Oh wow, you meant short short, Brenda! It looks cute, and really thick!!

OK, two homeowner aka "I've always been a renter and crap, now *I'm* the landlord" questions. (1) The one toilet is bizarre, in that when you try to flush, it's SO HARD to push the lever. Like, you have to put all your weight on it. At which point, it finally agrees to flush, and seems to flush fine. But clearly, not right. WTF? (2) The kitchen sink faucet, when you turn it off, keeps flowing for a sec (more than just a few drops). What does it mean? How do I stop it?

I am certain the first has SOMETHING to do with the ballcock.

(Don't know exactly what, but I wasn't passing that up)

You might be able to shorten the chain that connects the lever to the rest of the apparatus. I could show you, but I don't know the names of anything to talk you through it: if you take off the cover you might be able to figure it out just by looking and waggling the lever.

The faucet problem I haven't run into.

Love the hair, brenda!

What -t said. either shorten the chain, or get a new lever (about $5) and have the chain connected to the furthermost hole, to get more ...leverage.

As far as the kitchen sink, what brand is it? Is it a single lever? Even "washer less" faucets have replaceable parts, and usually cheaper than replacing the whole thing.

Take a picture of the Kitchen faucet and inside of the toilet tank and find an Ace hardware and show them.

It's amazing how simple the flushing process is.

My hair is short! I don't have what I would call good pictures yet, but this gives the idea. [link]

Supercute!

Brenda, that is fabulous hair!

Daniel's smart with the picture thing. Like -t, I could probably fix the toilet, but I don't know the thingy from the doodad, and couldn't talk you through the process. Pictures will help the people with the right words for the right parts so you can fix it, though. About the faucet, I have no clue.

Seska, did I say what an appealing house? Because it is, and I hope you and the Girl can be very happy there.

I'm happy for her, DJ. And for you, too.

Ah, figured the toilet out--there is no chain!! The handle is connected to a stick, which goes through a loop on the ...uh...bit that needs to be raised that would normally be attached via chain. First I thought this was a jury rigged broken thing, then realize that was how it was supposed to be. But if you move the loop a bit to the side, the leverage is much better. Still a bit difficult, but possible, as it wasn't quite, before. Yay!

Oh man, I feel like a total badass and have to tell someone.

So there was one of those things Jilli hates up near the ceiling, and I couldn't go to sleep until I had taken care of it. The only thing I had that could reach it was a poster tube, and it didn't seem to want to budge. So I tried sticking a bunch of Scotch tape to the end of the tube. Because if that worked, it would be hilarious. It didn't work, though, since the thing was in the corner.

Then I noticed a ruler lying on the floor, and I taped the ruler to the tube, intending to smash the bugger. I had no other option, and I wanted to go to sleep in peace. I apologized to it, but I couldn't go through with it, and I came up with a final idea.

I set a paper cup on top of the poster tube and taped it to the ruler. I inched the contraption up to the beastie and nudged it off the wall with the ruler. It fell right into the cup. I quickly tilted the tube outside through the already-open door and banged it on the railing to knock the bugger out into the wild.

And then I carefully peered into the cup to make sure it was empty.

(It was. I win.)

P-C, that's quite an operation. You could patent that device. I'd buy it.

Great hair, Brenda!

Shir, I'm with omnis here. Take a leap.

Thanks for all the good wishes on the house! We're hoping we'll actually get a response to the offer today. I'm going to be slightly loopy until we do.