Toilet Troubles

Prior to purchasing our new home we had gotten a home inspection done. Everything was great with the exception of a few minor issues. The inspector had noted that all the toilets were a bit loose and should be tightened. Seemed simple enough at the time, but for whatever reason I never got around to getting the bolts tightened. And this is how the trouble started.

Unknown to me the toilet on the main floor continued to loosen over the summer as this is the bathroom that friends and family all use when visiting. I did however start to notice a very small amount of water on the floor in my furnace/laundry room. The leak appeared to coincide with larger amounts of rain and from what I could tell was coming from around the duct work at the top of the ceiling.

The small puddle started to get a bit bigger and so I called the guy that had done our home inspection. He was great and came out to take a look. Thank goodness for professionals! After a bit of investigative work it turns out the toilet in the main bathroom was the culprit. The toilet was so loose that I am surprised it was still attached. I knew the bolts needed to be tightened and yet had done nothing. Thankfully the fix for my toilet troubles was still a relatively minor one. However rather than tighten a few bolts, we now needed to take the toilet off, remove the old wax seal, put on a new wax seal and reattach everything.

I can relate the issues with my toilet to other areas of my life as well. Unfortunately this is not the first time I've had the opportunity for such a lesson and probably won't be the last as I do have a bad habit of procrastinating. The picture is becoming clearer though and I can see where other areas of my life are being affected by inaction. Not putting in the effort or time and addressing issues as they come up tends to create more stress and work similar to my "toilet troubles". Action or inaction is in my control, but needs to be a conscious choice.


Namaste,

Michele Ward