DIY a Stay at Home Dad can do-Install a toilet paper holder

The chimpanzees faced the monolith in 2001 A Space Odyssey.  They spent 20 minutes figuring out society, and then the monolith appears which rapidly increases the learning powers of the apes.  Next thing you know Roddy McDowell is wearing a monkey suit, Marky Mark does a bad remake and Rise of the Apes hits in August.

To the stay at home dad your monolith can take many forms.  One monolith for us recently was all of the man furniture in our house.  Said man furniture is now in the possession of some guy, who is probably childless and will have to get rid of it in a couple years because a toddler wants to continually knock it down.

Our last remaining monoliths in the house were easier to get rid of.  The toilet paper stand is a classy beast.  She stands in the bathroom and speaks of elegance, in all of her sublime beauty.  She also teeters with ease whenever a toddler comes near and is light enough to be dragged around the house.  So, elegance and class notwithstanding, all of our toilet paper stands had to go.

The wall mounted toilet paper holder is primitive, base and not charming at all.  If the bathroom were a party, the toilet paper stand would be a ballroom dancer and the wall mounted holder would be working as a coat check.

However, the wall mounted toilet paper holder is simple to install and is impossible for your child to push over or carry around the house.  Our toilet paper stand never bothered me, but it was a monolith, actually a series of three monoliths that were incredibly attractive to Toddler Mojo.

The only thing to watch out for when installing the wall mounted toilet paper holder is to be certain that the pilot holes are parallel to the ground.  We took the lazy route and simply drilled through the pilot holes once the cut out was level.    This job took about five minutes and is a great morale booster for any dads who need a project that has immediate results.

Immediately you will notice the extra space in the room once the toilet paper holder is mounted on the wall, as opposed to chilling like a beatnik monolith beside your toilet.

The version at our friend eHow looks like this: http://www.ehow.com/how_2063421_install-bathroom-toilet-paper-holder.html

As a stay at home dad I miss having the spare time to fix things.  Even though the child is my full time job, things still break or need a fix in the house.  Sometimes the repair will be something that I can easily complete and other times it’s a repair that I simply should’ve paid to have it done.  Regardless, I’ll write it up here in hopes that you may be able to gauge what you can do and when you need to call in for help.  The series is called, DIY a Stay at Home Dad Can Do, but in some cases, you shouldn’t, because of difficulty, time involved or money.  All dads aren’t equal.   If you don’t like floor space in your bathroom or really love monoliths, then bypass this series and go straight to the fart jokes, which should be in the next column.