Throne Improvement

You might think that the nature and quality of a toilet answers only to the purely pragmatic function of getting waste out of the building as swiftly and smell-lessly as possible. But in this, you'd be wrong. The appearance and condition of toilet parts can be as important as whether or not it flushes. A recent case in point was our upstairs toilet (the one between the changing table and the glass block wall). Here is its original condition:

Besides looking like it came from the--well, whatever decade it was that wood-grained toilet seats came into fashion--our seat had the added liabilites of seeming a little grungy on the undercarriage and beginning to deteriorate at its brass hinges. At least, they used to be brass. However, as if sickened by their position in society, the copper flanges had long ago turned green:

Now instead of metal mounting screws, plastic bolts hold the seat to the porcelain bowl. Though safe from corrosion, I don't know whether the plastic will hold up as well to the normal stresses of human weight, ups and downs. We'll see.

At worst, I'll have to replace the toilet seat every couple of years. That would be an expensive proposition, I'm sure, if we wanted to keep the natural wood grain look. However, with the help of Wallie-World and plastics, throne improvement comes at just $10 a pop.

Have a seat!

~emrys