Sometimes Freebies Come in Handy

Back in January I'd done the money-maker Airwick deal at CVS.  I'd put the larger Airwick Freshmatic in the bathroom we use for the cat litter box because none of the plugs in there work, so I couldn't use any plug-ins.  The thing still freaks me out but I'm getting used to the noise (which sounds like a cat sneezing) when it goes off.

Until this past week the smaller Freshmatic had stayed in our stockpile awaiting a need to use it.  Last weekend we had a major need.  I noticed a funky smell coming from the half bath downstairs.  Not only is this the bathroom that probably gets the most use in our house, but it's also right next to our bedroom and we have to walk by it every time we walk in the house or go to our bedroom.  Once I noticed the smell I figured "Hey, I can at least cover it up".  So, I did with my freebie Airwick.  FWIW, the small ones aren't nearly as loud as the large ones, they also spray straight up instead of our, so no worries about getting attacked by the thing.

We called a plumber on Tuesday, but by then the smell was already getting worse to the point that the Airwick wasn't enough and the smell was noticeable on the other side of the wall in our bedroom (ew!).  So I put a Wallflower plugin in the plug right next to the bathroom (for some reason this bathroom has no plugs).  When I talked to the plumber his initial thought was that the wax seal on our toilet needed replacing.  This is something my husband could easily do and would only cost about $10 if he did it himself.  Our fear was that it was more than that (or something else entirely).  We've known since we moved in that the contractor we used to redo that section of the house had cut a lot of corners, and we didn't really know what the plumber might run into.  Also, the more we sniffed around the more we were sure it wasn't the toilet but was coming from the other side of the bathroom (the sink).

We were right.  The plumber came out today and sure enough the first thing he saw when he looked under the sink was that the contractor had used a type of pipe that is illigal and it was causing sewer gas build up, thus the smell.  That wasn't all he found... somehow our sink drain was plugged up with toilet paper?  He had no idea when I asked him how the heck toilet paper got in our sink drain.  I'd known it had always drained slowly, but had no idea - toilet paper?!

Hopefully, we no longer need the Freshmatic in that bathroom and I think that just because it's a lot less noisy I will probably replace the large one upstairs with this smaller one.  Only problem is I still have two refills for the large one, and as much as that one annoys me I don't want to see those go to waste.