Early Morning Shower Time

My daughter was in the bathroom this morning as I came up the stairs to get ready for work. This is not unusual, and I decided to wait for her to finish and I would go in after her. I lay down on my bed and thought I’d take a five minute nap.
I heard a “pop” sound and the distinct noise of the shower working. Odd, I thought, why my daughter would be taking a shower now as she always takes her shower at night and I take one in the morning.
A few seconds later it hit me, I could never hear the shower that loudly from my bed! That shower noise was coming from our small half bath off of the bedroom, which has no shower!

I ran over and found Mt. Vesuvius erupting all over the small bathroom! Before considering the problems involved here, I instinctively reached down and shut off the water valve and stopped the shower gushing all over the walls and the floor. I ran to the linen closet and grabbed 8 or 9 towels and ran back to try and soak up as much water as I could.

The toilet ceased to be the concern and the floor on which I was sloshing became my focus.

After that was over, I put the used towels in a laundry basket and brought them downstairs where my distraught wife who probably thought I’d done something horrible, was waiting.

I went back upstairs to get ready when screams told me the ceiling in the living room was gushing water. We’ve had this experience twice before and we are able to try and deal with this one as long as we have towels and buckets. As well, I have to punch a hole or two in the ceiling to relieve the pressure and give it a few days to dry out before repairing it, we hope.

I left with the upstairs bathroom clean, the living room with towels and plastic buckets and a promise from our plumber to be there at around d 4:30p.m.

I don’t want to just tighten the nut that has probably come off, because there must be something else wrong as plumbing fixtures, not touched, don’t unscrew themselves in my life. This has not been changed or worked on, as far as I know, for the 28 years the house has stood. I would rather get a second opinion first!

The plumber appeared at 3:30 and reviewed the situation and declared the original nut as broken! It had ceased to function, given up the ghost, and providential as it may be, did it while I happened to be there.

He also replaced all the toilet insides as they seemed to be from the same 1983 installation.

He has recommended replacing the ceiling in the living room and dining room. I am seeking a second opinion.

Note: What were the odds that the nut would split while I was in the room? The chances were greater that it would have happened and rained down on us destroying ceilings and floors below and doing thousands of dollars in damages. I stopped the deluge after a thirty second to a minute time period and thus ended a tragic possibility.