toilet-half-full

I'm moved back with my parents and making the basement my new home. It's pretty exciting: I've got a finished living room, tv, sofas, my own bedroom, my own bathroom. I also have my own entrance to come and go as I please. Given the unemployment situation at hand, I have got it pretty good!

I am even more excited to get another chance to do one of my favorite hobbies, decorating! Granted, I'm reusing just about everything that was in my apartment but I've made use of some great substutions I got out of my parents' storage unit. At the request of my mom, and in opposition to my dad's opinion, my next big project is painting over the lovely scape of a vineyard on the walls in the basement... The couple who lived here four years ago owned a wine and liquor shop so there are several hints of it around the house, tacky and not.

Back to my point, Im excited about my new living space! I've put hard work into hauling furniture and boxes up and down the stairs... did you catch it? :"Up AND down" - the stairs. That's right, twice I have brought things down into the basement and then had to remove them again, only to repeat the same process again. This is because the first time I use the bathroom downstairs I realize, the carpet is completely soaked! Ironically my parents had received a shop-vac for Christmas from the previous inhabitants of the basement... interesting! It takes every single towel in the house and me pressing them into the carpet to soak up the fowl smelling sewer water - which runs clear, thank God!

At this point, we're all pretty confused as to what had gone wrong. Turns out the toilet is wired kinda strangely and I'm told some kind of breaker had flipped off. It was fixed and the next day I move my stuff back down. Also the next day, Sallie uses the toilet... this time I bring only my clothes back upstairs to prevent them from acquiring the odor. I get the shop vac and do it to it. I figured out where the water was coming from and was able to sit there holding the shop vac over the leak as it came out for about 20 minutes. Less messy.

After my dad had fiddled with the breaker again, I am hesitant to use the toilet. BUT the breaker has been put in the right position and I had not used it all day. My parents and I got back from Athens (the night the Dawgs beat Tech!), and I test it out... nothing! We're good! No leaks! Oh baby what a good night! It doesn't get much better than this! Dawgs win and the toilet works! woooo hoooo!

The next morning I wake up and flush with confidence. After breakfast I return... But I'm stopped by an old familar shitty stench. I sprang from the stairs to see what was the matter! (I love Christmas)

Turns out I just didnt flush.... ha, just kidding.
Crapit, sorry, "carpet" is wet again and had been leakin since breakfast. This time, I remove only what I was to wear for the next couple days. In an hour the shop vac is full and burnin up and the towels are all dripping wet, literally. Yuck.

It took a full day of removing coroded parts of the the toilet and pieces of the wall, replacing PVC pipes, and making a complete mess of my hard work in making a nice place to live. Being a toilet-half full kinda girl, though, I can see the positive out of this. All in all, I can't really complain. I'm living for free, for cryin out loud!

Nothing seems as bad when you're not the one paying. Yes, my friends, I... am a happy crapper... I mean camper!