Toilet Explosion

What happens when you drop a picture frame behind the toilet? It snaps the main water pipe in half, that's what.

What happens when a water pipe snaps in half behind the toilet?

Eden is hysterical as she runs down the stairs screaming how sorry she is.

What is wrong? But before she can talk, we hear the Hoover @#!*% bursting upstairs. I can't remember ever having scaled stairs that fast. The water is 1" deep.

My mom is here visiting. She slides behind the toilet and instantly looks like this.

"Get towels." I throw towels to the floor. She is hysterical as the water keeps coming without reprieve.

"Get Rob!"

"Rob, come upstairs quickly, now, fast, NOW! Never mind, shut off the main water valve."

"Where is the main water valve?"

"I DON'T KNOW. Call Brian!" (our landlord)

Brian doesn't answer. The water is now 3 inches deep. We are now throwing bed sheets, pillows and dirty laundry on the floor. It is like throwing a blanket into Niagara Falls. It's not working very well.

Rob runs out to the street looking for our main water valve, not there.

He runs out to the sprinkler system, not there. Minutes pass. This is now my mom.

The linen closet now looks like this.

Ty (neighbor) comes over and shows us where the main water shut off is. The water stops.

This is the tiny little hole that about sunk our neighborhood. We are all in shock. We start the drying process. All fans on deck.

We don't have water on the hottest day of the year. No showers, sweaty kids, no way to wash towels.

The on-call plumber wants $250. I say, "fat chance!"

Mom runs to the hardware store that closes in less than 5 minutes to buy a pipe and a new valve. I go to the hardware store seconds after her to tell her to buy pvc glue because she doesn't have a cell phone with her.

We fix it. Buy 9:30 we find out it is still leaking a tiny bit. Rob runs to Home Depot 10 minutes before they close. Buys new glue. By 11:15 the pipes are sealed, I have taken a shower at the neighbors and Rob takes a bath in the pool water outside.

6:00am this morning, the glue is dry and we turn on the water and this is what our backyard looks like.

And come to find out, this was right outside our back door the whole time. Curses.

Life is full of irony.

We are all exhausted but laughing.