Well it's now gone lunchtime and thus far today I haven't done a stroke of work.
This was primarily due to spending all of this morning in and around Ore, collecting various Freecyled bits and making a visit to B&Q to return cistern fittings.
Earlier this week a bit of plastic flange spigot thingy inside our downstairs loo broke, rendering it unflushable.
Well ,unflushable using the handle, which just flopped around uselessly. It was still possible to flush by removing the cistern lid and manually pulling up the bit which empties the water. This was both inconvenient and annoying.
Not to mention very probably unhygienic.
Anyway, a quick trip to B&Q yesterday elicited the information that it was impossible just to buy the plastic flange spigot thingy bit which was broken.
No by no nonny no.
Apparently we had to buy a new handle with all the fitments INCLUDING the flange spigot thingy. Which we did. Only to discover that it wouldn't fit through the hole.
So back to B&Q today to return said handle, then on to a trade plumbing suppliers to see if we could find one that did fit.
Lo and behold, the extremely knowledgeable chap behind the counter knew just by looking at the broken flange spigot thingy exactly what make and year of cistern we had and after a only a few minutes rummaging round the back, produced the perfect handle, complete with pristine heavy duty flange spigot thingy.
Amazing!
Not only that, theirs was cheaper than B&Q.
Result!
The icing on the cake was that within 10 minutes of returning home, I had replaced the handle and plastic flange spigot thingy with the aid of a pair of mole grips and some pliers and not even one expletive deleted.
So we now have a fully functioning flushing loo, but I've lost a morning's work.
Hey ho......
6 comments:
Sandra you are a lady of many talents.
Debie xxx
Yes, well....*blushing*
Needs must and all that.
that B&Q is terrible - they have no idea what they are doing in there, hardly any useful products - and the garden center is just a place to let old plants die a horrible death, but the people on the till are so distracted they usually only charge you for half the things you are buying.
It can't be any worse than the B&Q at Ravenside, which is where we bought the handle and flange spigot thingy in the first place.
They didn't even know what a flange spigot thingy was!
Hardly ever use the Ore branch but at least one of their staff pointed us in the direction on Trade Counters just down the road.
We had Small Dog with us so she stood on the till counter while they were doing the refund. Sadly this additional distraction technique didn't result in them refunding us more than strictly necessary.
Ah, that trade counters shop in wonderful - basically told us exactly how to sort out our sink plumbing nightmare then sold us the pieces to do it. The exact pieces. I love local shops. (Although am a bit afraid of 'those types' where people know stuff normally.
I'm amazed they knew what a flange spigot thingy was just from my description of it.
Best thing was they didn't make us feel like complete doofuses. No smirking or winking at each other, or trying to confuse us with technical jargon. Just good, honest, helpful, service with a smile.
There's a chap in there who looks uncannily like David Beckham too.
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