Journal

Watery Lights

So yesterday morning, Shannon comes down, tells me the toilet's clogged and that she has to go to work. I think no big deal, we live in an old house, it happens from time to time. I have no idea how old or new the pipes in our house are, so it's to be expected.

After getting up to working on it, and working at it for a while, I decide that our plunger isn't effective, since it's rubber part doesn't form completely around the drain of the toilet. So I decide to leave it and stop by on my way home from work and pick up a diffrent plunger.

So I get a call around 12:30 from home. Shannon had decided that she wanted to work on the problem, even though I did say that I would take care of it. Apprently the toilet had overflowed and she had cleaned up the bathroom, but it was still clogged. She said that she needs to go back to work, but she's worried about the leak from the cieling in the lower hallway...

Wait a sec, the lower hallway?

I tell her to go to work and I'll come home and take care of it, since my work hours are far more flexable then hers are. Shannon was obviously upset.

I drive hom relatively quickly, and she's still there when I get home, she had called work and said she was gonna be a little late.

I check up stairs. The carpet is a bit wet near the line between the tile in the bathroom and the bathroom had obviously been cleaned up (of water). Even though the toilet was clogged, it was not still putting water out, so it's not a huge deal.

So i go to look at the hall on the main level, and look up...the light looked a little funny...a little odd...Is the light fixture full of water? Holy crap it is...

This is a light fixture that is about 10 inches in diameter and about 4 inches deep. That's a lot of water...

So I send shannon upstairs to get my power drill/screwdriver and I go downstairs to turn off the power to the house (which I've never done before). It was pretty easy, just press of the master breaker (not a switch, doesn't really look like buttons, but they are) and a few tests of lights around the house and appliances to see that yes, all the power to the house was disabled.

Not wanting to have the chance of the water spilling on me, I strip down to my boxers and t-shirt (I planed to do work clothes laundry that night).

I got up on a chair and carefully removed the glass cover from the light fixture and with Shannon's help, get it down withou spilling any water.

Strangely enough, the rest of the light fixture was relatively dry...so it looks like it just came down the holes in the metal part of the fixture.

Anyways, I removed the lightbulbs and tossed them (one was burned out anyways) and taped the light switch off and turned the power back on.

Brandon says that I should take the actual fixture down from the ceiling to double check it, and plan to do so this weekend.

I guess this is first major problem, but it really isn't tha big of a deal, it doesn't look like a lot of damage was caused. And after all, about a year or two ago, I caused a huge water spill in the same bathroom with a leaky pipe (fresh water)...so...(as is still evidenced by the peeling paint in the kitchen.

Anyways...Shannon headed to work, and after I was satisfied that things were ok on the home front, I did the same.

On the way home I stopped by the hardware store, and picked up a new plunger...and had about as much success as the old one...

So I headed back to the hardware store and get a narrower plunger (to get futher down) and a toilet snake.

Between the two of those, Success!

Flushing happens!

So with that, the problem is solved...