Bathroom Woes

Upstairs in our house, we have two bathrooms; one in the master bedroom, and another in the hallway that everyone else can use.  For a few years, the bathtub has only given hot water, which confused us since when Nana lived with us, she used to take proper showers in that bathroom. (this does go back to 2006).  We haven’t used that bathtub much, since the kids bathe in our master bath.

Every once in a while, I get the motivation to complete the little projects around the house that require my attention, like fixing the latch on the pantry door so it can properly close, or fixing the seat on one of the dining table chairs.  Anyway, on Saturday I decided I had enough of the hot water issue, and figured I would pull it apart and see if I can figure out what the problem was, so when Rebecca’s family comes up next time, they will have another fully functional bathroom to use.  With Ethan by my side, I pulled out the screwdriver and carefully pulled off the handle to turn on the tub, then pulled off the piece that attached to the wall, keeping track of how I removed it so I could put it back together.  Behind it was a black doohicky, with the golden screw sticking out where the handle attached.

I removed the screws holding this piece in place and, trying to figure out how this piece attached, I pulled on it and suddenly it popped out of the wall, gushing water all over me and the bathtub from the hot and cold spouts inside the wall!  It instantly soaked me and sprayed all over the bathtub wall, but due to a lack of control was spraying the bathroom wall as well.  I quickly grabbed a bucket and used it to control where the water was spraying, and called Rebecca who came in to laugh at me (very supportive, she is) and offered to turn off the water (yes, please!)  She ran down stairs and found the main water valve and turned it off, which instantly caused the water to stop gushing.

I then took stock of the situation.  All the other parts, which I had been trying to inventory as I disassembled them, were floating in the water that now filled the tub.  I spent the next few minutes trying to figure out how I thought the pieces should go back together (there were two large black pieces with two holes each, for hot and cold water; a large rubber ring; and two small springs and small black rubber caps, presumably to cap off the water the other pieces allowed in.)  I put it together as best as I thought should be, quickly put it back into the wall and had Ethan hold it in place so the springs wouldn’t push the pieces out, then reassembled the fixture completely, having Rebecca go downstairs to turn on the water.

I thought it worked, but when I tested it, it started leaking water heavily, so I told her to turn it off again and pulled it apart.  I thought the springs weren’t sitting correctly, so I put them back in, sent Rebecca downstairs for another test, and found the same problem.  At least this time I decided not to completely repair the fixture.

Two more tries of this until I decided to reassemble, the piece that got blown out, differently, and found it snapped together where I thought the rubber ring was, and the ring sat over that area.  This time I was able to assemble everything, and now our bathroom has cold water!

…Just not hot.  I guess the piece has a defective something that is causing only one side of water to flow, and I succeeded in reversing that piece in the wall.

On a side note, Dinah was playing in the bathroom later the next day, at the toilet.  We’re so glad she wants to be potty trained, but she still is very curious about everything. This time, she had pulled the white spring-loaded stick off the toilet paper holder, and was holding an almost empty roll of paper, staring down the freshly flushed toilet.  This is where I walked in.

“Dinah, did you just flush the toilet,” I asked.

“Uh huh,” she announced proudly.

“Dinah,” I said, looking around, “where is the stick that holds the toilet paper?”

“It bye-bye,” she declared.

“Umm,” I started, staring into the toilet to see if there really was an indication of what happened. I only got met with a vacant stare of settling water as the flush ended.  “Dinah, you flushed it down the toilet?”

“Uh huh,” she grinned, “it bye-bye.”

“Rebecca?” I called to her and she came rushing down the hall.  Turning back to Dinah, I asked again, “Dinah, where is the stick for the toilet paper?”

She looked at Rebecca and me, still very confident in her decision.  “It bye-bye,” she said with a nod.

I looked all over the bathroom and couldn’t find it. I went downstairs to look at the pipe to see if I had any other option, but it was a large pipe with a direct connection to the main sewer outlet.  I didn’t think the toilet could handle something so stiff on its curves, but we still haven’t found it.

Now the toilet seems to be suffering from indigestion, and doesn’t want to swallow anything we flush.