Thursday, November 24, 2011

The Toilet-Saga

I don't know if anyone wants to hear about our toilet trouble but I will tell you anyway.
For almost a month now, our toilet in our main bathroom has been out of commission on and off.This toilet has always been a bit temperamental but at least it worked. Now, nada!
 It started on a shabbos about a month ago when one of our shabbos guests put baby wipes in the toilet and caused it to back up. Because it was the weekend, we had to wait till Monday to have it fixed...only to have it break again the following shabbos. The super came up again on Monday and fixed it. He also said it was the kid's fault and that if it happens again, he would not come back to fix it. And that we should not put any toilet paper in the toilet. Excuse me?
I should mention that because we live in New York City we pay an arm and a leg for this apartment. I am  embarrassed to say how much. And they just raised our rent. So you would think that for all that money we would be entitled to a working toilet that actually flushes toilet paper.
We do have two other bathrooms, but one is in our bedroom, the other in my husband's office. These are rooms we usually try to keep the kids out of. So now every time someone needs to use the bathroom they need to come get me so I can unlock the door. As for trying to toilet train Y- guess who is not going to the bathroom every half hour because it is just too complicated.
Here is where it gets tricky. The toilet worked for about five days until the following Shabbos when the boys in a moment of mischief thought it was hilarious to flush plastic spoons down the toilet while I was not paying attention. Surprisingly, they went down without a problem. The problem is, after the spoons, nothing else did anymore. So we had a broken toilet all weekend once again. And this time it was our fault. But still...
Despite his threats, the super did come up again. He was able to fix it temporarily but three days later it stopped working again...thankfully not on a Shabbos! It still took till Friday to get someone to come take a look at it. The super came up last Friday and declared it fixed.  He also told me if it happens again, he would have to replace the toilet. I said "please do!!" About half hour after he left, the water was backing up again.
Which brings me to today. We had spent almost the whole week trying to get him to come upstairs and finally today, on Thanksgiving, the super came back, toting some big machine. He found one more plastic spoon backed up in the toilet and gave me another lecture about keeping the kids away from the toilet.
Can you guess what happened about an hour after he left? Exactly!
The whole thing is so absurd, I am not exactly sure if I should cry or laugh. I am dreading calling him back tomorrow. He will be really annoyed even though we have not doing anything wrong. At this point, I want a new toilet. Whatever the issue is, it is obviously not being resolved with a plunger or even some newfangled machine.
I do not know a lot about the cost or labor involved in replacing a toilet but what I do know is that I am about to have a baby in the next week or so and will have a lot of people in my home- babysitters, parents, etc. So a functioning toilet that is easily accessible and not behind locked doors would be very helpful. And again, given the rent we pay, not such an unreasonable request, don't you think?
Any tips on dealing with the super/management company are highly welcome...oh and Happy Thanksgiving too!

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