The monster in the bathroom

I got out of the shower to hear what I thought was an alarm going off. It was an ear-splitting sound so loud that, once I realized it wasn't an alarm, made me send the kids outside. I didn't want their ears getting damaged, and I certainly didn't want anything exploding with them nearby.

The horrible, incredibly loud skrieking noise was coming from the bathroom. Flipping the light and fan switches off and on did nothing, and the sound was too overwhelming to be able to pinpoint it.

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After moving things around in the garage and dragging everything out of several closets trying to find the main water shut-off, I vowed to make sure I knew where it was and that it's accessible in the future. Thankfully there wasn't water gushing into the house while I spent all that time looking for and trying to unbury it.

Once I found some earplugs so I could actually enter the bathroom, I discovered the sound was coming from the toilet. I eventually ended up just turning off the water directly to the toilet instead of to the whole house, and that stopped the sound.

DH came home from work and looked at it, pinpointing where the leak was--inside the toilet tank--but had to go back to work. He didn't know how to fix it, anyway, so he said we'd probably have to hire a plumber.

My dad showed up, though, and figured out exactly what piece needed to be replaced, and spent all afternoon tracking it down and installing it for us. It was so nice of him, and we had a nice time visiting as well.

So the monster in our bathroom has been banished.