The Good, the Bad, and the VERY Ugly!

The last few weeks have brought the typical household dramas in all their glory. I shall start with the "good" even though I am aware that the good things that happen here aren't nearly as entertaining as the stress that inevitably ensues in this house.

The good news is that I have finally fixed most of the curtains in the house and the deep organizing is coming along. There...... That's the good and, as I promised, it was completely lacking in entertainment value.

Okay, now for the "bad". Last week, when I had pneumonia/bronchitis/asthma, Andrea decided to use half a roll of toilet paper (the really nice thick kind that doesn't dissolve easily). This led to the clog of all clogs. In fact, it was so spectacularly clogged that I think it deserves its own name, King Clog! (haha!)

So I plunged for hours, literally hours, to no avail. Andrea even tried her hand at it. There was no movement from the water (except as it tried to exit the toilet!) By noon I called Mario who was planning on getting off work early anyway. I told him my resolve and energy were spent and the kids were hungry (as was I). I told Mario I wanted to take them out to eat for lunch because I couldn't take one more minute of the toilet problem staring me in the face (so to speak :) (Plus, there were three people in the house, two with very small bladders!)

Now, any of you who know Mario well will not be surprised by his reaction. :) He told me that there was no need to go out to eat. He would come home immediately to help. (teehee) (He had no problem facing the toilet if it meant we didn't eat out!)

Mario went  plumb crazy! ;) He plunged and plunged and plunged and when that didn't work he plunged some more. We tried dish soap, which had worked once before and we tried a couple of cleaners. We also tried some CLR. (I know what a crime it is to add to contamination in the water table, but we were desperate. Luckily I don't feel too guilty because I have been tackling the weeds in our yard without chemicals!!) The toilet became more empty of water as he plunged but not because his efforts were working. He  plunged so passionately, determined to not have to pay a dime to a plumber, that the bathroom became sopping wet! YUCK!

After contributing a couple of hours to the cause we finally accepted we needed a better solution. Despite my fever I went to Home Depot to get the pipe snake thingy (I think its called a plumbers drill). (A couple of years ago I had sent Mario to the store for one. He came home with a white stick thingy that was about 6 inches long. It has only ever worked for getting hair from the shower drain.) This in mind, I knew our family would only get "relief" if I went to search for it. Luckily, the tool was really easy to find and I was out of the store in 5 minutes including the pit stop.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Mario was so sure our toilet was broken permanently he had begun to dig a hole in our backyard for our pioneering efforts at sanitation. (no more details needed, eh?) I came to the rescue almost at a crawl and passed the gauntlet/toilet snake. I lay on a dining room bench trying to breath while Mario worked to figure out how the snake worked. He uncoiled and coiled it back a few times. After the first use, the water went down a little bit. Mario and I were excited and he ran the snake down the pipe again. This time as he started pulling it out, he began to cough hard, so hard in fact, that he had to stop working. Little particles had been getting into his lungs. All I could think was, "I don't want to know! I don't want to know!! I don't want to know!!!" as I offered him a mask.

The second time worked out better and the water receded even further. By the third time I was kinda checked out of the process with shock. Mario wound the handle and wound and wound. I thought he was doing it for an unusually long time. After about five minutes I said, "Don't you think you've gone far enough?"We tried the toilet and were delighted to find that it flushed! Next, Mario began to pull the snake back in. He turned for about 5 minutes before we realized it wasn't making progress. (Mind you this was a 25 ft cable, so we didn't know how long it would take to reel in.)

I decided we should open the casing that held the cord to see how much was coiled inside. We removed one screw after another. What a new shock I received when the cap burst open in my face. (Apparently these things are spring loaded in some weird way.) This was when we realized that the 25 ft long cable was stuck somewhere in our plumbing. We tugged and pulled, but not too hard as we were afraid of creating an even bigger problem.

Finally, I said a plumbing prayer. I felt that I needed to pull up on the cord, so I did. I pulled straight up and back and amazingly the cable broke loose. I laughed/cried for a few second until Mario, in his eagerness, began pulling at it fast and spraying me with whatever there was inside the beast. I screeched and retched and began coughing while begging him to calm down! The clean up from this disaster I can hardly describe in one entry but I think it will take weeks before I am convinced that our bathroom is sanitary again.

The final and ugliest part of our adventurous week I will be very brief about. We were trying to fix our bedroom doors. I am usually really good with the circular saw, so the job fell to me to get the door to the height we needed. Unfortunately, the wood was really old inside the door so it was very difficult to keep a straight line, especially when I hadn't marked it with a pencil or something else. The saying goes, "Pride cometh before the fall." I was way too overconfident in my steady hand. (I am sure someone can use this analogy in church for a talk!) As a result, the door looks atrocious. I am beyond embarrassed and frustrated that this project didn't go well. I admit to crying. I try so hard to do high quality repairs. At least I can say I tried my best.

Picture found on http://www.atlantasteemer.com/sitebuilder/images/Toilet_Overflow_Atlanta-305x197.png