Sunday night Kirk killed the toilet. Daddy was at the Steely Dan concert and Mama was busy with Bundle and Kirk used about 2/3 of a roll of toilet paper. I had been talking to him down the hall, concerned something was Going On but didn’t actually put the baby down and go investigate. I told him explicitly not to use too much paper, not to take big pieces, and to flush in the middle if he thought he might need more. Kirk didn’t listen to Mama.
I attempted to plunge the toilet but couldn’t get it cleared. I figured I was a wuss. But then Mr. b tried the toilet snake yesterday morning and that didn’t work either. So I guess that explains why the plunger wasn’t good enough. After work we tried the Depot and checked out our other options. We had a longer pipe snake from the basement floor drain issues of a couple years ago. But that proved to be too flexible and would just bunch up at the clog.
Mr. b started investigating options online. Dawn: didn’t work. Shop-Vac: seemed to be helping until it stopped sucking and started blowing. Toilet water was being sprayed all over the hallway wall. At the same time the toilet started running uncontrollably and the bowl began to overflow. I tried to soak up the mess with towels but instead ran to the neighbors to borrow their wet-dry vac. The hallway was flooded and it was flowing into the bedrooms and the linen closet. It dripped down into the furnace room downstairs. As the menfolk were investigating – opening the evacuation pipe further along will entail tearing into the wall because the geniuses who refinished the already finished basement closed everything off – I tried to keep the kids away from the mess and clean up at least a little bit.
So now we still don’t have a working toilet. If we didn’t have the downstairs bathroom we’d have had to call a plumber or stay at a hotel. Kirk was sent to bed early last night. He is contrite if flippant. His biggest worry is that buying a new toilet will cut into the Christmas presents budget. We’ve been trying to impress on him that the lesson is not Don’t Use Too Much Toilet Paper but rather Always Listen To Mama. Because he didn’t and he should have.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
Oh Mee Oh My! It must be a guy thing. The reason I say this, my Dad has 'killed' two different toilets 3 times in the past six months with a similar method. Once he tried to use the toilet cleaning brush to 'unstop it'.. and broke it into 2 or 3 pieces.
He also broke the 'air' plunger.
I beg my mother to tell him to stay away from my bathroom, otherwise we will really be up the creek.
I also recall an incident where a boy cousin flushed his training pants at my grandparents house. He thought he was helping.
So with those two incidents in mind, the clog might be something else PLUS toilet tissue. You may need to ask Capt K. if anything else went in the toilet AND Always listen to Mommie! (PS: my Mom has had to call the plumber so many times this past year, he doesn't need directions anymore).
ex-babysitter
Yikes!! Thank goodness for a second bathroom! And heavy-duty cleaning products! Good luck with this!!
It's totally a guy thing, but smart guys (or, in this case, guys who should have listened to Mom) flush frequently, no matter how much TP we use.
Success! Daddy fixed the potty last night! Thank goodness it was just toilet paper so repeated applications of Dawn and boiling water eventually did the trick. Of course now the porcelain at the bottom of the bowl is all scratched up from the toilet snake but that's minor in my estimation. Yay potty!
Post a Comment