today, i came home from lunch to meet a friend (christy). when i got home, my carpenter (andy) asked me "why is all that water down there in the basement". andy, not having a sense of smell due to an auto accident in high school failed to notice that it wasn't just water. it was water with HUGE chunks of poo.
i was less than enthused when i made this discovery. after wigging out, i decided to go to home despot and rent a "sewer snake". it was clear that there was a back up, and i hoped that i could just do this without the help of a plumber, due to the over-extension of my resources. andy and i came back with a 25 foot "snake". andy "snaked" it through the pipe and pulled out a HUGE hunk of baby wipes. this was both embarrassing and a relief. WE GOT IT! we dump some chemicals down the tube to insure its cleanliness and let that set for about 3 hours. then we checked it by putting the garden hose into the pipe and checking to see if the water would flow out. it didn't! it sounded like a pitcher being filled. water gushed out again, and i came kinda undone. by now it is 5:30pm. we ran back to home despot and rented a 75 foot "sewer snake" and got another gallon of chemicals. we worked to snake that snake thru. then when we got to the end andy started pulling it up. it was really really hard. at one point, the dumb thing just got totally tangled up and would not budge. we fiddled with it for a bit, but then at some point i realized i was totally screwed.
i ran upstairs and started crying. i was so frustrated. i was trying to do all the right things about being self-sufficient and owning a house and stuff, and everything seemed to just be falling apart. i started to call plumbers. i was totally frustrated, because now i was going to have to pay for the 2 snakes, plus a late return fee for the last one, and i was SURE to have to replace all the piping in my house to get that stuff out. i couldn't stop crying. i started praying making this big plea to Heavenly Father about how i was trying to do the right things, and please please please get the snake out and stuff.
then andy called up and said he needed my help. i ran down stairs weeping and he held up the snake triumphantly "i got it". i BURST into tears and hugged him (which was gross because he was kinda covered in affluent, sweat, and grease). with the snake andy pulled out a HUGE wad of baby wipes.
we tested the pipe again, and it seemed to be working fine.
i am still a bit nervous to take bath, but i think i might just have to. i have washed laundry and that seems fine. so...fingers crossed.
there is a new rule in my house: no baby wipes or anything other than tp and the stuff that comes out of your body in my toilets. i am serious!
7 comments:
Yuck! Glad you got it all out. I can only imagine the stress level. Sewer isn't something to mess with!
who was putting baby wipes in the toilet? workers? we don't put ANYTHING in ours like that. well mostly bc we are on septic tank. But there are only certain brands you can flush. MOST baby wipes cannot be flushed. that is a crazy story! i'm so sorry! hope you took some pics! hee hee
Why oh why were there BABY WIPES in your TOILET?!!!!!! Please explain!
you ask a provocative and insightful question heidi.
i am not sure about you, but i have a hard time understanding why my bum should be treated any differently than a babies bum. i love to be clean so baby wipes seemed to be the perfect answer.
curtis, our beloved, keller is the one who introduced me to this concept.
maybe he should be the one who fetches them out of the waste line next time huh???!!!
Jonah has the same issue. He likes the cleanliness of a good, wet wipe. Guess we know better now.
I thought of you today when Paul yelled for me from the bathroom saying "big water." I came in to see the toilet just about to over flow with the better part of a box of wipe floating in it. Thankfully, there really are tender mercies of the Lord and it all went down by itself as I reached for the plunger.
OK for those of you that need to pamper your bootie,try using "Cottonelle" wipes.You find them in the toilet paper isle.They break down just like toilet paper and are perfectly safe for sewer or septic. I've been using them for years,so has my mom. She has sewer,I have septic and neither one of us has ever had a problem.No back-ups and you get to spoil yourself!
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