town back in January the toilet broke! Literally, right as they walked in the door.

It was Mr. JCrew’s fault. I’m throwing him under the bus. He doesn’t know his own strength.

All the toilets have old plumbing mechanics. It’s the ball-wand thing. The ball helps gauge when the tank is full of water. The way our flap was positioned, the flap would get stuck open and the tank would just keep running. This only happened if you held the flush lever down too long; long enough for the flap to lift up high enough to get stuck open.

I’d always listen for the running toilet. If it was still running after a minute, I would go in there, lift the lid and get the flap back down. It would stop running almost immediately.

Well, Mr. JCrew went to fix the running toilet and he broke the wand the ball is attached to!

Didn’t see that happening. So, we had our visitors use the other two bathrooms while we all got situated and then I took one of my nieces with me to get a replacement part. I thought I could just buy a new wand… no such thing. The technology has changed to these:

I bought two. I didn’t know which I needed. One was $9 the other was $11. They stated they were an upgrade to new technology, saved water, ran quieter and an overall improvement.

I installed the $11 one into the hall bath. It said it would be quiet, and oh is it! I purposefully used that toilet over the others. It was quick to fill the toilet tank and it did so in a quiet way.

Awesome stuff! The $9 unit I put in the master toilet. It’s not as quiet, but very similar to the other unit. If I had to choose, I’d choose the $11 over and over.

Now I mentioned we replaced the flaps in the toilet tanks first. This was a few years back. It came after our neighbor had a flood while he was out of town. He came back to a flooded house. The plumber discovered the toilet flaps had warped! This was common. The warp allowed the seal to not be very good and the flooding occurred. The plumber endorsed the use of red toilet flappers. They were less prone to warp. If you do not have red toilet flappers, he recommended checking on or totally replacing the toilet flappers once a year.

Our neighbor told us all this information and I went out that weekend and bought red toilet flappers. I even put it in my Google Calendar to check the flappers once a year. I am glad to say that after four years, our red flappers are still great! When we took off the white flappers, they were already warped. That was after being in the house for one year! We had a flood waiting to happen.

That was a little hidden update that not many people know about. I get giddy thinking about my new toilet insides. And no one knows what my smile is about! I love them so much, that I will make sure the toilets in the new house have good insides! Whether I buy the inexpensive kits or have toilets that come with them; somehow the insides will be good!

Drywall Tape Repair

I don’t know when the offense occurred, but our staircase ceiling had a separation from the drywall tape to the drywall.

It hit at such a hard-to-reach location. The staircase is so tall. It’s the only reason I haven’t painted the staircase wall. I can’t reach that high and putting a ladder on the landing would be dangerous.

This was a project I attempted right after my dad’s death. I so badly wanted to ask him for a solution. After the first failed attempt, I look up and asked Dad to give me some guidance. Allow me to think creatively and use my resources.

Attempt #1: The first attempt, I taped my trowel to my paint pole and put drywall plaster on it. It was such a hard angle and the plaster was not closing the gap. Fail #1

Attempt #2: The next attempt involved the ladder. I made Mr. JCrew get up there. We attempted to use the plaster again since we could get a better angle, but the plaster was not holding the gap shut. We needed to close the gap first. We used super glue to put the tape back up. The super glue was not holding and we ran out of glue. Mr. JCrew was tired, so we stopped trying and took a break.

Attempt #3: We bought more super glue and added painters tape to our resources. After we glued the tape, we used the painters tape to hold it in place while it dried.

Mr. JCrew's Handi-work

We let it sit like that for a week. Each time I wanted to get back up there to take the tape down, Mr. JCrew wasn’t available. There was no way I was getting on that ladder without support. I always had a plan while Mr. JCrew was on the ladder, that if he fell, I’d push him towards the door on the second floor. It would be less of a fall.

While I had the week to think, I came up with an alternative solution. I would get back on the ladder one last time and use a piece of painters tape to gently ease the seam into the ceiling.

I could then use my long painter’s pole to paint the tape to match the ceiling and all would be fixed.

I could use a roller and not have to secure a paint brush on the end, but I’ve dealt with corners with a roller, and it’s not easy. I thought I could handle the corner easier with a brush.

And it was a good solution. I have no idea why the tape decided to separate from the ceiling, but it was a problem that needed to be fixed. I was so close to calling a professional, but you know me… I like to do it myself if I can. 

Problem solved! It was a risky project and I am so glad it is done. 

Tile Repair and Grout Renew

Our foyer had some cracked tile. We had this problem before and had it fixed.

We have a crack in the foundation and the builder never put a barrier to prevent it from cracking the tile, so the tiles cracked after the repair and I left it like that for 4 years.

I never repaired it, because it makes such a mess! It was covered under warranty the last time and the guy that repaired it, didn’t do anything to prevent the dust cloud from going anywhere. It took forever to clean and I didn’t want to have to go through with that again. 

Plus, I envisioned pulling up all the tile and laying down a protective barrier, before laying brick down as my new flooring. I have always loved the look of brick on a floor.

But, I needed to repair the crack now. There are two new products I wanted to share that I used for the tile. One, is a caulk that looks like grout.

I had a crack in the grout line in the upstairs bathroom, so I bought the caulk and applied it to the base of the tub. Worked great!

I then decided I wanted to see if I could use it on the cracked tile. I then worked to fill the crack in the tile. It worked great!

Only when you are standing at just the right angle and know what you’re looking for, can you see the crack! Definitely better than ripping up the old tile!

While I was down at the ground-level, I noticed my grout. Some places were darker than others. You could tell which areas got more foot traffic.

I remember when I bought the house, the contractor told me to seal the grout before I did anything else. And I did, but I only did it to the newly laid tile that I asked them to put in. I thought they would have already sealed the tile that had been there for a year. In hind-sight, I should have sealed every room that had tile. They had not done it at all. Sealer prevents the discoloration of the grout. It protects it from stains and water damage.

So, here is the second product I used on the tile. Grout Refresh. It is a paint for grout. It comes in limited colors, so I never found an exact match to my grout, but I picked a new color I was happy with.

I went in every bathroom and painted the grout. I used a toothbrush and went to town. This was a very relaxing time. I was on the phone with AT&T while painting the foyer. And I got faster as I learned a method.

It made such a difference; even Mr. JCrew noticed!!

 I just took a toothbrush and painted the grout a section at a time.

You don't have to be precise. You just wipe up the excess.

After painting the grout, I waited 4 days and then went around and sealed them all.

Now, they will stay this light color for a lot longer than 5 years.

The caulk that looks like grout runs about $6 a tube. The grout paint runs about $11 a bottle. I still have half a bottle left over after doing two bathrooms and the foyer. I’m very happy with how it turned out.