Handyman Klutz, Handyman Success!!

Last night I was brushing my teeth when I realized the toilet looked odd, the water level seemed really low, so I flushed. The bowl rapidly filled to near the rim. I grabbed the plunger and tried to plunge it with no success, the plunger did not seem to be getting a seal and just was not working. I called in DH. He tried the plunger with no success. DH decided to empty the tank of the toilet to try something out (I am pretty sure, this 24hrs later, that his motivation for emptying the tank was completely misguided, but I cannot be one to talk). Anyways, he wanted to empty the tank, so I was supposed to stand their holding up the floater so it was easier. Well, after about a minute of this task I stopped paying attention, pulled the floater too high up, snapping the plastic at the joint. Water started squirting everywhere. We frantically tried to push, cover, pull, then all of the sudden we realize there was massive amounts of water gushing from somewhere onto the floor. I threw a towel over the heat vent that the water had started to trickle down and DH turned off the water. While I towled up, DH tried to figure out where the water had come from, and whether there was anything else to do. We figured out eventually it came from the bowl. We emptied the bowl and tank as much as possible.

We talked about whether we needed a plumber or whether we thought we could do it on our own. I googled "toilet repair for dummies" and came up with this website: http://www.handymanteacher.com/plumbing-for-dummies.html
It offers a a video tutorial on toilet tank repairs, which we watched together and decided we could manage.

This morning we headed over to Home Depot to grab some supplies (think they would pay me for this advertisement). We came home, and together gave it a shot. DH did most of the actual assembling while I interpreted the directions and made sure we were getting every step. 30 minutes later, success!! We have an unclogged, fully flushable toilet that doesn't leak. I never knew I could be so happy and proud that a toilet flushed. Do I get a merit badge for this or something? Next weekend: The downstairs toilet that has not flushed properly since we moved in. :-)