It's the Little Things

Sunday I finally tackled two outstanding home repairs -- fixing the flusher in the toilet and the closer on the front storm door.

The toilet had the work-around -- we just had to lift the tank cover to jiggle the float gizmo.  Now the front door is another story.  I bought a new closer in May but after tossing back a glass of white wine while installing it, wound up yanking the bracket right out of the door jamb when the closer setting was too strong.  Note to self:  might not want to consume alcohol while doing home repairs!  So we had the wildly swinging storm door all summer long.  But like most projects around the house, eventually I reach my limit on tolerance and make a move to get things repaired.

Both of these tasks were female friendly so I headed over to Home Depot and picked out the new toilet do-hickey.  I guess it's called a float but I'm still not certain.  I just knew what it looked like so it was relatively easy to select the replacement.  

But wait -- now there are all sorts of 'green' products out there -- which one is the right one?  The broken one I had was still available but I noticed it had a 1 year warranty -- ok, this is not the sort of task you want to repeat yearly -- why would they make it so cheaply???  I stepped it up a notch and selected a 'green' version.  It's supposed to save tons of water but I'm not sure how to quantify that -- maybe the water bill will just miraculously shrink?

Anyway, here's the model I bought for $12 as opposed to my old one for $6.

The actual repair was quite simple -- I can talk you through it if you need some help.  

I was done in a matter of minutes and then -- whoosh -- it worked!  Such an amazing thing you take for granted.  Push the lever and the toilet flushes, all on its own.  Gotta love it.

Feeling pretty darn cocky I moved on to the front door.  On Saturday I had applied some wood filler to the holes from the previous attempt.  As a matter of fact, no, I didn't take the time to sand it.  Why would you ask??!!

Armed with the properly charged up Milwaukee cordless drill (serious tools for serious work!), I tackled and conquered the door closer installation.  

Now it closes on its own -- what a novel idea.

I always sleep better when I've been successful at home repairs.  It bugs the crap out of me when I have failures and I usually have a fitful sleep on those nights.

Right now I'm sure my tossing and turning at night is directly related to my uncertain employment situation.  Here's the box I brought home yesterday.  

It is filled with loads of treasures:  my wire haired fox terrier mug,  Pepsi glass (vintage Ray Charles era), performance reviews since 2001, plastic back massager, empty planters, and a whole lotta junk treasures.  I have loads of Snoopy stuff still at my desk.  In case you don't know, Peanuts is licensed by MetLife for advertising purposes.  I have more of it than you can imagine.