If you can't be handsome, at least be handy!

My brother is coming in less than a week. So, today being Sunday, I decided to do a little work on the apartment, the rundown Soviet-era hole that it is. I went to the hardware store with my comrade Vitaly, and we bought lots of stuff to fix up the old flat. We got a new toilet seat, among other things. The old wooden one was just plain disgusting, and it badly needed to go. The edge of our tub leaks, so I bought some silicone caulking as well.

As handy as we are, we ran into some trouble with the toilet. The base and tank were held together with corroded steel bolts with the plastic seat attachment sandwiched in between. The bolts and nuts were hopelessly corroded, and the screw slot atop was stripping. There was also a lack of space to maneuver the dang wrench too. It really sucked, but got much worse on the second bolt. There was no room to maneuver, two of us in a cramped small toilet room, and the top of the bolt snapped. Damn.

Seeing as how half the bolt-head was gone, I hoped I could break off the rest of the head, allowing the bolt to slip out of the slimy, sh**ty toilet bolt-hole. When I was trying to do this, a 4 cm section of the toilet, around the hole broke off! The main toilet section isn't broken, but the tank is only held on by one bolt, and if it shifts, the seat does too. To make matters worse, I cut my finger on the broken edge. Bleeding all over, and with slime all over my fingers, I rushed to the bathroom and found some peroxide and a bandage. Hopefully I don't end up with gangrene.

Also, I had a tube of Sillicone caulking break open, and had a bunch of really smelly, slimy sillicone gel all over my hands. It is completely insoluble to water (that's what makes it useful), and soap has no effect on it, making it damn near impossible to get off one's skin. After lots of scrubbing and many washes, it is off, but that stupid smell won't go away.

In the end, it ended up working, although I used a clever hack to keep the tank fixed in place, but the project is finished, and the bathroom clean. Tomorrow, hopefully I can tackle my room some more. Also planned: Lots of mopping, some painting, and tile repair, and of course throwing away lots of junk. Wish me luck!