While You Were Out...

Who said I am not handy around the house? Well, besides all of those people...

The toilet in my bathroom on the first floor had been leaking, and apparently leaking for some time. The hardwood was discolored and I knew I had to do something about it.

Now, my neighbor, Mr. Michael, is an electrical engineer and builds everything himself. He finished his basement by himself. He partially completed an addition to the house. I think he even built his own car. So I asked if he could come over and "supervise" me. I didn't want him to do the work, but I'm certainly not the guy you want fixing it by myself.

So on Sunday afternoon he comes over and we start the demolition. I pull out the toilet. The wood underneath is wet. We chisel out the hardwood. Much of it is soft, like President Bush's stance in illegal immigration. There's also some mold.

Once we pull up the hardwood, we can see the sub-floor. This is the plywood that is the floor. There's some damage on that, too. This isn't good. I picture us taking a circular saw to the floor and removing a section of the floor, adding some cross-bracing from the basement to support the new wood, and starting from scratch.

However, Mr. Michael says that we don't need to do that. He gave me some homework for the evening. I have to chisel out the rotten part of the sub-floor, which I do. Later we add some Floor Leveler. I've never heard of this, but it's like cement that fills in the holes and uneven sections of the floor. I think it's really just cement. We smooth it out and wait a couple of days for it to dry.

Meanwhile, Mr. Michael's wife comes over and asks why the house smells like a sewer. Apparently you're supposed to block up the pipe that goes to the sewer when you're working in bathroom. I now smell like poop. Yum!!! At least I found a use for that pretty sky-blue t-shirt I got at the company picnic.

Yesterday, we start installing the floor. It actually goes really well. The floor boards go in nice and tight, the way the walrus likes his seals. We install the screws, apply the bees wax ring to the toilet, and install it back on top of the drain pipe. Unfortunately, I forgot to get new bolts to attach the tank to the toilet, so it is not yet operable.

However, as you can see from the pictures, my work looks pretty good. And Mr. Michael didn't even have to do it all. Yet he did sneak into the bathroom every time I went to the garage to get a tool and tried to take over the project. We forgive you, Mr. Michael!

And for fun, my son informed me that he wants to be a Chippendale dancer because he likes chipmunks (read as Chip & Dale). He also heard that ladies like chipmunks, so what better way to win their attention? I'm not quite sure how I feel about this. Attracting the ladies is fine. His method may be flawed.