S/O Kitchen Disasters-Household Disasters

[2littlemonkeys]

So far, we haven't had any major Oopsies (unless you count the time the sewer pipe in the street collapsed, rendering us waterless for two weeks and the hideous yellow paint we nearly painted our kitchen with.  Thank goodness for sample cans!)

But I have a doozie from when I was renting.

I had two roommates and we rented a 3 bedroom apartment.  One of my roommates had the back bedroom and one winter was quite cold and it affected the temperature of her room.  She didn't want to run a heater and decided to sleep on the couch instead.

One day, I was in the bathroom getting ready when I heard a terrific crash and then water dripping in her room.  Thinking one of the cats had knocked a plant over, I went into her room to assess the damage. 

It was way worse than that.

Apparently, the snow was not draining off the roof properly and water had gotten up in the ceiling somehow.  And it eventually all came crashing down onto my roommate's bed.  It's a good think she hadn't been sleeping there!

[Outdoor Girl]

^ Reminded me of my friend's household disaster.

She was living in a apartment in a subdivided house.  She woke very early one morning to an incredibly loud noise.  Turns out, a drunk driver drove off the road and through her living room, ending up in the bedroom of her neighbours!

No one was seriously hurt, mainly because people kept my friend from getting to the drunk.    (kidding)

She couldn't go back in for weeks, had no tenant insurance and had to find a new place to live in short order.  The house was torn down.  She lost a lot of stuff.

[lady_disdain]

Many years ago, my father built a lovely house near the beach. One of the things he insisted on was a stone wall around the corner lot, made from rough hewn granite. It was beautiful but building it under the hot tropical sun was quite a job. When it was finally done, my father organized a little celebration for the masons, grilling meat and drinking beer in the garden, looking over said wall. Just when things were wrapping up, everyone was proud of themselves and relaxed, a car came speeding down the road, missed the turn and crashed into the brand new wall, tearing a large portion down. Yep, a lot of cursing followed.

The driver had been drunk but fortunately was not hurt. The car, however, didn't survive its headlong encounter with granite. The wall had to be rebuilt.

[VorFemme]

Some thirty-odd years ago now, a coworker called in because some drunk in the passenger seat of a pickup (UTE to the Down Under crowd) had managed to crash into several trees & mailboxes coming down the street then into his daughter's car, which went into his his truck which knocked into his wife's station wagon, which came through the front door & wall of their house....that they had just moved back into after fifteen or so years and remodeled (last assignment with the military moved him back to where he'd graduated high school, gotten married, and they had bought their first house). 

He was a big, blond guy who'd played football in high school, twenty-odd years earlier....when he went running out the back door to the drunk's pickup, the drunk decided to wait for the nice policemen as they wouldn't let this angry guy anywhere near him......

It took weeks to get their house put back together - but the wall the vehicle had gone through was the one displaying the souvenirs from the various overseas assignments - most of which were smithereened.  I think it took him three days to get back to work....all three vehicles had been damaged, too.

Drunk's insurance was not happy - the "legal minimum" of coverage did not cover all the damages to vehicles, the house, the mailboxes, the trees, and whatever else the driverless truck had bounced off of from where his brother got out of the driver's seat a few blocks down the road & left the vehicle running.....and the drunk brother or the drunk still in the car managed to knock it into gear to take off down the road with only a drunk belted into the passenger seat to try to figure out what to do to get stopped.....

It was four am, about as safe a time to bounce down a residential street as you could get - nobody was hurt, since the drunk stayed put until the cops got to the scene.  And nobody was in the living room at 4 am, either.

[mmswm]

The last two stories remind me of one from a friend. She is a cop in a big city and was involved in a high speed chase. When she attempted to swerve around a civilian car she lost control and slammed into a parked car fast enough that the parked car took flight and slammed into the wall of the house it was in front of. Thankfully there were no serious injuries and the residents were generously compensated by the city for their trouble.

[LEMon]

We learned 'never buy a house from inexperienced do-it-yourselfers'.  Let's see ...

Kitchen floor lineoleum was the twelve by twelve sticky tiles (dirt gets caught in the crevases so it never looked clean).  Guy out to give us an estimate to replace realizes we have five layers of lino, one on top of the other.  Third estimate guy brings up the question of asbestos.  Sure enough asbestos in layer three.  Had to have hazmat suited guys rip it out for us.

Garage door wheels to lift it were hung backward, plus they used thin alumunium strips to prevent the wobble (Didn't work.  Watching that door go up you could see the sway in the long lead to the motor.)

Back shed put on wood planks.  I think ours was holding up part of the fence too.

Fence had lots of plants growing on it - when we went to clean them up, turns out that was what was holding it up.  That and the layers of extra wood just tacked on or leaning up against it.

I'm trying to forget the rest since they weren't as big a mess.

[ica171]

We learned 'never buy a house from inexperienced do-it-yourselfers'.  Let's see ...

Kitchen floor lineoleum was the twelve by twelve sticky tiles (dirt gets caught in the crevases so it never looked clean).  Guy out to give us an estimate to replace realizes we have five layers of lino, one on top of the other.  Third estimate guy brings up the question of asbestos.  Sure enough asbestos in layer three.  Had to have hazmat suited guys rip it out for us.

Garage door wheels to lift it were hung backward, plus they used thin alumunium strips to prevent the wobble (Didn't work.  Watching that door go up you could see the sway in the long lead to the motor.)

Back shed put on wood planks.  I think ours was holding up part of the fence too.

Fence had lots of plants growing on it - when we went to clean them up, turns out that was what was holding it up.  That and the layers of extra wood just tacked on or leaning up against it.

I'm trying to forget the rest since they weren't as big a mess.

Well, there's inexperience and there's not caring. People who are inexperienced can find someone who knows what they're doing to help, can read a book, can look online for all kinds of videos and tutorials. People who don't care just do whatever's fastest, easiest and cheapest.   

[darling]

We learned 'never buy a house from inexperienced do-it-yourselfers'.  Let's see ...

Kitchen floor lineoleum was the twelve by twelve sticky tiles (dirt gets caught in the crevases so it never looked clean).  Guy out to give us an estimate to replace realizes we have five layers of lino, one on top of the other.  Third estimate guy brings up the question of asbestos.  Sure enough asbestos in layer three.  Had to have hazmat suited guys rip it out for us.

Garage door wheels to lift it were hung backward, plus they used thin alumunium strips to prevent the wobble (Didn't work.  Watching that door go up you could see the sway in the long lead to the motor.)

Back shed put on wood planks.  I think ours was holding up part of the fence too.

Fence had lots of plants growing on it - when we went to clean them up, turns out that was what was holding it up.  That and the layers of extra wood just tacked on or leaning up against it.

I'm trying to forget the rest since they weren't as big a mess.

Well, there's inexperience and there's not caring. People who are inexperienced can find someone who knows what they're doing to help, can read a book, can look online for all kinds of videos and tutorials. People who don't care just do whatever's fastest, easiest and cheapest.   

You forgot the people who are inexperienced, but won't recognize that they don't know what they are doing, LOL!

[Shalamar]

My husband and I often say that the good thing about us is that we're not the least bit handy, and we know it.  Therefore, when we need something done around the house, we hire a professional.  That way it gets done quickly and it gets done well - or, if it's NOT done well, we complain and withhold payment until it's fixed.

I have a co-worker who prides himself on always doing his own house projects.  He took three years to put in his swimming pool because of complications, lack of time, etc.  Last week, his wife wanted something small-ish done (I think she wanted some steps fixed), and she hired a guy to do it.  Co-worker was extremely annoyed, saying "Why didn't she just ask me?"  Everyone at the coffee table said in unison "BECAUSE SHE DIDN'T WANT TO WAIT FOR THREE YEARS!"

[Thipu1]

The pointing incident was the only 'Household Disaster' we've encountered indoors.  However, we have had several outside.  There was the time that a transformer caught fire on one end of our block.  Two weeks later, a transformer on the other end of the block also exploded. It made walking a bit uneasy for a while. 

There was the time when construction was going on further up the block.  We'd been having a lot of rain and it was  a day of thunderstorms when I heard a particularly loud clap around ten in the morning.  When I went out early in the afternoon, I was amazed to find that one wall of a three- story building had collapsed.

 It was like looking into a doll's house.  The kitchen of an apartment was entirely laid open.  From the street you could easily see the table with a table cloth and the calendar on the wall.  It was good that nobody was home and there  were no injuries but the building had to be demolished.

Another was the demise of our tree.  We had a lovely street tree right outside our kitchen window.  In the spring, it had lots of white blossoms, thick green foliage in the summer and brilliant gold leaves in the fall. One morning, after a week of rain, I went to work.  When I returned, the tree had fallen over.  The deities be thanked that it fell up the street instead of falling into the building so no damage was done.

Finally, there was the time after a major snowfall that dumped about two feet on the neighborhood.  While waiting to be plowed out, a water main burst.  however, that's another story.       

[Zenith]

I somehow eneded up with mice a while back and my landlady blamed it on me having a cat. It was pretty bad for a while., LilacRosey

Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?  You have mice, then you get the cat, then you don't have mice anymore.  Unless your cat is like mine, and thinks mice are fun toys, not tasty snacks.  Anyhow, I've never heard of blaming a mice infestation on a cat.

Well, mice can be attracted to pet food, if it is not properly stored, but it still seems unlikely that a cat's gonna start inviting the neighborhood mice over for parties.

You have never met my cat. She brings in stunned, unharmed mice for me to either play with or she feels sorry for me because I don't hunt. She was the sole reason that my old house and the 3 houses surrounding me had a field mice infestation for 4 months one summer. Idiot. Now she's teaching the dog but the dog chases pissed off possums through her doggy door to show me her new 'toy'. The dog's not hurting the possums and the cat actually plays with them, the possums just get pissed off because the dog runs them over in excitement. The possum often comes over for night visits but wisely stays in the front yard away from the dog and the doggy door and gets a few pats from me. Still took 2 midnight 'incidents' for the possum to learn to stay out of the back yard. Possums sound like off key opera singers being tortured to death when they panic. Gets you up real darn fast.

[ladyknight1]

My father-in-law and mother-in-law designed their home and were involved in the construction. The house was completed in 1986.

What has not been completed includes: loose wires around the windows (waiting for that security system in the original house design), door frames are not nailed on, base boards are not nailed on, marble window sills are not glued on, the porch was never finished, the walls still have the primer from 1986 and never received the final coat.

Since the house was built, the foundation settled (because FIL buried vegetation behind the house and it has decomposed), and one of the sliding glass doors no longer opens. The house has the original carpet, which was off-white and has been through 2 kids and 3 adults living in it for 26 years. MIL doesn't think they will need to replace the carpet when they sell the house, which they have been talking about for 10 years.

[selkiewoman]

My daughter bought an 'owner-built' house.  The roof was not finished properly, so every time it rained, water ran down the INSIDE of the front doorframe (explained why the door fit so poorly.)  The cutoff switch for the airconditioner/heating system was located in the attic space, which could only be accessed through a closet (took them awhile to figure that one out.)  After they moved in, the new lawn and landscaping promptly started dying.  They watered assiduously, it died faster.  Turned out the sprinkler system was hooked up to the hot water.  Oh, and they discovered the gaps in the foundation when morning glory started climbing up the bathroom wall.

The kicker is, the original homeowner is still boasting to everyone who will listen about this triumph of architecture which he built 'with hisown hands.'  It is apparently the crowning achievement of his existence.

[ladyknight1]

I can't imagine the bills from heating water for irrigation!

[Hmmmmm]

Well, I just cleaned up one of my worse disasters. But on 2 eggs to boil, forgot about them until I heard exploding. Oops.

But it reminded me of another that was a kitchen disaster but not a "cooking" one and would probably fit as well in the house disasters.

We'd had some work done in our home. I started noticing that I would occasionally get a mild shock if I wiped up something from the top with a wet rag.  Happened 3 or 4 times to me but never to DH. I'm always getting a "static electricity" shocks so just thought it had something to do with that.

One afternoon I was cooking a huge pot of chili using a pot with a copper bottom. When the chili was about done, I went to stir with a large metal spoon and not the wooden one I'd been using all day.  The metal spoon hit the bottom of that pot and electricity shot up my arm and the spoon and pot went flying.  I was able to jump up on the counter to keep from getting burned by the hot chili.  DH arrives in the kitchen to a seen of me totally freaking out on the counter, kitchen floor covered in chili and more dripping from the ceiling.

After carrying me out of the kitchen (I was barefooted of course) DH was able to turn off the stove (he was no longer doubting me about being shocked by the stove) clean up most of the chili (we ended up having to repaint the ceiling).  An electrecian came out the next day and we discovered that when they were putting up the crown molding, they somehow nailed through a critical piece of wiring that grounded our stove. 

Even though it's been close to 20 years, I can still feel that electricity shooting up my arm. I'm not sure how someone ever survives a lightening strike.