Oldman's story of his 1 hour installation of cieling fan / light reminded me of a quick toilet swap I did.

2 winters ago Marlene and I were shopping when we saw toilets on sale.  She insisted we needed a new one so me being an idiot said okay.  She chose one with an elongated bowl and we hauled it home.  It sat in the living room for a while then got moved to the breezeway for several months.  I can be very good at procrastinating when the job is not really needed and I don't want to do it.  Last summer everyone except me was away for the weekend.  Before she left, Marlene made a point of telling me the toilet needed to out of the breezeway before she got home.  Instead of following my first thought, which was to throw it in the garbage, I started to install it.

I am sure Murphy was there and helped me every step of the way.  Water shut off worked like a charm, and it should.  I had changed the supply line and valve a few weeks before when the line started to leak while changing the tub taps.  Nuts on the holddown bolts surprised me and came off easy.  Then Murphy showed up to help.  Carried the old toilet out and set it in the breezeway while I opened the garage door where I was going to store it until the landfill was open.  Dog came to help and knockrd the toilet over and it broke.  Cleanup in the breezeway.  Now most of the toilet fit into a garbage bag.

Time to install the new toilet.  Easy right?  Not with Murphy helping.   Started to clean the old wax ring off the flange and found that the ring on the flange was broken.  Down to the basement to cut the pipe and remove the flange.  Flange gone, find the reason it groke is that when the toilet was installed, whoever did it cut the hole in the wrong place, so they just cut recut the hole and never patched the floor where they made the wrong cut.  Over the years the missing support for the flange took its toll until the flange broke.  Set the new toilet in  place to find what I need for parts and find that I need an offset flange as the toilet requires an extra inch of distance from the wall.  I also need 6 inches of 3" ABS pipe.

Being a sunday, I phone around to find out what stores are open and if they have an offset flange.  Found one with my first call, but the only 3" ABS pipe they have comes in an 8' length and they won't cut it.  Phone call to a friend because I know he has some and yes I can have it.  30 minute drive to get an offset flange.  They nhave 2 different styles and never having seen one before I asked which one is better.  Town is in the Qu'Appelle Valley.  AS I am going up the hill out of the valley I realize I forgot the joiner for the ABS pipe'  Can't turn around un til out of valley so drive another couple miles to find somewhere to turn around.  Back to the store for the joiner, got a glue in one and a clamp type.  Now to go pickup the pipe from my friend who live 15 minutes the other side of Abernethy where I live.  Get the pipe and return home.  At this point I am well over 4 hours into the job'

Before fixing the floor, I decide to install the flange in the correct place.  Measure everything and cut hole to proper shape and size.  Dry fit pipes and set toilet in place and verify that everything fits properly.  Remove toilet and go to basement to fix floor.  Cut plywood to fit hole and then supports to hold plywood in  place.  Can't make my patch fit perfectly so back upstairs, set toilet back in place to see how much of the patch is going to show.  Murphy must of got tired from working so hard helping me because he had left at this point.  Non of the patch showed so I removed the toilet again.  Went back to the basement and fastened the braces to support the patch in properly.  Back upstairs and fastened the patch down.  Glued the pipe and flange in place.  Placed wax ring on flange, set toilet in place and bolted down.  Hooked up supply line and turned water on.  No leaks so tried flushing, no leaks.  Cut holddown bolts to proper length and installed caps on them.  

DONE!!!!  Can finally use it.  Only took 8 hours and almost a hundred miles of driving (closer to 200 miles by the time I returned the extra flange and the excess ABS pipe).

When Marlene came home, I told her of my adventures in changing the toilet and was told she didn't know why it took so long.  Her mother had changed hers and it took less than an hour.  I said that maybe her mother's had been installed correctly thusw not needing floor repairs and that the old flange worked for her new toilet.  Apparently that doesn't count, just the time required to do the job.

Repair and replacement is always full of issues that don't exist with "new construction".

That's what separates us "handy-persons" from the rest. We often make the "patch" better that the original.

The old rule," There is never enough time to do the job, but there is plenty of time to do it over".

Glad you successfully completed the installation.

It's a general rule. " figure the time it takes to do a chore, then double it".

My wife asked if I would move the toilet a couple inches, that was 11 years ago, and until I have to replace the toilet, it is staying put.

Another "notch" in the stick for the 'handyman', jdeere. and always remember the other two rules:
1) the wife is always right
2) if you disagree, see rule #1

JD,  I ran into similar problems when I went to replace my 'small' round bowl toilet with a 'handicap' elongated 17" toilet.  My old toilet had been leaking UNDER THE TILE FLOORING and onto the carpet at the doorway entrance from my master bedroom.  The base had been well silicone sealed and no water was coming from around the base of the toilet.  I removed the hold-down bolts and cut around the silicone seal with a razor knife, but when I went to lift the toilet from the ceramic tile floor, the tile around the toilet base came up with it too.  The beeswax ring was 'swiss-cheese' and had deteriorated into a 'hollow shell' of a wax seal.  The worst part was that the concrete floor around the flange area had turned into a 'sandy sludge' (probably from uric acid dissolving it). The grout or mastic that was holding the tiles together had came apart too.  There was nothing left of the flooring base to really remount the pieces of broken tile to or act as a 'support base' for the new toilet.  Since I plan on eventually replacing the floor and remodeling the bath/shower into a 'stand-alone' shower with handicap capabilities, I just filled the void created by removing the 'sandy sludge' 1-1/2" deep around the flange and filled it with floor leveler for now.  I can chip it out or remove it when I remodel the bathroom.  It 'looks like crap' now with the missing tiles, but since I live alone, there's no one else around to complain about it to me.     

What would have been the proper way to fill up this 'void' created by the dissolved concrete 'sandy sludge'?  Just curious in case I happen to win the lottery and buy a new house instead of remodeling this one.  My neighborhood has been turning into one populated with people like Dewey's neighbors over the last 10 years, but can't afford to move.