William Morris and the Dripping, Dropsey, Nasty Toilet

If you are eating, click away. Seriously. This next bit is gross. Really gross. It's about the toilet. I don't want any of you getting sick--cause this next bit is all about someone who did--over four years ago.

Of course, we didn't know that.

A long, long time ago, long before low-flush toilets were viable and available (2007) hubby and I were forced to replace our toilet because the tank had cracked.

We decided to replace the floor at the same time. We also purchased a new, quieter bath fan.

From time to time I would notice nasty yellow-brown stains around the base of our new toilet on our new floor.

Like this:

At first, we blamed it on poor housekeeping.

The toilet tank sweat when anyone had a hot bath. That, plus erratic cleaning may have caused it. So, hubby insulated the tank with a styrofoam liner. It sweated less (we no longer had standing pools of water on the floor) but the yellow-brown stains kept appearing.

Then, we blamed it on our young son and poor aim. But I knew it wasn't him. I mean, look at that stain above, directly behind the toilet. I said it was impossible--it couldn't be the boy. My husband said it was entirely possible. He had this whole involved explanation. I didn't believe him, but what do I know about boys?

I thought it might be leaking from the base, (a poorly installed ring, perhaps?) so I googled it and that didn't seem right, either.

My husband and I actually had fights over this. For more than four years!

Then, one night, last week, I remembered something. During the night after we had installed the base of the toilet, but not the tank, someone had had a bout of the stomache flu. I don't remember who it was. What I do remember, though, is that the tank was installed right over the vomit without it having been cleaned up. I remember because I was so angry that my husband would have done that that I didn't trust myself to speak to him about it. So, everything stayed. I even blogged about it--the installation, not the vomit. It had been awfully close to Christmas. I'd forgotten that bit.

We took the tank off two days ago to test my memory and found this:
(I hope you have finished eating)

That gunk plus condensation just might drop nasty all over my floor, don't you think?

Ugh. I made hubby tell me I was right. Out loud.

And then I told him to clean it.

It's all better, now.

My son is exonerated, I am vindicated, and best of all, hopefully, no more dripping, dropsey, nasty toilet.

Linking to Jules at Pancakes and French Fries and the wonderful William Morris club--though they may throw me out after this one!