It was a big day yesterday. A new toilet was installed in our mid mod house - a new throne for the royal ablutions.
 |
| Hmm...the joys of an older home...our throne is slightly elevated sitting on a concrete plinth of sorts... |
As much as we like to keep the changes to this house 'mid-century authentic', we had to draw the line to the 50 year old toilet with original Bakelite seat. It had seen better days and was ready to be retired. (You'll be pleased to know that we are keeping the simple but highly effective toilet roll holder. Ha!)
A new modern loo was the only way to go - water efficient and hopefully much easier to keep clean.
 |
| Old toilet, I'm sure you served well over the years...RIP |
We chose a dependable Australian-made Caroma toilet suite with a porcelain cistern. Anything made of plastic would have deteriorated due to the amount of sunlight streaming through the large frosted window in the WC.
I was toying with the idea of getting a new black Bakelite seat... however
our experience from the Sow's Ear told us that black Bakelite is difficult to keep in pristine condition. Ours became cloudy over time. :(
After having this initial plumbing work conducted on the house we're now aware that all the old pipes are galvanised steel and are rusting badly. It will be something we will have to attend to before they eventually deteriorate to a rusty mess and seize up for good. We'll be putting that on the list as we plan out our projects.
 |
| A smart flush Caroma toilet suite |
But firstly we will have to attend to the walls and floors in our sad looking WC. A coat of fresh paint on the walls, repairing the timber architraves and a choice of new flooring is on the to-do list.
I am surprised that you waited so long! Definitely an improvement. xx
ReplyDeleteHa! Yes, we have a high yuck tolerance! Xx
DeleteThat's the same Caroma toilet that's in our main house. A few years ago, the city of Fort Worth had a water-saving program and gave away high efficiency toilets for older homes, and that's the brand they chose.
ReplyDeleteYou got a free Caroma toilet! Wish we could have got ours for free . They are very water efficient and hopefully our water bill will feel the difference.xx
DeleteGo figure that a city in Texas would choose toilets made in Australia to give away, but that must say something about their water efficiency. It was a little difficult when I hired a plumber to install it, because a part was missing and it wasn't easy to find, but we did eventually find a plumbing supplier in town who carried Caroma parts. Did you get the single or dual flush? I can't tell for sure from your picture. I got the dual, and I really like it.
DeleteDefinitely an improvement over the old throne! Love Caroma toilets.
ReplyDeleteWe've been loo shopping too! At closing down sales mostly. In wall cisterns great in the new bit but have to have the older sort in the old bit where the walls are double brick, horse hair and limestone plaster! And who makes shelves in toilets so...inconveniently placed these days - and toilet seats so narrow! Argh
ReplyDelete-- littlekarstar (aka Mrs Bok)
Ugly loo be gone! We have just installed a shiny new throne as well, oh to have a toilet that actually flushes I cant stop talking about it!!
ReplyDeleteI've just been reading through your blog - love what you're doing to your home, and that you're so faithfully keeping all the original features (although I do think it's a great improvement that the original wc has gone!). Just wanted to mention that if you do want to take out your floor tiles you should have them tested for asbestos. They look very similar to the ones we had in our old sunroom, which had asbestos in them, so they may need to be safely removed.
ReplyDeleteAlso, sadly Caroma no longer manufacture in Australia - they're all made in Asia now. The toilets are designed in Australia by an Australian company, but they shut manufacturing down locally a while ago. Some plastic parts are still made here, but they announced this year they're closing that down too and shifting it offshore as well.
Hope you're seeing the water savings though - the old ones certainly used up a lot of water compared to the new models!