This isn't really the first home improvement project for me, but I'm still finding myself with this whole blogging gig, so it's a start. In my quest to be a real man in Vermont, I've been trying to live up to high standards that my other real men friends maintain, and it ain't easy. But I'm learning.
So I installed my first toilet, and it wasn't as bad as I'd thought it would be. Besides the horrid mess I thought it would make, I worried a lot about improper installation. One thing that I've been trained to live in fear of is excessive moisture and the death mold that seems to come with it. I've seen it firsthand, and heard nightmare stories about rotting floorboards and the work needed to fix it. Of course, I responded in typical fashion and ignored it, for a year.
It was during the past year we endured the hideous black toilet in our bathroom. In all honesty, it didn't offend me that much, but I was clearly in the minority, and from the moment we moved into our house, Ruth made it clear to me that she didn't like it, and understandably so.
I'd never installed a toilet, or for that matter, bought one, so naturally it intimidated the heck out of me. To complicate matters, the whole bathroom industry borders on the ridiculous in terms of its size and scope. How the heck do you choose a toilet? They basically all look the the same, and in the end, does it really require so much thought to buy something you go to the bathroom in?
My good friend Gary, a real man who built his own house, recommended Toto toilets on the advice of his plumber friend. Being a fan of Japanese reliability, and after doing some research online and discovering that they get great reviews, I'd pretty much set my mind on one. They are a bit pricier than the standard Kohler or American Standard, but again, they get great reviews for reliability and performance.
Next problem: where to get one. You can't spit in this town and not hit a hardware or home improvement store, and yet none of them carried Toto. The one place that did was a little on the pricey side, and I would have needed delivery, as well. So I did the unimaginable and ordered one online. It's crazy to think that you can buy a toilet on the internet, but after factoring in shipping and the price, it saved me about a hundred dollars.
The toilet came via Fedex, and the big label on the front says, "Open immediately and check for damage." I took one look at the delivery guy and knew that he wasn't about to sit there and watch me unpack the beast. He didn't even want a signature, so as I watched his truck drive away down our driveway, I let the box sit there until the morning and crossed my fingers that there was nothing wrong with it.
And it was fine, thank you. I unpacked the toilet and checked it over, and it was actually a beautiful piece of work. Though we take toilets for granted, when they are shiny and new, they're pretty nice to touch and view. Our kids got a huge kick out of it and Nicholas was just itching to take it apart. I'd decided to fix it Saturday morning, keeping Kurt Boland's number close at hand in the event of disaster. I also figured that Britton's would be open if I needed anything, which of course, I did.
The removal and installation were smooth, for the most part, and well beyond the scope of a this blog, but suffice it to say that we pulled it off. We rid ourselves of the black toilet, and I even managed to take it to the dump that day. A cathartic experience, if there ever was one.
And now we have a beautiful new toilet! And it's a Toto.
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