Monday, June 27, 2011

Toilets and Tribulations


Yesterday I brought Trevor home with me after my trip to Salt Lake City to visit Carl. We got home at about 2 pm. At 9 pm there was an inch of toilet water mixed with poop covering our bathroom floor and soaking the carpet in the hallway. The toilet didn't look plugged up and it didn't seem like anything was wrong with it, so I flushed it to see what would happen. The toilet water came bubbling up quickly through one of the bolts on the side that secures the toilet to the floor. My first reaction was to be frustrated and upset. To have raw sewage dumped on my feet after a long, tiring trip was very aggravating. After we called the management and left a message I called my dad and asked him for advice. I was almost in tears after we talked. It sounded like it was a more serious problem than we thought. The toilet would probably need to be re-sealed or there could be a serious clog farther down the line. But then I remembered something important. God wanted me to have this experience. He was allowing it to happen. It is important for me to go through this trial because there is something that I need to learn.
It gave me peace to remember that God knows what is happening to me and that He has the power to fix it but even though He didn't intervene, He still gave me the peace that I needed.
Trevor and I walked about mile to get to and from a public restroom in a nearby park. A plumber came by when we got home and said the problem was beyond his ability to fix it. There were at least three more people in the complex having the same problem because the sewage system is interconnected. The water has seeped from the bathroom out through the carpet. We tried to keep it from getting out of the bathroom until all of our towels were soaked in the toilet water. It traveled about 8 feet and made it to the carpet that leads into the kitchen. This is one of the reasons I'm glad we don't own the place. It won't be our responsibility to pay the plumber or to replace the carpet. We called to let the manager know the carpet was soaked and she sent a person to test the moisture in the carpet. He told us that we should find somewhere else to sleep because it is a health hazard to sleep with all of the gray water everywhere so I asked grandma if we could spend the night at her house. I guess if we stayed here it would be like sleeping in a carpeted sewer. The apartment smelled terrible, especially the bathroom.
The story does have a happy ending, however :)
Last night a carpet guy came over and disinfected the carpet that had grey water and and then tore it out. He also mopped the bathroom for us. The sewage system had been fixed somewhere down the line and everything works well except for a tiny leak in the seal on the base of the toilet. The apartment manager is going to give us rent credit so maybe this is actually a blessing in disguise. I have been worried about paying for summer tuition and a break in rent could be a miracle for us. I told the manager that we were able to do the laundry at my grandma's house but she still gave me $6.25 in quarters to reimburse me for having to wash all of the towels. In a week or two we will have brand new carpet and it will seem like it never happened.

3 comments:

  1. It was fun seeing you! -EO

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  2. Wow! Jessica, I appreciate you sharing your positive outlook. Maybe it will help me to pause and try to think more positively in the future.

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