More water woes

While I was on my break from work after the baby was born, I decided to replace the flush/fill mechanism inside our downstairs toilet as it had been making some odd noises ever since our city water issues in the late summer/early fall.

I read all the instructions, it seemed clear enough. I drained the tank, removed it, and then proceeded to remove everything from it. Including the large gasket/grommet combo at on the bottom, which sealed up the connection between the tank and bowl and the bolts holding it all together.

This turned out to be a huge mistake. The kit didn't come with an appropriate replacement, and I wasn't able to put the old one back in properly. Several applications of silicone and it still didn't seal properly.

So, off to Lowe's we went, and we purchased a new toilet to be installed by a licensed professional. It was probably good that we did it anyway. We had a lot of clog issues with the old toilet, and this one has been trouble-free. It's a "Class III, high performance" model and was well worth the upgrade.

We have also had, twice in the span of 2 weeks, a leaky clothes washer. This unit is only 6 months old, but it sprung a major leak a few weeks ago which took us a couple days to discover (and a few more to clean up the mess). GE's warranty service came out and fixed it, but this weekend it leaked again. So, another service call. Fortunately it's free of charge, but it means taking time out of our work schedules to wait for the tech to arrive "between 8 AM and 5 PM."