Ahhhh, let's see, where should I begin. Oh I know, three months ago when I first noticed a strange smell in the basement. I spend a lot of time down there sewing, and I have a dog nose. So, I should have known better. But instead, Steve and I debated what the source could be and finally just let it go. (He claimed the smell was like "stale coffee".) Bad. I. Dea.
Fast forward to my staycation. I was cleaning (much easier when you only have one kid around) and the toilet in the master bathroom seeped water all over the bathroom. In fact, I noticed that with just a soft nudge I was able to move the toilet off the floor. No problem, I know from experience how to stop the water and just wait until hubby gets home. Well, turns out it was a BIG problem.
So, on Father's Day Steve came home to this delightful news. At 10 p.m. he trudged down to the basement to check out if the water had leaked anywhere and sure enough he found about 4 gallons of poop water puddled in the crawl space. I guess there had been a leak for quite some time. Oh it smelled goo-hoood!
Clad in this fabulous ensemble I marched myself down to the basement today to deal with the funk [picture does not show the protective gloves I wore because they were dripping with poop]. I basically had to scoop all the poop water into buckets, carry the buckets up the stairs and pour them into another toilet. Then when a majority of the moisture was abated I proceeded to spray clorox and wipe down the affected area. Again, this was in the crawl space.
Spiders.
Spiders.
Spiders.
You know when they say if they weren't your own kids you would never wipe their butts? Well, if this wasn't OUR house, I would NEVER have done this. But I gotta say I took a little pride in having done a job well. A dirty job at that.
I followed up the poop water job with running to The Home Depot for bowl wax, a no-slam toilet seat/lid, and a caulk stripper tool. Then I helped Steve reseat the toilet, install the seat, and I single-handedly stripped all the mildewy-moldy caulk out of our shower. Tomorrow I'll re-caulk the shower. I'm feeling really handy.
Now look at that, no curse words.
PS -- Tonight Cooper looked in the mirror and said, "I look like Jonny [his oldest boy cousin]".
8 comments:
Hey...that sounds familiar to our poop explosion/flood that we had in our furnace room. I feel for you especially in the crawl space! Oh my!!!! So sorry!!! You rock!!!! You are a Home Depot dream!
You are a strong woman! When the going gets tough, you get tougher. I can see you on Survivor Island, up for any challenge that is thrown your way.
Barf. That sounds like my worst nightmare. Sorry you had to go through that!
This is a terrible story. I don't think I can top you on that one, even with the texas tumbler stuck in the goose neck of the toilet story. Bless your heart. Knowing all too well about your incredibly sensitive gag reflex, I am amazed you could do this. Bravo for you.
This is my worst nightmare! Our neighbors came home from church to a basement full (we are taking feet not inches) of sewer water !!!!They had to throw EVERYTHING away!! About the cousin Jonny comment, if that is my Jonny.....I was just telling Sarah today how much Cooper reminds me of Jonny, we got out the pictures of Jonny when he was Coopers age and everything..he even sounds like him!
The last comment was from Lynnie!
You write so well that you make even cleaning up poop fun! We got home from our Baltic Sea Crusie last night late and the best part of coming home is reading the family blog...Families can't be beat!
Okay, you are officially invited to do a "Dirty Jobs" episode on the Discovery Channel. Not that I could watch it...I never dealt with morning sickness, but I did feel queasy on occasion, and it is still not unusual for me to feel the "tightening of the throat" sensation if something gross is smelled/seen/talked about in my presence. You are a trooper, and VERY brave to go into that crawl space--not only because of the poo, but DEFINATELY because of the spiders!
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