“Well, I broke the toilet floatie off last night,” I explained.
“We’ll come over around 1 and see what we can do to fix it,” he said. “I have to be honest though. I don’t know anything about plumbing.”
“That’s okay. At least you can try,” I said.
Only a few hours later I got home from church, slightly later than usual, and saw my home teacher and his roommate bent over our toilet. They moved parts here and there, sent me to the neighbor’s house to borrow some tools and pretty soon had it close to working order. However, they discovered another piece below the bowl that was cracked. Without it, the toilet wasn’t going to work.
“It looks like you’re going to need that part,” one of them said, holding it up. “If you take it down to Home Depot and show it to them, I’m sure they can probably help you figure out what piece you need.”
“I think we’re going to wait and let our landlord take care of this tomorrow,” the Bibliophile said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Thanks so much for coming over to help us.”
Now we were really in trouble because our toilet was completely out of order. The cracked piece made it so whenever you turned the valve on, it sprayed water everywhere. That’s just great, I thought to myself. However, salvation was closer than I thought. My sister and her husband were coming to Salt Lake City that day to have dinner with some of my brother-in-law's family since his parents were visiting from out of town. Perhaps he wouldn't mind helping out. . .
*****
“Show me what part is the problem,” my brother-in-law instructed after arriving at my house.
I looked in the toilet tank, but I hadn’t paying much attention when my home teachers put the part back in. “I’m really not sure,” I said, glancing in. “I wasn’t watching when they put it back.”
My brother-in-law turned the valve on, and water started leaking from the left side of the toilet.
“Ah,” he said, shutting the valve off again. He pulled off the part. “It looks like this piece is cracked. It will only take about 15 minutes to fix this. All you need to do is take it down to Home Depot, show them the part, and they can help you get what you need.”
I chewed on my bottom lip. Another entire day without a toilet? Not on your life! “I know it’s Sunday and all, but do you think I could ever just run down there right now and find the part I need?” I suggested.
“Actually I have a better idea. Why don’t you write down the directions for me, and I will make a quick run down there,” my brother-in-law said.
I ran into the kitchen, grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down the directions. I handed the paper to him. “It’s really easy to find. I’m sure you shouldn’t have a problem," I told him.
Half an hour later I heard the welcome sounds of someone bounding down the steps. My brother-in-law came into the apartment and headed straight for the bathroom. Fifteen minutes later I heard a sound I never would have thought would make me so happy: the toilet flushed! Praise be!!
“It looks like it’s working just fine,” my brother-in-law said, flushing the toilet a few times just for good measure.
“My hero!” I yelled, as I raced from the living room into the bathroom. “Thank you so much! It feels good to know we have a working toilet again!”
“Yeah, I know. A toilet is kind of a necessity,” he said, smiling, then he started rounding up his kids so they could head home. Thank goodness for men who are willing to help you out and for brothers-in-law who visit at just the right time!
If nothing else, this experience proved to me that I am NOT a helpless female. Okay, maybe in certain circumstances I'm helpless, but at least I know who I can turn to for help. . . I also learned a little bit about plumbing in the deal, so that's a good thing, right?! (As a side note, my landlord never did call about the message I left on his phone informing him of the broken toilet. I took money off our rent that month to pay for the toilet parts and the bother of having to fix it ourselves. My landlord never said a word about it.)
No comments:
Post a Comment