Plumbing is not our friend

We purchased an older home four years ago. We knew it would need work and looked forward to putting the time and work in. We were not however prepared for the plumbing. This is a tri- level, meaning one part is main floor one part underground and the other part upstairs. Our first plumbing problem was an upstairs toilet. Hubby plunged and plunged, nothing. OK, time for a trip to the hardware store. Oh so many choices so little logic, on the husbands part. He wanted to purchase an electric auger, good idea for later projects but not something you can use on a toilet. Then he spotted the C02 cartridge plunger. This takes a C02 cartridge and explodes a blast of air down the plunger and into the toilet, sink or whatever forcing the clog to go away. The ultimate guy thing. Once we got home the hubby could not resist going straight upstairs to use it. I had to follow because I just knew this was somehow going to be entertaining. Looking back I so wish I had used the video camera for this one. He skimmed the instructions, loaded the cartridge, aimed and shot. He had not read the instructions enough to get to the warning, he had also failed to get the plunger completely over the whole in the toilet. This resulted in what was in the toilet, you don't want details here remember we have five children, to blow back and all over him. I had stayed out in the hallway to watch, a good thing too. I could not stop laughing, he was not finding this funny. Trust me it was hysterical, the look on his face, the way he shuddered. The children all found this very funny too. Needless to say that plunger is no longer in this house. I kept it for a while and whenever a toilet would back up I would ask him if he wanted to use it, he would just give me a dirty look and walk away. We still have plumbing problems, one day I will post about the rubber ball dropped down a shower drain from upstairs that clogged in the lowest level pipes. That was only 16 hours of work before a child spoke up and told us what was clogging the pipes.