Toilet Story

During home inspection of our new house, the inspector said the wax rings beneath the toilets need replacing.

I thought, "well, since the toilets are old and we need to uninstall them to replace the wax rings anyway, why not replace the whole toilet?"

Then I found out about York Region's Water For Tomorrow toilet rebate program, so we had been researching and shopping for the different toilets eligible for the rebate.

We had our eyes pretty much set on the American Standard FloWise Dual Flush Elongated Toilet, because we "tried out" the one-piece version at Home Depot and liked it.  (No, we didn't actually "use" it in store!)

Then, on Thursday, Daniel IM-ed me about a grand opening special at Lowe's: a "Buy One Get One Free" offer of the two-piece version of this toilet, Friday to Sunday only, for the first 300 customers only, limit 2 per customer!

Problem: How many were we buying?
Answer: There are 4 toilets in the house, but we don't really plan to replace the basement one until later.  So 3.  However, Mom said she wants to replace her toilet too, so she'll take the 4th one.  They initially wanted to replace all 3 of their toilets as well (so we were planning to buy a grand total of 6!! toilets), but ended up changing their minds.

Problem: Who were going?
Answer: First, our "advance scout" (a.k.a. my dad) went to the store and asked about the "limit 2 per customer" part: it means each customer gets to take 2 home, not 4.  Since I got to stay with Isaac, someone else had to go with Daniel to get our required 4 toilets.  That means my parents, because the store was actually closer to their home than ours!

Problem: When did we need to hit the store?
Answer:  The store opens at 7am on Friday.  On one hand, toilets aren't exactly an impulse-buying item, and there are no other promotions or items are crazily on sale at limited quantities, so there's no need to line up like Boxing Day (or Black Friday for our American friends).  Besides, Dad asked the store staff about the promotion and they clarified that the store had 600 of these toilets on hand, so it's not "first 300 customers of the store" but "first 300 customers buying the toilets".  On the other hand, our "advance scout" reported many people seemed to be interested in the toilet.  So Daniel and my parents decided to meet at the store at 6:30am.  Daniel ended up being customer #30 and my parents were #40 and #41 respectively.

Problem: How were we going to haul the toilets home?
Answer: We considered different options, such as paying the store $75 for delivery, renting the store's cube van for $19, whether the toilets would fit our cars, etc.  In the end, the three of them just carried the toilets home in their cars.

Problem: Where were we going to store them?
Answer: My parents' garage, since we don't have possession of our new house yet!