TAKE THAT!

It's Wednesday and for the second Wednesday in a row I was forced to deal with a home repair project that I was none too thrilled with. This week the main bathroom toilet decided to begin flushing painfully slow. I mean the slow that makes you stop in your tracks and slowly creep back into the bathroom wondering if you are going to find water beginning to cascade from the bowl. The slow that starts ringing the alarm bells in your head. Non-working toilets are very, very bad.

Monday found me plunging and plunging and dumping bucket after bucket of hot water down to see if something would give way. And it worked - at first. Yesterday I noticed it not being quite right again and last night it was definitely not right. *sigh*

Dakota was out the door this morning with a kiss, a hug and a "Good luck with the toilet." UGH! I don't WANT to have to fix the toilet. Do I LOOK like a handyman? No. No I do not. But knowing full well I had no choice in the matter I put Kelton on the school bus and loaded Kaylen into her car seat. Off to Home Depot we went.

I knew I needed a snake. Beyond that - I was clueless and apprehensive. I found the right aisle and my eyes fell on something call a 6ft Toilet Auger. I read the label information and checked out my other options (which all seemed rather wimpy next to this bad boy!) The auger was the clear choice because I was NOT coming back to have to buy something else.....and I really, really, really didn't want to have to fork over money to a plumber. I'm cheap that way. :) Plus it promised to not scratch the bowl and hey - I'm all over not having ugly scratches in the toilet bowl.

There was a 3ft one but upon inspection it was only long enough to snake through the toilet itself. If the clog was in the stack (hey - look at me! I learned something today!) then it wouldn't reach it. The 3ft one was $31.00. The 6ft one was $49.00 (plus tax, mind you). That's a lot of money to unclog a clog but waaaaay less than calling a plumber. I weighed the pros and cons and then grabbed the 6ft one. Better safe than sorry, you know?

As I was putting it in the back of the car a guy walked by and said "Good choice! That's an excellent product - you won't be sorry. I use mine all the time and it's great! Lifetime warranty, too. Good that you got the 6ft one. Easy to use...blah blah blah." I'm awful but at first I thought "You use it ALL the time? How good could it be?" I thanked him and he walked around my car and got into his van.....PLUMBER! He was a plumber. Ok then!

Feeling better about forking over that kind of money I drove home. I set Kaylen up with an activity and then got down to business. I carefully followed the step by step (with drawings!) instruction and just as I was thinking "I must be doing this wrong..." the cord hit something and then pushed through. And just to let you all know I was wise in my decision making - the clog was inches away from the end of the 6ft line. INCHES! The 3 footer wouldn't have even come close to clearing it.

VINDICATION!!

I retracted the auger and then stood there, unsure if I should try to flush. I finally did and VIOLA! Success! It flushed perfectly fine. YAY ME!

I stood and flushed it four more times for the mere satisfaction.

I did it! I can now add "plumber" to my resume. :)

Check out this bad boy. I found this photo through Google and I have to say - mine is much, much prettier. No rust on mine....yet. :)



Admit it - you're a teensy bit impressed right now, aren't you? :)