Hello and welcome to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. I have been kind of handy with tools and stuff for a long time. I helped build my first house…electrical…plumping…drywall, etc. I was young…never done anything like that before. I would just get some repair books and go at it. I always made it work, one way or another, but I have to be honest with you…if I knew then what I know now about how hard and difficult it is to build a house…I would never have tried it while at the same time starting a family and a new job right out of college. I guess ignorance is blessed at times. I think back to those days and I just cringe as to what could have happened to me or to the house. LOL
So that lead-in brings us to this week when I decided I needed to replace the toilet seat in the main bathroom. And no, it is not what you are thinking… I did not break it! I admit I have gained a few pounds, with the emphasis on “few.” So get that out of your mind.
What happened is that the inside of the lid was getting all faded and looked terrible (cheap stuff, probably from China). At first I thought, well, I could just take it off and spray paint it, but decided that the paint may not stay on the smooth surface and for twenty bucks I could get a new one. Simple enough? Well, not really. I tried to take the lid off by loosening the wing nuts, but for some reason they kept hitting against the side of the bowl and would not turn. Then I discovered that there is a little flip lid on top that covers the bolt head where you can insert a Phillips screwdriver and take the bolt off from the top. With that completed, I ran down to our little old-time hardware store. I do mean old-time; no air conditioning and in the winter they crank up a big old cast-iron stove. No lie!
Now I could run to one of the bigger stores and save a few cents but one thing they offer which the others do not… is service. The minute you walk into the door someone is asking you if you need help. You tell them what you need and more times than not, they have that widget or that bolt that you need. So I pick up my new toilet seat…bring it home and put it on. No sweat. Then I figured, along with a new seat it deserved a new bath set as well. I went to Wal-Mart, picked up a set, came home, laid down the rugs and proceeded to put on the seat cover, well at least I tried.
For some reason it was a good inch short of fitting on the lid. No matter how hard I pulled or reposition it on the seat cover, it would not reach. I was so mad, “cheap stuff” I muttered. I mentioned this to a friend and they posed the question “Maybe you got an oval set verse a circle fitting?” So I went to look at the toilet seat…and suddenly realized that I have a round bowl and it now has a new oval seat on it. Well, dang! I left it as is. I really do not expect a house guest to come running out of the bathroom all flustered. “Did you know that you have an oval seat on a round hole? What is up with that?” Probably, like me, they will not even noticed the difference and in the end, it still works. Which is good enough for this handyman.
That is all I have for today. Need to check the other bathroom and see if I have ovals or circles. As always be good, do good, play safe, and remember if it ain’t broke, don’t mess with it.
JR
