How to Replace a Windshield Wiper

I noticed the other day.. well, actually, a few months ago, that our windshield wipers aren't doing the best of jobs, but I only just now got around to buying new ones. Never having replaced the things before, I found the instructions rather unhelpful, so I thought I'd help you all out.

 There are two main types of windshield wipers that I encountered. The first have a sort of latch on them, the others just slide on and off. I'm told there are straight ones, but I didn't have any of those, so I can't help you there.

 The ones with the latch, you take off something like this.

 You pick up the wiper, stick your pinky back there like this...

 Then slide, with quite a bit of force (these pics are staged. you never stop to look at what step you're on while you're actually doing it)

 You pull out.. now you can see the formerly referred to latch thing more clearly.

 Then you lift it out around the latch...

 And gently, GENTLY lower the hook thing back down to the glass while getting out the new wiper. From experience (last time, not this time, and not my fault), these things can and will break the glass of your windows if you allow them to slam down on the glass.. and slam down they will. So be careful.

 With the new blades (and this is the second main type), you just slide them on.

 They look like this, more or less.

Woot for new windshield wiper! just as a side note, I didn't take any pics of taking off this type of washer, but be careful when you do. It's very easy to yank so enthusiastically that you accidentally spear your windshield, and, again, that easily leads to breakage. Just remember that you're working with glass, and you should be fine.

How to Put in a Toilet Paper Holder

Continuing the bathroom upgrading, installing a toilet paper holder is important, and can be tricky if you've never done it before.

This is the toilet paper holder I put in. As you can see, it matches the other stuff I've put up.

 This is the packaging it came in. It's the only one I've remembered to take a picture of, in case you want to know.

 Please remember that there's going to be a bag of mounting hardware somewhere in the packaging. In the case of this one, it was inside the white box they used to back the holder itself. After some disassembly,  this is what all was in that box. You should have everything here, even if your backing plate is two instead of one. Just make sure you don't throw anything away.

 The real trick to this is measuring. I cannot stress enough that, despite my not having taken as many pictures of it, measuring is the hardest part of this. Mounting itself is relatively easy- placement isn't.

I put mine about two feet from the floor. That seemed pretty standard, and it's comfortable for most people. Placement in relation to your toilet is entirely up to you. make sure you like where it's going to end up, though.

 I marked the long line two feet up, then made the cross marks on the right where a stud was. Most times you won;t be as luck as I was, but there we go. I had a stud, and it was almost exactly where I wanted it anyway, so I adjusted where I wanted it, and marked the wall.

The way these things work- those silver pieces (stainless steel, but close enough) are the mounting brackets that hold this thing to the wall. You need to get them out.

 In order to do that, use the enclosed allen wrench to take out the hex nuts on the bottom of the holder. They'll be on both sides. No need to take out the hex nuts all the way, just enough to get out the mounting brackets.

 This is what my marks looked like when I was done with a ruler. The instructions should tell you how far apart to put your holes, but if not, a ruler works too.

 This is important! Rulers are not sufficient to mount these things. Odds are, there's an imperfection in your measuring, or your floor, or something. USE A LEVEL! make sure all of your lines are level. It will help your job look professional, and it will hold up better.

 In case you don't already know, Your level is level when the bubble is directly between those two lines. Try to get it as close to the middle as you can.

 After leveling and re-measuring, this is what my lines looked like. Make sure you erase any marks that will show outside your holder.

 As you can see, the right hand side had a stud behind it, as I mentioned earlier. Always make sure you check beforehand to see if there are studs. They came simplify your life.

 As per instructions, I used a 1/16" bit to drill pilot holes for the screws on the side with a stud.

 Make sure these are as straight as you can make them.

 They should look something like this when you're done.

 On the other side, I used 1/4" holes to make room for the anchors that go in there. The drill bit sizes should be int he instructions.

This is what my wall looked like before anchors.

 These, by the way, are anchors. You push them into drywall, and when you screw into them, they expand and hold on very firmly. Just don't go trying to use your toilet paper holder as a climbing bar. You'll end up with a gaping hole in your wall.

 You just push the things in like so. This is part of why you want to know what size to use- too big and they won't hold, too small and they won't go in. You can use a hammer, if necessary, but be gentle with it.

 This is what they look like once they're put in.

 As you can see, it's not necessary to have them be flush with the wall.

 Use a phillips head drill bit to drill the screws in. A screwdriver would work, but a drill is much more efficient in this case.

The rick to this is making sure you don't drill in the first screw all of the way before putting in the second one. If you do, it will be much harder to put in the second one, trust me. Tighten them after they're both in.

 Like so.

 Once both sides are in, you can go about installing the rest of the hardware.

 Make sure you don't forget to put on the back plate before the rest of the stuff.

  Re-attach the holder handles using the hex nuts underneath.

 Remember, the hex nuts should look like this once they're fully screwed in.

 Attach the middle bar, and voila! toilet paper holder.

 Add some toilet paper, and it's actually functional!

And this is what our bathroom looks like after all that. Maybe in a week or two I'll get around to towel holders, but for now the bathroom is finally functional, so we'll leave it at that. And, frankly, once the tools are cleaned up it looks rather awesome, if I do say so myself.

How to Replace a Toilet Flusher Handle

These nifty gadgets are what make toilets so utterly convenient for us. However, not all toilets are created equal, and when you have one (like the one in our bathroom) that just won't fit correctly, it's nice to have a DIY to refer back to.

In accordance with the rest of the bathroom parts that we're replacing to update the bathroom, the brass flusher/handle/thing on our toilet didn't fit anymore, so we had to replace it with a matching brass-srcatched black one. These, by the way, I'm fairly certain, are called 'Venetian Bronze' accessories, should you care to look for some yourself.

 So, without further ado- the final product.

 You start out with a package that will look rather like this- a handle on a long metal rod of some sort or another.

 This is a close up of the handle.. you can almost see the brass scratches in this one.

Well, our toilet is a bit weirdly shaped, and this is what the old toilet handle's rod on the inside looked like.

See that white thing on the other side of the handle? That's a nut. It's the only thing keeping the handle on.

 This picture is sideways for some reason, but the point is, detach the chain at the end. This chain flushes your toilet, so don't be surprised if you flush it on accident. I clipped my chain to that white tube there, but if you don't mind fishing through the water for it, more power to you.

  As you can see, directly out of the package, our new handle was not going to fit.

However, after quite a bit of bending, we managed to make it fit. As you can see, there are quite a few scratches on the metal from this, on the inside. Due to the heavy duty nature of this metal, actually bending it required both hands of two people. We bent it as closely as we could to the other toilet handle's rod. This required both hands, and another person helping, along with pliers. The real trick is to make sure that you put the handle on in the right orientation, or flushing may be difficult. Oh, and any scraping the nut does against the side of the toilet is fine. Just make it tight.