I was laying on the floor, curled around my roommate's toilet, with a wrench (is that what those things are called?) trying to tighten the bolts on the tank. I had replaced the flush valve on my own toilet (on the second try), and the roomie's family noticed her toilet had the same hard-to-flush problem. I figured I was more-than-qualified to handle this one on my own.

I also figured I'd better make sure the tank was bolted on tight, because I had an up-close-and-personal look at the rubber ring that sealed the space between the tank and the base of the toilet. Too loose and water would leak everywhere, right?

Not so much. Tighten those little suckers too much and THE WHOLE TOILET TANK BREAKS. INTO HUGE CHUNKS AND LITTLE SPLINTERS.

The roomie heard the first creak, which I assured her was nothing. She also heard the crash minutes later when the whole thing fell apart and a quarter of the tank hit the floor. I told her I hoped we could all laugh about it.

She surveyed the damage and suggested I call my mom. Because that's what she would do.

So, a phone call to my mother, a trip to Menard's, and about $40 later, I had a new toilet tank. The big box-store worker seemed delighted that they had my model (who knew there were so many different toilet-tank models?) because apparently, someone had special-ordered it. That added a little pressure to the situation. If I ruined this one, another replacement would be days, if not weeks, away.

I spent about 20 minutes stressing that the new tank was a slightly darker shade of white than the rest of the toilet. Even though the box said white. And a Google-search revealed manufacturer information indicating white was the lightest shade produced. And the roomie took several pictures intended to demonstrate that the new tank's promimity to her beige shower curtain was just making the tank SEEM darker.

Then, I cut my finger clearing out the broken pieces. And the roomie suggested I let a professional handle it. Multiple times.

But, before sleep befell us that night, I had properly bolted on the new tank. And it flushed. Without breaking or flooding the second floor with toilet-water.

Now, I just need to replace the towel bar that keeps falling down whenever a towel is placed on it...