I end up driving to the local builder supply with the plumber in my car to see if there is any way that "Mary" the most knowledgeable plumbing supply dealer around can find to fit it. She looks and looks, no gasket. 

So I end up BUYING a new toilet, the cheapest they have and it gets loaded in the back of my Trooper. I am driving home when the plumber gets a phone call that his son has been injured in a football practice and he needs to come get him at school asap. So we turn around and drive to Gulf Shores Elementary. The plumber calls his dad to see if his son can go stay w/ his dad. Dad says no, that he has to go repair a roof. Meanwhile, while plumber is in the school signing out his son, I get a phone call that the toilet in my car is not the right one,...not the one I paid for and I need to return to building supply. So I drive back over there, when I get back to elementary school, the plumber and his son pile in and we drive back to my house.

 The plumber's father is waiting in the driveway with a tiny ceramic demitasse set with advertising for Beau Rivage Casino on it as a gift for me. Gee thanks...The injured son comes in and lies down on my guesthouse sofa while I go out for food for him as he has had no lunch and it is mid afternoon by now. It was all just too crazy. 

Somehow a toilet gets installed in every bathroom (3) and the inspector passes us. But...I later discover that the toilet in the guestroom has a chunk of it missing, a ragged edge where it somehow got a major chip up underneath. Should not make any difference really. 

By late Feb. I had been told by Aaron that the upstairs master bath toilet would not work because the innards were old and bad and the hole in the tank for the flush handle was a different size that is used today. Aaron went out and bought a push button flusher but found that it would not work. We went round'n'round about moving this toilet to there and buying a new one for here, and so on...but I went to Lowe's determined if at all possible to get some flusher mechanism that would work. I got a "Universal" flusher handle and a sheet of rubber we could cut strips out of if needed. Aaron got it to work. 

I told Aaron that I had really thought about it, taken measurements, etc..and was just sure that we could make the turquoise tank work with the turquoise bowl and put it in the half bath...I had  measured the holes over the weekend and thought about it. He took a good look at it, it was down in the basement by then, and at first he said he thought he could make it work with gaskets we could cook up from various parts. 

Later on he said no, he couldn't'.

Then we find that we have a leak thru the foyer ceiling from a toilet upstairs. The already finished MgO ceiling gets cut into to dry out and Aaron the carpenter (the actual plumber had dropped off the planet by then) tried to determine where the leak was occurring. 

I think I have forgotten about half of the toilet saga, but the bottom line is to make sure that you obtain all the gaskets and flush mechanisms for your old toilets before you call out the plumber or ask him to install them. Seems all the fittings change every few years and it is not all interchangeable. 

So now I have this cheap, new ugly toilet in the hall half bath and it is the kind that has this intestinal looking digestive system like so many of them have today. One of these days, if I ever get out of debt, I will buy pretty, colorful toilets and replace what I have. But after recently seeing "Slum Dog Millionaire" I am just thankful to have toilets at all, whatever color they are. 

I went to W-M and bought the cheapest toilet seats since I was not sure what toilet would get removed, swapped around or replaced. This one in master bath is bone colored but right now it has a white seat. $5 plus change seats from W-M. 

At least we got to use one of my older ones, even if it is a small round seat, not elongated like everyone (except plumbers)  prefers.