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Sunday – 9:30PM.
Angie notices the toilet has water around the bottom of it. Tells me.
I clean it up, go to basement and discover more water. I cut off the water supply and determine that every time we flush water leaks.
Root cause: Assumed that the wax seal is compromised, toilet is off limits until it’s fixed.

Monday – 6:30am.
We’ve been thinking about replacing that evil toilet (It’s evil, I have other stories) for over a year. We have to take the toilet completely off anyhow… why not replace it?
Decision made, we’re getting a new toilet tonight

Monday – 4:50pm
Toilet purchased. Hopes are high

Monday – 6pm
Old toilet is removed, bolt holding old toilet in place snaps off when I used my HAND to unscrew the nut. This is going to be a cake walk.

Monday – 6:30pm
Water supply line from the wall is dead center with the toilet’s hole. The new toilet hits the value coming out of the wall. I turn off the water to the house and remove the valve, toilet fits with 1in to spare. I need an elbow to turn the pipe 90 degress immediately out of the wall from the store.

Monday – 6:45 – first trip to the store.
Monday – 7:00 – Second trip
Monday – 8:00pm – after the third trip to the store I finally have the parts required. Water to the house is finally back on. Toilet install is going forward.

Monday – 8:30pm – Toilet (minus seat) is installed (That was cake to do). Turn on the water. No leaks we’re looking good.

Monday – 8:45pm – First flush. water leaks from the base again. The wax seal is not working. turning the water to the toliet off and calling it a day. Will attempt a fix tomorrow…

I never wrote about Round 1, but to sum it up in a single sentence: “it ended when it was discovered that the vehicle in question had a salvaged title”.

Anyhow – Here’s the story about ‘serious attempt #2′.

Angie found a great looking vehicle in North Milwaukee. She took care of everything and even talked the guy down a substantial amount over the phone. If we liked it we’d hand you a check and we’d be gone. Quick and simple.

So as soon as I get out of work we head for Milwaukee, about an hour and a half’s drive. We finally get to the dealership about and immediately get lost in the apparent sea of disorganization of partner dealership and incredibly stupid layouts of cars and roads.
After 2 wrong buildings we finally find the one where our potential vehicle is sitting out in front of, and here’s the first lesson of the day:

Auto Salesman Tip #1: When you want to sell a car its a good idea to actually wash the thing first.

The car was dirty, not too bad – but it hadn’t been washed in a while. Anyhow, we go for a test drive without the salesman. It sounded fine and ran great. We pulled onto a side road to get a better look at the thing without the salesman watching our every move.

Auto Salesman Tip #2: When you want to sell a car its a good idea to clean the inside thoroughly.

We found all sorts of crud under the seats, in the nooks and crannies. Pieces of candy, sticky gunk… It was gross. Not to mention the large stains on some of the fabric. So the inside wasn’t in great shape, lets keep looking-

Auto Salesman Tip #3: When you want to sell a car its a good idea wax it.

The body was littered with very small scratches and dings. 90% of them would disappear with a fresh wax job, but it allows us, as the potential buyer, to see it without any attempt at hiding it.  Anyhow, in addition to the small scratches the paint was chipped off the mirrors on both sides of the car and the passenger side mirror was noticeably damaged and needed to be replaced.  It also had a lot of small pot marks, caused by tailgating a dump truck on a gravel road I think, that were beginning to turn a dark brown/red color…. Not cool.

The end result was that this car was for sale and being offered to us – but the dealer ship hadn’t even clean the car for a sale. Did the salesman actually look at the thing? It told us a little bit about the dealership that made it all feel uneasy. And it made sure we wouldn’t buy the car.

So empty handed we drove back to Appleton, arriving in our drive way at about 10:30pm…

I think we’ll stick to local dealerships now.