Some light cleaning

This is a about 1/3 of the switch and outlet covers, plus doorbell cover, from the rental property. It makes no sense to put filthy covers back on freshly painted walls.  And they were filthy.  I've used three full sinks of water while scrubbing them because the first sink full was gray and smelled bad.  The second sink full was gray, but mostly scent-free.  And by the third sink full of water, the dish soap was actually sudsing up instead of just binding to the dirt and disappearing.

There are a third I disposed of.  Painted blue, red, green, and white and too much trouble to clean.  And a third that were cracked, chipped, or outright shattered.  It represents a sizeable outlay in plastic at the hardware store, so I'm happy to be reclaiming as many as I can.

 

Everything and the Kitchen Sink

The new kitchen faucet went in much more simply than the toilet tank repair did.  Here it is, fully functional in under an hour, including the soap dispenser.  It comes with retractable head (powered by a weight on the cord), a pause button, a button to change it from stream to spray, and a shiny new finish.  The hardest part was scrunching myself under the sink.  I'm not sure what I would have done if I'd still been heavier.  Maybe my extra weight would have just tucked up inside the open areas.  And yes, that is a teapot from Stratford on Avon, Hemp hand lotion, a homemade ceramic bowl with a rock in it, a Marvin the Martian vegetable scrubber, and a gray wax submarine.

Unfortunately, the toilet repair did not take.  It's not leaking at all from the tank.  But I'm getting a leak in the bathroom ceiling immediately below the toilet in question.  The wall is open on the backside where the furnace room is, so I pointed a flashlight up at the water valve, and there's no leaking.  That means the leak must be under the toilet.  At least I won't have to reattach the tank.  I'll just have to reseat the whole damn thing.  I started poking under it already and it's loosely shimmed. I wouldn't be surprised if it's off the wax seal.  My hope is to tackle it before Thanksgiving so no one accidentally takes a dump in the non-functioning bowl.

 

My biggest concern isn't the sink or the toilet, though.  It's that a touched the tube of Caulk-be-Gone.  I checked.  I'm still ok.  None of the caulk in the house immediately disappeared.

Toilet II

#$$E%^#$@#$&(&*(%^&!  The toilet was still leaking, although so slowly it was evaporating off the bolt before it dropped to my safety towel on the floor.  Still, I could see the water level going down slowly in the tank over days.  So I did a lot more reading.  Despite the directions and the previous set up and the set up in both my other toilets and several online instructions, THIS set of instructions told me to avoid putting a washer inside the tank.  Genius!  So, from the tank going downward, bolt, rubber washer, tank wall, rubber washer, metal washer, nut, , bowl wall, rubber washer, metal washer, nut.

No leaks.  Not so much as a drop of condensation.  And the rusting I was getting from the metal washer being in contact with the bolt in water - perhaps a result of two disparate metals touching in a conductor? - seems to have gone away.  Interestingly, trying to keep the tank level was the trickiest part.  I ended up with a -1.3% angle.  It couldn't be helped.  the whole toilet is off by over 3%.  I'd have to reset it to eliminate the tilt and although I know how, I don't feel like doing it with the prospect of doing it a few times at the rental property looming on the horizon.  I'll practice there first.  Unfortunately, the angle is noticeable because, 1.) it's more than a bit, and 2.) the flat tank top is next to a piece of wainscoting highlighting the disparity.  I could tilt the whole bathroom a few degrees...maybe it already is, just in the wrong direction...but that seems extreme for toilet repair.

Close enough.  The bathroom is usable again.  On to the kitchen faucet.