Tuesday, November 28, 2017

The Water Closet Report

Hello World! Anybody still remember me?

Well, on the off chance that you do, I figured I'd write and give you an update.

So, I finally got to a good stopping place with the bathroom, and... well... I stopped. At least for now.

Before:


After:


The tub still needs to be refinished, It needs a coat of paint on the walls, and I have to decide what to do about the tub surround. But honestly, I sorta got tired of living in a construction zone, plus, I wanted to give it a few months to see if my shower fix was gonna hold.

This is a long story, but for the 20-some-odd years that I've lived in this house, the shower has never worked. There was a problem with the diverter valve that points the water to either the tub or the shower. I replaced it several times, but it just didn't work right, and after a few turns, water would come out of both the tub and shower, making it really hard to use either one. Soo... I had given up and just figured that I had to choose either having a tub or a shower, and being a fan of long hot baths, I chose tub.

But, given the fact that I'm planning on replacing the tub surround, I decided it was time to either fix it, or tear out the wall and replace the entire fixture. I honestly wasn't hopeful about fixing it, but in my online journeys, I happened upon someone with a similar problem. Turned out that the faucet was made by Delta, and that the valve was a replacement made by a different company... which, while it looked exactly the same, was slightly bigger in diameter, and thus it didn't fit properly. So, I ordered the genuine replacement part from Delta and... voila!


I had to replace the shower head, but the results are sort of amazing. I feel a bit like I've jumped ahead a few centuries in terms of bathroom technology. Honestly, having a functioning shower is sort of life altering. I'm not giving up my hot baths, but having the ability to take a quick shower is really, really nice.

Anyhow, I decided to wait on dealing with the tub surround just to be sure that this fix is gonna hold, and also because I'm finding that what works for baths does not necessarily work as well for showers when it comes to things like shelf position, towel storage and the like. So I figured it would be good to sort out exactly what I want before I delve into replacing it.

That's my excuse, at any rate.

So here's part two of the water closet report...

Meet my other water closet!


As part of my efforts to be prepared for whatever, I decided that in addition to having surplus food on hand, I ought to stock up on water. So, whenever I end up with a glass bottle with a screw top, instead of tossing it in the recycling, I wash it out, fill it with water, and store it in a closet in the basement. I also have some commercial bottled water, and an emergency filter called a "life straw" but, it seems silly to pay for water and/or containers, when you can get both practically for free.

So tell me, do any of you have an emergency supply of water on hand? I'm curious what method you use.

In other news... we've had insanely warm weather here in Denver, so CatMan and I have been riding up a storm. It was 81 degrees yesterday (27C) and we took full advantage of the weather for a long bike ride to the top of the Bear Creek Dam.

The sun setting fast... just enough time to race home before it got completely dark!

I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season. Would love to hear what you've been up to in the comments!