THRONE

Well, this is happening.

8 Likes, 2 Comments - Cindy Maddera (@elephant_soap) on Instagram: "Well, this is happening."

I posted pictures, but I never talked about Michael replacing the toilet a few weekends ago. I didn't really think we needed to replace the old toilet. Sure it was wobbly and needed a new seat, but it was still a functional toilet. Michael has said something at least once a week since the day he moved in about how the old toilet needed to be replaced and blah blah blah something about a bidet. Replacing the toilet was not in our budget when we had the bathroom remodeled. It was the least of our problems at the time. I was more concerned about the tile falling off the wall and the moldy window collapsing in on itself. There were also things in the bathroom that Michael and I figured we could do with some supervision and there were things we figured would never get done even with supervision. So we contracted out to have the tub, window and tile replaced. 

I don't do well with mess and construction and the uncertainties that come with construction. I knew that if we tried to do all those things in the bathroom on our own, the bathroom would be a wreck for weeks and weeks and even months. During those weeks and weeks and months, I would be scratching my skin off and pulling out patches of hair. Having someone else come in and replace the tub, window and tile and promising to do it all with in three days was worth every penny. This just left the old wobbly toilet for us to deal with and for Michael to talk about every day until he finally decided that replacing the toilet would be his summer project. He scheduled a Saturday for his friend Andy to come over and be his supervisor. Then I met him at Home Depot Friday afterwork to pick out the new toilet as well as a bidet attachment for the seat.

There is a crack in the bathroom floor that runs from the back of the toilet to the wall behind it. Most of the time, I just pretend that it doesn't exist because if I start thinking about it, before I know it I have decided that the whole bathroom is going to collapse into the basement. The evening before I was supposed to meet Michael to pick out the new toilet, I came home from work and said "The thing that worries me is that you're going to pull up the old toilet and discover that the crack in the tile goes all the way through the floor and it has just been a miracle all these years that the floor hasn't collapsed." You know that saying "let sleeping dogs lie"? This was how I felt about the old toilet. If we didn't pull up the old toilet then we wouldn't know the horribleness that could be under the toilet. Michael's response to this was to yell "GOD DAMMIT!" and grab a flashlight to go inspect the crack in the tile. It was later determined that I was overreacting.

The old toilet was taken out and the new one put in without any problems or disasters. It was pointed out that I may have been right when I asked if we could just re-set the old toilet instead of spending money on a new toilet. The wobbly toilet could have been shimmed to keep it from wobbling, but the new toilet promises to save us over $100/ year in water costs. So...planet earth and all that. The bidet feature is also nice. Of course now we've started looking at the bathroom sink and cabinet and how it just doesn't look all that nice sitting between a new toilet and a new tub.

And home remodeling projects never end. 

THAT UNCOMFORTABLE TWINGE

I know I should be writing and telling you things, but the malaise of hot summer just finally arrived here in KCMO. Michael woke up with a sinus headache and drippy nose on Sunday and I woke up Monday morning with the beginnings of a sore throat. I suspect the Cabbage may have something to do with this or the water park. I always came home from the public pool with some sort of ear/sinus/stomach funk when I was a kid. But I did put clips in the Cabbage's hair, clips that she had clipped to her snotty kleenex while I was brushing her hair. When the Cabbage dropped her sucker outside of Trader Joe's, Michael was the one to pick it up and swish it off in his mouth before handing it back to her. Public pool, snot clips, side walk sucker? Most likely all of the above. I spent yesterday on the couch waiting for my face to just give up and turn inside out. Today it looks like I'm just going to stare off at the computer screen and cough a lot. 

Things are at a standstill around here. The construction on the bathroom still has not started. They did tell me it would be 8-10 weeks before they could start. I just assumed that was something they told everyone, but didn't really mean it. They meant it. I told Michael the other night that he needed to tell me that we'd have a new bathroom by Thanksgiving. He told me that the first thing I should do is take a bath in the the tub. We've already talked about me and baths and cleaning the tub, showering and rinsing the tub again before I can settle in a tub of water. Look, I worked with Legionella for a few years. I still get creeped out when the misters come on in the vegetable isle at the grocery store. I know too much. Any way...we are still waiting for the new bathroom, holding our breaths for a week of inconvenience.

We've also done zip all nothing about sorting out the basement. In fact, I've added three boxes of things from Mom's house to the bazillion other boxes of useless crap. Every time I head in that direction with the intention of making some head way down there, I walk through one cobweb and that's it. I'm done. Really I just don't know where to start. There's too many boxes, too many spiders. Of course it seems like that now because I'm sick. Just the physical act of typing the last two sentences has exhausted me. 

Some day. It's starting to be my new motto. Some day we will have a new bathroom. Some day I'll deal with the basement. Really if that's it on my list of some days, it's not all that bad and I can wait for some day. Until then, I'm going to go blow my nose for the one thousandth time today.