Yes, that is a photo of my toilet. I would normally never post a photo of something so personal, but that innocent looking piece of porcelain is the centerpiece of our story today.
Yesterday started out like any other day in our household. I took my husband to work, had some prayer time, wrote some posts for the blog and started getting ready to take my 11 year old daughter to a local botanical garden. I wanted to leave by 8:30 a.m. so we could enjoy the gardens before it became too hot, and we were right on track.
Then, just as we were about to leave, I heard a strange gurgling noise coming from the bathroom. When I went to check, I saw that the water in the toilet was bubbling. “That can’t be good,” I thought.
I started to leave the bathroom, but turned around when I heard another strange noise. Suddenly water exploded out of the toilet like a geyser and started soaking everything within a 3 foot radius! I rushed to turn off the water, but that didn’t help so I ran out of the bathroom and headed to the water cut off valve for the whole house. That was a mistake:
Tile floors + wet shoes= disaster.
I slid into a bit of a contorted position and landed hard on my back. I managed to pull myself back to a standing position and run outside to find that our county workers were doing maintenance to the sewer system. After I yelled at them to stop because my bathroom was being flooded, I had the presence of mind to get the supervisor’s number.
I called the supervisor in a not-so-peaceful-mom mode and asked why there had been no notification of the work so that we could turn off the water or at least be prepared for potential disaster. The supervisor was quite unsympathetic and told me that it was not a problem with the work they were doing, but a problem with our toilet. I semi-politely told him that my landlord would be calling him in the very near future and hung up.
Thankfully my landlord lives close by and is a personal friend. Within a few minutes, she arrived and took control of the situation so that we could leave.
I calmed down and enjoyed a sweet time with my daughter.
Especially being silly together!
When I arrived home, I found that the landlord had not only cleaned up the mess in my bathroom, but also left me these sweet gifts.
So my day which began with an exploding toilet, ended with a sweet blessing. God is like that–He redeems all things!
This just happened to me today..do u happen to know what needed to be fixed. Plumbers were working on a neighbors line im in a duplex an water came out like something in a movie. The smell was awful..i have a landlord but the plumbers are from him an he dont know what is goin on
I’m so sorry! Ours happened because the city was working on the sewer line and it forced pressure back up into our plumbing system. I hope your landlord fixed this quickly.
Having just dealt with major plumbing problems I can totally feel your pain! Except I had no landlord to call and take care of it for me. $800 later it is fixed and we had to clean up the mess ourselves. Sometimes I wish we still rented I think it would be so much cheaper and less stressful than owning a home.
I had a similar experience a couple of years ago…
I was almost ready to leave my house and my husband of just over a year at the time had already left for work. I was headed to a super important college final. I had prepared to leave 15 minutes earlier than normal to ensure I would not be late in case of traffic and blah blah blah…
I was in the middle of brushing my teeth and bam!!! The handles on my sink focet blasted off and water was shooting straight up in the air drenching me and everything around it. I, not having a clue where the water shut of was, grabbed my phone and called my husband. He walked me through it, and we were able to go get a new focet that evening. I was so worried about my final, I jumped on my computer and emailed my professor. Fortunately he was understanding, but I am here to tell ya, “gyser in the bathroom” is never a fun morning!!!
I am so sorry Attalie, but it is funny to think back on it, isn’t it?
I’m curious whether it was the guys doing work outside or a problem with your toilet. 🙂
It was a combination evidently. The landlord has to fix something on our end.
I’m sorry you had a rough morning. Praying your back feels better quickly. I have to be honest – the mental pic of the exploding toilet made me snicker. 🙂
It is funny!
Chocolate is the perfect fix to an exploding toilet!!! 🙂
I had this happen a few years ago to our rental house. Only I wasn’t so fortunate and had to clean it up by myself (no kids were home to help of course). I hope you didn’t have sewage come in with it like mine did. I was really ticked off and called the water company to let them know in no uncertain terms this was not an acceptable thing to do without notice to customers. The employees were very unsympathetic to my concerns too! If they gave you notice at least you could turn off the water, shut the toilet lids and have towels ready for the just in case!
This truly sounds like a page out of my life with the exception of an awesome landlord (the mess, the fall, and the phone calls) Hope your back is better soon! I just had to write and let you know that someone else had it happen to them too:-)
I’m sorry you went through this. Although we didn’t have sewage (thank goodness!), we did have a horrible smell. 🙁 Thanks for your sympathy. 🙂
Your landlord is a gem 🙂 I hope your back is okay!
what a special woman she is…. and so cool you were able to go ahead and let it go so that you could enjoy your time with your kiddo
You do have an awesome landlord!
Oh no!!! I hope they were able to get everything cleaned up and working for you again! What a nice landlord you have! 😉
I do have a wonderful landlord!