Some of you will know that my wife and I recently sold our house (not the Rectory, which belongs to the church and not to us!) and bought another one which we hope will be a more suitable retirement home. Here, I am using the word “hope” in the sense of wish and desire rather than in the biblical sense (biblical hope is certain – based on past events and the unchanging character of God). The reality is that there is a great deal of uncertainty about our new house. We’ve discovered that the water pressure is woefully inadequate. Further investigations have shown that the problem lies in the pipework between the meter and the house, which is lead (rather than copper or plastic), so we must – at our own expense – lay a whole new mains water supply if we want to be able to have a shower and drink safely. The house will probably also need rewiring, and then there’s the decorating… it’s not quite DIY SOS territory, but there’s an awful lot to do. Will the house be ready for us to enjoy it when we retire? We hope so, but there really is a lot of work ahead of us and a lot of money for us to spend on it in the intervening couple of decades.
The thing that is causing us most grief right now is the toilet. There are various issues with it, beginning with the fact that it leaks – water from the cistern is dripping into the pan, causing my metered water bill to be much higher than it need be. Ironically, it has one of those environmentally friendly, water-saving dual flush mechanisms, and this mechanism has either been badly fitted or broken over time (or possibly both) so that it leaks water when I don’t want it to and fails to flush when I do! There’s a split button on the top of the cistern – big button, big flush; small button, small flush. Only it doesn’t work. Until last week the only way we could get it to flush was to press and hold the small button. Earlier today, I took the cistern lid off to have a look at the mechanism with a view to replacing it. Now I’ve put the lid back on, it’s only the big button that works, and that not every time…
One of the problems is that the button housing is not screwed into the flush mechanism as it should be, so it moves around bit, and the prongs which protrude from the button to activate the flush are not actually cut to the right length. The mechanism itself is loose inside the cistern – some kind of snap-locking arrangement appears to have snapped, meaning the whole top half is free to rotate when it should be fixed. Sadly, the leak appears to be emanating from the part of the unit which is fixed to the cistern by a large nut which is inaccessible. What this means is not only does the whole unit need to be replaced (I had hoped I might be able to replace a washer or other part), but to fix the new one, I also have to remove the cistern from the toilet base itself. This is not a particularly complicated job – just a question of undoing a couple of butterfly nuts on some protruding bolts and lifting it carefully down. But they are corroded, and one has just snapped…
I am reminded of the twofold wisdom of firstly following the maker’s instructions and secondly making sure that routine cleaning and maintenance takes place. Failing to do either of these things leads to disaster. So there’s a thought for you: are you living your life in line with your maker’s instructions? And when did you last have a really good clean-up?
May your toilet always flush and your life be in line with the plans of the one who gave it!