Three-Letter Acronyms & Four-Letter Words

The spigot in the front of the house started spewing out water at a viscous pace.

Luckily one of the neighbors was kind enough to knock on the door and let us know that it was gushing water.

From what I can tell the noise has gone away.

I am not sure when the other one will work again. The temp should be back up into the 30s tomorrow. Hopefully that will free it up. I have the 2nd spigot open all the way right now. But I will likely close it to be about 1/2 way open overnight.

I think it is going to be another ice day tomorrow.

Back to the grind.

Laterz.

Or so I am told. I don't consider myself too bold. However, fortune has favored me more often than not.

A couple of updates.

1. I managed to get the faucet handle fixed. I bought a set of Allen wrenches for about $4. Worked like a charm. Go figure. Hopefully, the handle that is coming is the right part. As I did scratch up the one that is there now. The repair kit should be coming soon from Delta as well.

2. The flapperless tank is not compatible with the old toilet bowl. I ran out to Home Depot at the last minute to pick up the matching bowl. I got there with about 10 minutes to spare before closing.

3. The guest bathroom has a new toilet. It was an interesting experience removing the old toilet. And as I have described recently, removing that old wax is disgusting. Also, the flapperless tank's gasket is quite different than a regular toilet tank gasket. It is flat, it doesn't actually fit into the hole in the bowl. The flapperless tank gasket is supposed to just line up over the hole.

If you aren't careful about this, water will spill out the back. As I found out. Part of the reason for this is that the flapperless bowl has slots vs holes for the bolts. The slots are intended to allow the tank to be positioned at different levels away from the wall, to ensure that the installation of a the whole toilet will fit well with the positioning of the hole for the old toilet.

If it is back too far, then water comes out. If you position it all the way to the front, no problems. It would have been helpful the instructions were more explicit about this. "The gap is normally 1/2" to 1" ..." doesn't really help me. Seeing as I can't see the gap once I put the tank on the bowl, the tank covers everything.

4. Deep Space 9 Season 7 will be waiting for me when I get back from Dallas this week. I have managed to watch seasons 3 - 6 in just about a month using Netflix. I honestly cannot believe that I didn't use Netflix before now. It is an awesome service.

5. I am in Dallas. I have came to Dallas to meet with Bobby Goodwin, about the next phase of developement. I also spent some time with Brent working on the next generation of our billing system. Good stuff, it has been a while since I have had the opportunity to really design something as simple, yet complex as a billing system.

I was going to do some work on our corporate site. But I can't get into the gateway from the hotel. So it will have to wait until morning.

Speaking of which, it is late and I feel the need to sleep the good sleep now.

laterz

ps, yeah another Friday in Dallas.

So I have been playing plumber the last few days.

First the toilet tank in the guest bathroom started to leak. My first instinct was that the tank needs to be replaced. And before I jump too far ahead, always trust your first instinct.

Then there was the fact that the toilet in the master bathroom has been running, constantly. And sometimes it stops filling all together. Thus it was.... OFF TO THE HOME DESPOT!!!!

I bought a "Flush Master Complete Repair Kit" for the tank. It comes with everything you need to replace and thus repair a toilet tank. It worked like a charm on the master bathroom toilet. It stopped leaking, which after examining the old flapper, I probably could have just replaced that. However, that would not have fixed the fact that the floating piece was getting stuck. So the kit was well worth the money.

After that experience, I thought hey. Since the guest bathroom tank is just leaking out the bolt area, I can probably just replace the bolt and rubber washer. So I bought another kit. In part, the tank parts for guest bathroom toilet are old, very old. I mean it still have the floating ball on a stick thing vs the up and down floating cup piece.

Well, I managed to whiz through the install of the 2nd repair kit. I didn't have to read the instructions like I had taken the time to do on the first install.

Unfortunately, I should have trusted my instincts. The tank appears to be cracked or otherwise compromised around that bolt. As even with a new rubber washer and what not, it still leaks.

So I will need to get a new toilet tank.

I am thinking about going with the Niagara Flapperless Toilet. I saw it at Home Depot and I was quite intrigued. The units at Home Depot are selling for about $110 before tax. ($55 for the tank, $55 for the bowl).

I am going to be cheap about it and see if I can just repalce the tank instead of the whole thing. I hope that works or I will be replacing the whole toilet.

Oh yeah, last night I was doing the dishes. And after filling the sink, I went to turn off the faucet. Nope, it didn't turn off. Hmm, ok odd. So I push the handle (lever) back to see if I can wiggle it back into working. Nope, water now starts coming out from underneath the handle. SWEET!!!

That makes item #3 of plumbing for the week.

I thought it was a Moen, nope it is a Delta faucet. And still under warranty, we just put it in around like March. I looked up Delta's website and called their help line. Funny thing, I didn't realize it was a Delta until after I had called the Delta help line. The Moen help line closes at 8pm eastern. The Delta folks were still working.

They said that I should take apart the handle and what not and "flush the lines". I did take it apart, but I didn't flush the lines. That really is a two person job, as you basically pours water out of the top of the faucet where the handle was. Meaning you need one person to control the mess and another down at the turn-stops to turn it off.

So I dismantled it, futzed around with it, and put it all back together. And the leak stopped. However, the nice folks at Delta have shipped me a repair kit. Which I will utilize when it arrives. Mind you, free of charge.

Well, there was a snag. The screw that makes the handle hold onto the stick on the base, is stuck. This is most likely my fault. I was using a Torx screwdriver instead of an allen wrench. However, I had done this before reading the instructions, and because from the angle I was looking at it, it looked like a Torx screw.

I found an allen wrench. And removed the screw. Then I started putting it back into the handle as to complete the repair of the faucet. The screw got stuck, again. And better yet. It is not moving now. I am going to pick up a set of allen wrenches on the way home.

However, I ordered a new handle/lever online. It cost like $23, so hopefully it is the right part. I hope it arrives soon. Since it is pretty ghetto to turn the kitchen faucet on and off using just the little metal stick/spike that comes out of the base.

I am going to pick up the flapperless toilet tank on the way home too.

Now all I need is a turtle shell to shoot at King Koopa