flemmings | (no subject)

Stressful day, also stressful preceding night. Bref: toilet started leaking nonstop yesterday, not gushing but chronic trickle as well as its wonted 5 second whoosh. Called plumber first thing this morning and emailed back and forth all day about replacement. Can't have the one I want because my toilet has a ten inch setback while twelve inches is more standard. But plumber comes tomorrow afternoon with new toilet and will take the old one away for an extra $125. Their practice is to leave it out front for the garbage guys to remove, but I see old toilets sitting on front lawns for weeks because the garbage guys are picky. And of course, if it's at all cracked they will not touch it because broken porcelain is sharp and the longer you leave it, the likelier it is to break or be broken.

Tell me anxiety is hereditary because boy is it. Am deliberately not thinking about what might go wrong still, but it's a battle.

Also common wisdom is that toilets only last ten years, which is excuse *me*, someone's got a sweet racket going. Mine is 19 years old so I suppose I've had good innings.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Feh. Condolences on the passing of your toilet and the associated inconveniences.

Thank you.

My sister was so glad when she sold her house and stopped being responsible for everything that went wrong with it. Me, I still find it preferable to waiting on supervisors to get things fixed. Wearing, but preferable.

Toilets only last ten years? That's ridiculous. I've stayed in some historic houses where the toilets were still the original Victorian ones.

'They order, said I, this matter better in England.' I'm sure if I could have gotten a Toto, it would outlive me. As it is, American Standard toilets are to American standards ie planned obsolescence.

My toilet is a "Crane". It is avocado green. It's at least 40 years old.

The same vintage as my stove and washer. The washer has developed idiosyncrasies, the stove has not. Planned obsolescence for sure.

Sweet! Alas, my oven appears to have given up the ghost, I'm waiting on a work colleague to find a discarded but functional one to replace it. I am against throwing out appliances willy-nilly. As a result, when my house insurance insisted I replace my perfectly good hot water heater because it was older than 10 years (I'm pretty sure I've never replaced it in over 30 years), I ditched the flood insurance.

My stove is gas with yes a pilot light, as was common in the old days. Of course I should replace it with an electric, but I won't buy sight unseen (because appliances all seem to be 'smart' these days and I want no part of that.) At which point mobility or lack of same gets in the way.

And also also, gas still works during our frequent winter blackouts, thus keeping the house from freezing.

My gas water heater did need replacing after 25 years, but that was fine because the new one was more efficient.

Back in the '80's, when I first moved into an apartment, I bought a lovely big gas stove for $50. It cost more than that to hook it up to the gas. I haven't lived anywhere that's connected to gas since then. I agree that an Internet of Things stove is a no go! I'm sure if my dead oven had been 100% analog, as Dog intended, it wouldn't be on the fritz now.

Cooks always say they prefer gas to electric and I can see why. I lived in a house with an electric stove for a few years (felt like forever but was actually less than 2.5) and never did get the hang of it. Yeah, I could dispense with the pilot light always on and yeah it's a fossil fuel, but I will miss it when I eventually replace it with electric.

My parents got a fancy induction stove which heats extremely quickly. It doesn't work on copper so I got their nifty copper frying pan. Yes, I have a high school friend who was all hot to acquire a high end commercial gas burning stove. In his opinion, gas is the best for cooking.

Remind me then to stay away from induction stoves. My all-purpose saucepan is copper bottomed.