Staircase Makeover on Hold…{Gotta take care of the water pouring from our ceiling!}

 

Well, I was having a blast on our staircase makeover.

If you missed any of my Staircase Makeover posts,  you can see them by clicking on the links below…

Our Staircase Makeover: Part One (Introduction)

Our Staircase Makeover:  Part Two (Prepping and Removing Polyurethane)

Our Staircase Makeover:  Part Three (The Sanding Crew)

If you missed the video of my boys helping me sand the stairs, you’ve got to see it.  It will make you laugh, for sure!  :)

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So this past weekend, we were going to start on Part Four…Staining the Stairs.

Until this happened….

 

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Yep, that’s water pouring from our ceiling.

And my chandelier…

 

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Our upstairs tub has never drained well ever since we have lived here. (6 years)

My husband fixed the plumbing once, and it drained a little better, but still not very well.

Lately, the tub hasn’t been draining at all.

Like…the boys take a bath at night, and there’s still a little water in the tub in the morning…still draining.

Friday night, the boys took a bath, and when I went upstairs Saturday morning, the tub was completely full.

It hadn’t drained at all!

Yikes.

So as soon as my husband got home, I showed him.

He “snaked” the plumbing, and it busted the pipe.

Check out this 2 second clip to see the action:
(Seriously, it’s 2 seconds.) ;)

Untitled from Beneath My Heart on Vimeo.

Our house was built in 1968.  And the plumbing for the upstairs bathroom is the original metal pipes…43 years old!

 

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When my husband cut into the drywall and the pipe, look at what we found…

(if you have a weak stomach, you may want to skip the next picture)

 

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Oh my!  How disgusting is that?!!

So my kitchen looked like this…

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To say the least, I wasn’t a bit worried about working on our staircase makeover.  :)

We thought we found the clog, but when my husband added new PVC pipes, the tub was still clogged.

So we had to cut even further back into the ceiling…

 

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And still couldn’t find the clog.

It was so frustrating!!!

 

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My hubby had to eventually cut through the soffit in our bathroom on the other side of the kitchen wall…

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It wasn’t easy, but he finally found the clog!!!

Go, Cy!  Go, Cy!  It’s your birthday!  Hey-ah-ah!

He replaced all the old pipe with new PVC, and the tub drains perfectly now!

Woohoo!

I will have to say that when the water was pouring out of my kitchen ceiling and through my chandelier, I was so aggravated.

But my frustrations lasted for only a few seconds when the Lord brought to mind all of the precious souls suffering in Japan because of the earthquake and tsunami.

They are truly suffering.

My little plumbing issue was a setback, but only a drop in the bucket compared to what they are going through.

I am praying for the people of Japan and all those who are helping them.

Please pray for them too.

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So, I will get back to our staircase makeover soon, and will probably doing a post on how to repair big holes in your ceiling and drywall too. :)

Until then, if you missed the fabulous giveaway I posted about yesterday

for a $60.00 Gift Certificate to Art of Whimsy,

click HERE to enter!

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Thanks!

15 Comments

  1. I’m sure you know how blessed you are to have a husband that is able to fix all this stuff. I pray these things don’t happen around here, it wouldn’t be pretty all around.

  2. Wow. Traci! That is crazy!!!! I saw the picture over the weekend and was wondering how the fix was going. You are so right. I would have been incredibly frustrated too, but in the light of what else we could be dealing with it’s a small thing. xoxo, Myra

  3. How great is our God to use this to remind us to pray for the people in Japan. Someone else always has a worse situation than we do.

    I remember once my mom and I were going to the grocery store and I wouldn’t park in the “stork” parking. My mom asked me why and I said, “I never park there. Someone else may need it more than me.” She laughed and replied, “Lisa! You are 9 months pregnant and carting three toddlers along. WHO COULD NEED IT MORE THAN YOU?” LOL!

    Don’t know why your post made me think of that. I may need a nap. Lisa~

  4. oh my, it’s never good when water seeps through the ceiling and your chandelier.
    So glad Cy was able to get to the bottom of it all and problem sovled.
    I too have been praying for the many people in Japan.

  5. your frustrating story touched my heart…the tragedy in Japan is heavy on my heart right now. Thank YOU for being the kind of person who can put things into perspective! Our little day to day inconveniences are nothing compared to what they are living through over there even as I write these words. Me getting my new car stuck in the driveway and having Dwayne have to push me out…my aching hip…your ceiling…it ain’t nuthin in comparison. praying for Japan….love you Traci!

  6. Aw, Traci, what a frustrating experience! Isn’t that the way it goes? You try to make things pretty and then the house starts falling apart forcing you to work on ugly stuff like pipes ceiling drywall? Wah. But yeah, it seems we have little to nothing to complain about in light of the world troubles. :-)

  7. Traci, so sorry about your ceiling and the clogged drain. You should have called us! We would have come over to help you! Serioulsy, my husband, like yours, is the one who does all the handiwork around here, We never call in a professional. We have been doing a lot of fixing up recently too. Trust me, a sixteen year old house shows signs of age and falling apart too! As a matter of fact, I had a hole in my kitchen ceiling just yesterday where we moved the original light to accomodate a new pendant light. However, like you and others have expressed, it’s such a blessing to just have a house in light of what’s going on in Japan. Hope you get everything put back together soon. Remember, you can call if you need help! I can be there in about 5 min. I’m still floored by that! Gail

  8. Holey Holey Moley!!! How frustrating!!! I’ve had this happen with the water pouring out sideways through a light socket along with the ceiling fixture for which the socket is attached — right under our master bath. What an unbelievable mess. BUT we all lived through it and no one was hurt or electrocuted. Please have that electricity checked, our wiring needed to be replaced. Do not want anyone hurt. The insides of those pipes were nasty. I had a weird smell in my one bathroom and someone told me to pour bleach down the pipes and then boiling (as in go boil it on the stove) water many many many times through the pipes. They said it was conditioner build up and hair. After about twenty or thirty pour throughs, I no longer smell anything “sewer-y.” Just think, one more thing that you know is perfect when you sell your house becauseI am sure it was on your list!

  9. Thanks for your perspective on this. I probably would have let it ruined my day, or even my week. Of course, we would have had to call a plumber, because my husband isn’t so handy! Count yourself blessed!

  10. Wow, Traci! I would have been at my wit’s end! You sound like you took it all in stride, frustrated and all. Cy truly is a super hubs!

    And you are so right about our circumstances. My heart was so heavy last night for Japan! That may have been the reason I didn’t get to sleep until after 3 this morning!

  11. Traci, thank you so much for reminding me to just keep my eyes onJesus and not the things I have going on. I am praying for Japan and my heart breaks for them. Love you and so sorrry you have had such a terrible time getting the tub issue fixed. Think of you often and so sorry I didn’t get to see everyone when I was home!

  12. You know only a blogger (and one as cool as you) would document and video tape a waterfall in your dining room LOL. I would have probably been documented and recorded shouting profanities lol. Love your little “it’s your birthday” jam too, I was groovin to it. Happy your leak is fixed. My hubster is also a Mr fix it. And I’m so happy to have one in the house when something like this happens!

  13. Oh my. Wow! We had a similar thing happen our second day in the first house we bought. Water poured down the walls…an entire tub of water. It was craziness. Your men really took care of it, though. :)

    By the way…so jealous that you and Sarah hung out together!

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