8/8/19
(Above: The toilet now installed within Jacobhouse’s bathroom.)
Preface: Apologies in advance for any grammar / spelling discrepancies; it’s a late post tonight.
Building Summary: Today I began by inspecting the utility hole that Padre and I filled with steel wool and sprayfoam yesterday evening. The orifice appeared fine at first, but on closer inspection I found a small space that had been infiltrated (some wily rodent had chewed away the spray foam and pulled out steel wool). So, the morning’s first task was cleaning up and repairing the hole with even more steel wool and hard-setting construction glue.
I next went about setting up the toilet. It was fairly straightforward procedure, beginning with my installing a couple bolts to yesterday’s flange and then by my tending to the bowl. This latter task consisted of my flipping the porcelain seat upside down, installing the rubber ring*, flipping it back upright, and then seating it upon the aforementioned bolts. I next fastened the plastic nuts over the flange-bolts, and on finding the commode slightly wobbly, placed shims at all four ‘corners’ and adjusted them until the fixture was both steady and level.
After installing the toilet back and the seat, I finished off the morning by procuring and priming a couple scrap 2x4s of identical length. This was the result of my finding that the toilet jutted 3 inches out over its pedestal (more in commentary).
(6:57 PM Update): Added a layer of liquid turquoise to the two primed 2x4s and checked for rodent shenanigans. The paint went on smoothly, and there was no evidence of invasion.
Commentary: Over the past thirty-six hours, I’ve dealt with a number of problems. It began with the flange experiences yesterday morning, extended to the undesired presence of rodents within Jacobhouse, included a multitude of organization troubles in the small business that I run, and even went on to incorporate the toilet installation today when I found that my elongated porcelain commode extended three inches beyond the pedestal upon which it sits.
Fortunately, Jacobhouse has taught me much in the ways of perseverance and has only accentuated my distaste for procrastination. I’ve found, over the duration of the past year, that the best course one can take after having made a mistake or found a problem, is to get straight to fixing it. The longer a problem exists, the greater its final temporal weight becomes. Thus, by working on a problem right as one finds it (and fixing it as soon as humanly possible), it limits the burden, and then eliminates it. Written like that, the case for immediate action seems more straightforward than ever.
Nevertheless, here are a couple examples. When I first found the rodent problem yesterday, I set about fixing it straight away, even when I would rather have been installing the toilet. Now, 36 hours later, the toilet is installed despite the delay, and the rodent problem is one step farther toward resolution than it would have been had I gone about fixing it it this morning. And in regard to the toilet overlap? I noticed that problem before I had even begun the installation and was beset by great disappointment for a few moments before realizing that 2×4’s were exactly the right width to fit beneath the commode’s frontal protrusion. At finding as much, I primed the two 2×4’s right then, and was thus able to paint them turquoise this afternoon. Tomorrow or the day after, they will be installed beneath the toilet, and just like that, the overlap quandary will have vanished.
I do not mean to ‘toot’ the proverbial horn by writing all this. I mean to show that no matter how difficult a problem is, or indeed, no matter how many there are, there are a plenitude of benefits to be had by fixing a problem as soon as one finds it.
Really, this is the simplest paint project thus far in the entire Jacobhouse venture. These spacers will fit beneath where the toilet hangs over the pedestal edge, and to their top, I’ll affix the same aluminum angle-stock that will be used around the rest of the pedestal.
Final Note: Tomorrow morning I am going on a supply run with Madre to Home Depot. There, we will procure doors and windows for her container project, one or two interior doors for Jacobhouse, plumbing supplies for making the waterline to toilet/sink connections in the bathroom, and last-but-not-least, supplies for making a concrete countertop (I wonder if I can find some form of dye to add an easy and interesting aesthetic touch)…
*Supposedly, using a rubber seal (not wax) is the best route to go these days, and I can see why. There was no wax mess, and it was really simple to fit around the toilet’s base hole.
Fully believe that action is the answer, do something and even if it’s wrong you still learned something. I see progress every day in these posts both in work and thought.