Fixing it up right

A few years ago I had to replace my toilet.  Doing this has taught me a lesson:  When you buy a toilet, don't buy the cheap one.  Since I installed it I have had to repair it on multiple occasions, and I wish at this point that I had just spent more.

Last year I had the problem that the flap that controls water flow into the tank wasn't sealing properly.  It was shifting along its shaft a little, and when it did there was a constant slow leak.  A normal person might have just gone to buy a more expensive and better flap, but I am not that person.  Instead I wound some elastics around the shaft on each side to keep the flap from shifting around, and my hack worked.  Fixed forever!

Until a couple of months ago, when the flap started leaking again.  This time even though the flap was sitting in the right place on the shaft it wouldn't keep a really tight seal as there wasn't quite enough pressure.  No problem!  I grabbed a rock and duct taped it to the flap (using rainbow duct tape, obviously) to add some extra weight and the issue was resolved.   Fixed forever, surely!

Then I heard the leak happening again.  The tape had let go and the rock was sitting on the bottom of the tank while water slowly leaked through.  This time I had to fix things properly.  No more half measures.  I got the right equipment together and this time I used TWO rocks and four times as much rainbow duct tape.  Now the leak is fixed.  For real.  Forever!

I wonder what my parents would think of all of this.  They fix stuff themselves, and my dad absolutely loves building his own stuff.  So maybe he would be impressed with my innovations.  On the other hand he does like doing things properly, so maybe he would be horrified by my silly hacks that can't possibly last.

In any case I find it really quite entertaining to fix things this way.  Wendy just shakes her head and wishes that I would buy some proper equipment and do it right the first time, but there is little joy in going to the store and buying gear to do it the way everyone else does.  Finding a fix in whatever I have lying around the house though?  That is a good time.  Pinkie Pie certainly finds my hacks funny, and I wonder what sort of lessons she will take from watching me fix things like this.  Surely they will be different than what I learned from my father, but what effect they will have I cannot say.