Yep, you read that right, a train destroyed our master bedroom. Although, not in the “CNN is outside filming the wreckage now”, kind of a way. The offending train wasn’t from Amtrak, it was from Thomas and it didn’t derail, it flushed. Or almost flushed. Which is exactly the problem.
For those of you reading at home, one toilet, two little boys, a Thomas the Train wooden train figure and a bunch of toilet paper equal disaster. You see, Thomas the Train wooden train figures don’t flush down the toilet well. And once they’re jammed, adding a roll of toilet paper and repeatedly flushing makes things worse, not better. (see picture of what’s left of our ceiling - above right)
While I was at the gym one morning, Kris awoke to water pouring through our ceiling and the boys upstairs yelling “I want the water to stop!” Turns out the boys had played flush the train and before they knew it, they were standing in several inches of water. The water made its way under the baseboards and tile and straight through our plaster ceiling to our bedroom below…
So today, several rooms are being ripped apart to deal with water damage and we’re sleeping at The Embassy Suites. Which would be fine… except for the 2 and 3 year olds sharing a mattress on the ‘living room’ floor. Your newsletter will be a day late.
Make us feel better, tell us your kids destroyed the house story.
Bathroom Before Thomas; Bathroom After Thomas; Guilty As Charged.
By David on 03/13/07 in Featured, Columns, Not-So-Clever Parents, Clever Living
tag this | permalink | trackback url
March 14th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Wow guys, I feel for you. I hope that things work out in an less than massively expensive manner for you. Your family is in my prayers. :-)
March 15th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Kris,
So sorry to hear about this. Hope you get back to your house soon. I’ve heard of kids flushing things before but not to this extent.
My only comparison would been when William was 18 months and he put a hose down the exhaust pipe of my husbands motorcycle completely flooding it. It also happened to be father’s day! LOL
Heather
March 16th, 2007 at 4:50 am
I would love to go and have a glass of wine and tell you some stories! I bet we have good ones! Hugs to you!!
March 16th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Thanks, guys! Yes, I’d love to swap stories over a little vino. :-)
Hooray - we’re out of the hotel and in our *new* house.
Wonder what adventure is next on the horizon? Surely we’re over the train thing…
:-) Kris
April 2nd, 2007 at 9:48 am
Reading your story I realized how lucky I am. My son (2 1/2 years old) flushed Jack (one of Thomas’ buddies) down the toilet and now I have to call a plumber. A few days ago my little angel woke up before me and before I climbed out of bed to attend to him, I heard a flush from the bathroom followed by my son saying “Jack go bye-bye.” The toilet hasn’t worked right since and Jack is nowhere to be found, so I can only assume that Jack is lodged in our toilet or pipes.
But thanks for your post. You’ve shown what will happen if I keep putting off calling the plumber and keep using the toilet.
Best of luck!!!