(April, 2006)
The toilets that this house came with were some pretty crappy crappers. I've had to fix leaks around the tank bolts, the flaps inside, the tank-bowl gasket, they clog a couple times a week, all kinds of stuff. We've been talking about replacing them with some nice low-flush models for awhile.
I'd heard good things about the Toto Ultramax, so I sent off for one for the downstairs bathroom. That's the one that gets the most use, so it made sense to do that one first.
So let's get started!
Here's the old ugly toilet:
While I'm at it, we should do something about this ugly cabinet:
But that's not all! The cabinet and toilet were put down first. That means the ugly linoleum was put down around the ugly toilet and ugly cabinet. You'd think it would have been easier to put down the ugly linoleum first, then the ugly toilet and ugly cabinet, rather than have to cut around them.
Better just rip it all out.
In the process of ripping it all out, I discover an earlier layer of even uglier linoleum underneath the existing layer.
You will also notice that the wall behind the cabinet was painted. It was even texture painted. This doesn't sound like anything weird, but when I moved in, that bathroom had ugly wallpaper on the walls. Wendy ripped it all down, and then textured and painted the walls a few years back. So how did the wall behind the cabinet get texture painted? Or did they sand the walls down to install the wallpaper? That mirror over the ugly cabinet? When Wendy took it down to remove the wallpaper, we discovered a bigass hole in the drywall, about 1 foot across and 2 feet tall. Every time I've done something to this house, I have a WTF moment courtesy of the previous owners...
Anyway.
Lay some new linoleum, put up some molding and a little paint, then
hook up the new toilet:
and spiffy pedestal sink:
I gotta say, that toilet lived up to the hype. It's handled everything I've thrown at it. I don't mean to brag, and this may be TMI, but I can throw a lot. And it's a one-piece - no more leaky tank. I ordered two more for the upstairs bathrooms.