Repairing Toilet

Leaking from toilet can cause no issue, it can also cause big issue depending on the nature of the leak.

There are several potential causes for leaking from a toilet: 1) rusted shut-off valve, 2) rusted water supply hose, 4) aged rubber gasket (between water tank and toilet seat or toilet and base), 5) rusted nut and bolt (for fixing tank on toilet, toilet and base), 6) flapper valve inside the water tank.

Rusted shut-off valves and water supply hoses to toilet or sink can cause significant water damage and a lot of hassles when they burst.  The brass shut-off valve and water supply hoses typically installed by some builders have an average life of 12 years.  Many rusted vales/hoses will not leak if you do not operate on them. If your house is over 12 years old, and you notice rust on these parts, it is better to replace them before a major leak occurs. We learned the lesson hard way!  Replacing shut-off valves can be a little bit problematic due to its connection to water pipes. We hired a plumber to replace all shut off valves and water supply hoses during repair from the water damage.

Leaking from aged rubber gasket and rusted bolts/nuts is usually east to spot - bright brownish water trace near the base of a toilet. They are not hard to replace, but not easy either if the rust is severe.

Recently we noticed rusty water by a toilet, it turned out that the leak came from the rusted bolts. All we need was a $5.99 plumber toilet pack - which includes a thick gasket, bolts, nuts and washers. The main difficult during the repair was to remove the rusted bolts and nuts from a very tight space under the tank.

Leaking from flapper is easy to fix and has no water damage consequence.

We replaced one full toilet once due to cracks on the water tank.

Usually there is no need to buy $100s new toilet to fix toilet problems, a few bucks and some time, one can fix toilet problems DIY.

rusted nut an bolt

new bolt, nut and rubber washer

rubber gasket 

fixed $5.99 + 0.5 hour labor

Chisholm Trail at Plano

Chisholm trail at Plano is a paved bike/hiking trail along spring creek, the long diagonal green belt in the following chart. The trail is 5.6 mile long one way from end to end, and available on both side of the creek most of the time. There are two big advantages of this trail, it is well shaded for good portion, and it uses underpasses to cross major roads.

For this Sunday's 10k run,   we decided to run on this trail instead of our usual route around our neighborhood. Since there is no parking at Legacy trail head, we drove to the intersection of Independence Parkway and San Simeon Way, where the trail crossing independence park way via an underpass, and parked our car on San Simeon Way around 7:30am.

It was a beautiful morning, blue sky, bright sun shine and green landscape.

We started running towards Legacy trail head (the closer trail head) primarily for exploration of the trail, and checking the parking space along the trail. This portion of the trail is very well shaded, and right by the creek.

Turing around at the legacy trail head, we ran on the other side (east) of the creek. This side of trail ends at the Independence, we had to use pedestrian side walk to get to the other side of creek and used the underpass to cross Independence parkway.

Along the way, it passes quite a few community parks and there were not too many people on the trail. It was quiet out there, we only heard our footsteps and breath most of the time. When we did see runners, joggers, dog walkers or bikers, we greeted or waved to them. Beautiful scenery, nice people, it felt great!

The longer distance we ran on this trail, the more we liked it! But we did not ran all the way to other end of the trail, turned around at 5km distance.

Chisholm trail instantly becomes our favorite trail!

Note:

Other great outdoor trails include 1) the trails at Arbor Hill Nature Preserves, 2) Trails at Oak Point Park, 3) Legacy trail by White Rock Creek, 4) Trails at white rock lake and 5) trinity river skyline trail

Lake Tahoe Skip Trip - Miscellaneous

Typically when we travel, we took early flight for better fare; we left the destination the day we finished activities to save one night lodging. It was efficient and saving money, but it did put some stress on us.

Leisure paced travel 

This time I wanted to have a more leisure pace: I left DFW on a 11 am flight, I parked the car in the covered parking lot to save worries on whether there would be hails to hit it. We stayed at lake Tahoe for one more night, leaving the next day after skiing.

I did not rent a car for travel in bay area. I took commuter train to get to Berkeley from SFO airport.

Dinners

We had good dinners during the trip.

The first night we had hotpot at a Thai restaurant near our hotel - a hearty meal.

The second night we walked to the main street of south lake Tahoe. I was surprised to see a lively bustling street, full of people despite a steep drop of temperature, many restaurants had wait lines. We decided to eat outside at California Burger Company. Justin had a burger and a glass of wine, I had a house salad.

The third and last dinner was at LEW MAR NELS STEAKS AND SOUTH LAKE TACA, a restaurant affiliated with BW hotel  - we were the only patrons that night! I ordered the special for the night - Salmon, Justin had steak and a named wine. The waiter was nice, and attentive, the table cleaning clerk was prompt and discrete. The restaurant setting was nice, and the food was delicious. We had a nice conversation as well. It was a great night for us!

When we were leaving, the chef, chef's helper, waiter and cleaning person were sitting near the entrance. We thanked them for the dinner and waved goodbye.

Lake Tahoe

Since we got back to town ~ 5pm on the third day and we were not hurried to leave, we went to a beach park to take a closer look at Lake Tahoe.  The lake is huge! Snow capped mountains surrounded the lake. It was cool, a few people, mostly families and young couples were sitting at the beach enjoying the scenery. We stayed there for 15 minutes deciding to come back to the lake at sunset.

The hotel is less than 0.25 miles from lake shore. After shower and before dinner, we walked to the lake shore to enjoy the sunset.

Lake Tahoe

Sunset at Tahoe