DIY disasters

[Cmjl67]

OK, who's brave enough to admit to them?

I've only a top four and a half so far

1. Redecorating bathroom No. 1
Some floorboards lifted to replace, then up on stepladders to paint ceiling or affix wallpaper - down off stepladders, neglect to remember no floorboards present, crash, boot through kitchen ceiling

2. Redecorating bathroom No. 2 (same bathroom, same project)
Water off, radiator pipes loosened to allow radiator to be lifted off hangers to fix wall paper behind, rehang radiator on brackets, water back on - did I forget something? Yep, neglected to tighten pipes - pussycat sitting at kitchen door waving paw at me and gazing frantically back and forth between me and water pouring from kitchen ceiling (same spot I'd just fixed after putting boot through)

3. Redecorating bathroom No. 3 (different bathroom, different continent)
Removing door, undo last screw, door topples and clunk - -straight onto crown of head of wife sitting on stairs observing.

4. Jaguar maintenance, part one
Doing underside and brake maintenance, refit wheels for driving to MOT test - what's that thumping noise? Why had front driver side just nosedived? Yep, wheel barely hanging on by one lugnut as genius forgot to torque wheels

4.5 Jaguar maintenance, part one point five
Again, underside maintenance, but I'm playing safe - rear wheels chocked, car up on both jack stands and trolley jack - remember to torque wheels after lowering car, back car up a bit, what's that clunk this time? Two flattened wheel chocks!

There's a common thread in all bar number three - beer! Now I know not to mix beer and DIY - gin seems safer! Although even laying off that now for safety's sake.

Anyone else any confessions?

chris

 

[Krash Kadillak]

This was in my misspent youth, so my 'out' was I was stupid then......

Took a summer auto mechanics course at the local community college in order to rebuild the engine of the folks' second car, a 1961 Sunbeam Alpine. I had taken auto mechanics courses in high school, but had never attempted a complete rebuild before.

Got the engine apart, mic'd the cylinder walls, did all the necessary honing, etc. Got the correct pistons, rings, etc and started reassembly. Even bought one of those dual carb synchronization thingys for when I got to that point.

Got it all back together and there were a few unidentified parts leftover in the cardboard parts box. Hey, they can't be important if I don't recognize them, right? WRONG. They went to the oil pick up in the pan.......

Time for folks to find a new car.......

 

[48RON54]

It was getting late and I was on my second brake job of the day. It was a sunday, the sun was down and I was really struggling. I mean 2 hours into a 30 minute break job struggling. I have always found the brakes to be a complete PITA on this truck though to be honest. Anyway, I mentioned it was late right? Well the bolts that hold the caliper to the caliper mounting brackets originally had loctite on them. Well, for whatever reason I used antiseize instead..........Months later I wondered why my truck felt like the brakes were locking up when I had it in R. Then I saw I was missing a bolt and alos saw teh caliper had pushed back out of its correct location and was barely hanging on.

Worse than that? About 2 years later I was doing the same dam thing....This time I forgot to tighten it down... I lost the exact same damned bolt and went through the entire issue again lol... this time i only got a few miles down the freeway before I wondered how big that rock i just hit must have been... Of course it was one of the giant bolts that holds the caliper to the caliper carrier..... Bolt was a PITA to find both times too.... I had to take time off of work to go to a bolt specialty store to find something comparable.

 

[Taildragger]

Tiling the kitchen floor. I was being Super careful about getting my lines straight.
Got it all done it looked awesome!
Next morning about half of them popped back up.
Payed lots of attention to being straight, not enough to making sure I pressed them down. D'oh!

 

[48RON54]

Also, same vehicle... I was using a funnel that I had used for some concrete staining project. It still had stain stuck to it. Well, I'm finishing up putting the oil in the truck when a big sheet of what is basically paint detaches itself from the side of the funnel and slides right into the engine.

I sat there and stared at the truck for a good 2 hours before working up the balls to start it. I still won't tell my wife about that even though its been 3 or 3 years and that paint surely just mixed its way into the oil and left the next time i changed the oil.

 

[Danver]

I'm sure I have a couple of worse ones but a couple came to mind while reading this thread. A year ago or so I somehow managed to fill up the windshield washer tank in my Escape with car wash soap. It took several uses before I finally figured out what I had done. At first I thought it was just really crappy washer fluid that left a crazy amount of streaks. Then I had to use it when it was raining fairly hard to clear some mud splashed by another car. The soap and rain mixed together by the wipers created a nice lather and it finally sunk in what I had done.

Fixing the screw-up wasn't all that simple either. I pumped out what was left in the tank and filled it up with fresh washer fluid and it was still just about as bad. I didn't think about what was still in the bottom of the tank after it stopped pumping. So I emptied it again and flushed it out with the garden hose until it looked clear. Tried it again with just the water in the tank but it was still foaming up. I finally just left the hose running in the tank for about 20 minutes and kept trying it until the lathering stopped. Then I emptied the water out and put in the right stuff.

 

[HoosierMark]

I had put disc brakes on my TR 6 with no problem. Pads only, wow this is easy. Friend of mine and I are working out of town and he says he needs new disc pads. No big deal, I can do it at the motel. Yep, when you put them in wrong, boy it sounds just like metal against metal. How can that be when they are new pads???? He never let me help him again!

 

[Danver]

About 20 years ago I decided to stay at the shop after work and change the oil in my '78 Chevy Caprice. I had it just about wrapped up and even remembered to put the filter on and tighten the drain plug. I was in the process of pouring the new oil in and bumped one of the plastic quart bottles off of the radiator support and it fell down behind the grille and somehow managed to hit just right and put a hole in the radiator. I stood there in disbelief for a while watching the stream of antifreeze shooting out in a stream through the front of the grille. Of course it was after hours with nobody else around and that was my only way home. I ended up pinching off the one tube and managed to get some solder to stick to the ends which held enough to fill it back up and get me home.

 

[MoparTrucks]

When I first bought this farm I knew nothing about fencing and in my first attempt I sunk some corner posts and did about a 150' section of 5 strand barbed wire fencing. It was dry and the post holes were a ***** to dig but I back filled the hole with dirt and the posts were really solid and held up to the fence stretching just fine...until our first big rain.

I went out and all of the posts were leaning, the wire was all sagging and I had to redo the whole thing with proper bracing and concrete. Thats also when I learned the value of learning how to do things the old fashioned way...YouTube!

 

[48RON54]

Thats also when I learned the value of learning how to do things the old fashioned way...YouTube!

LOL!

 

[G_P]

Stopped off at a friends work to use the lift for an oil change. Yup. Forgot to put the plug back in and made a huge mess.

Another time I was helping a friend weld on his mustang. Saw a ton of smoke building up in the area of the rear hatch. Set the carpet on fire. Could not find an extingusher so we dumped beer on it. Learned to have an extingusher nearby when welding from then on!

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

 

[jwh]

How about putting oil in the brand new lawn mower? Problem: in the dim light of the old garage realized I put it in the gas tank!

Get it drained, clean everything out, put the fluids where they're supposed to be and ran fine! That is, up to last year when son says "this thing doesn't run right." Hitting rocks and stuff with the blade screwed up the bottom main bearing of the engine.

Time for a new mower.

This time I made sure I put the oil where it was supposed to go!

 

[Rickedstyles]

My worst mainly because it wasn't mine..was staying at a friends while having marriage trouble and him and his gf had gone out..wanting to be productive I decided to help with his broken toilet. He had a new one ready to install. Turns out when I disconnected the water line the shutoff valve leaked..after scouring the place and couldn't find the main water shutoff I found the valve he had bought had the wrong threads but the valve part was the same..I thought "I'll just unscrew the valve and quickly install the new one and then proceed as normal..well once it was out there was more pressure than expected..there was no way to even screw the old valve back in with so much water flow..the only thing I could do is cover the hole with my thumb and then it was just like when you do it over a water hose..luckily they pulled up after a few minutes and he was able to shut the main off which was under a cover outside. Its hard to think about what would have happened if they didn't come back esp. In an old wood floor house

 

[gearhead1]

Whoa boy, here we go.....

1.) S10 bed rusted completely out, replaced it, along with a bigger gas tank. extended the pick-up in the tank instead of buying a new one because new tank is taller. Just cut the tubes and extended them with hose. Put truck together, tried to prime it running it by pouring gas down the throttle body. Did it several times. Did the same thing, but had some splash out of the air cleaner housing and over the valve cover, and on the intake. It starts and backfires up the intake catching it all on fire. Almost lost it, was getting worried, finally got it out. Problem why it wouldn't start, lost the ground when I elongated the pick up tubes. A wire from the fuel pump is soldered on the tube. What an idiot! This is how I earned the term 'educated redneck' and 'yankee redneck' from the other engineers at work.

2.) Got a Pinto body for free, no running gear, just the shell. I had it sitting on my trailer and was torching the skin off it (circle track car replacement metal) when a molten ball goes down the gas tank......that's when I lost hair outside my goggles.

3.) Working on the circle track car, took the center link and tie rods off, hit the wall, all bent up and a tie rod broken. One tied rod was fine, the threaded shaft broke off in it. The tie rod itself was fine, and I'm all about saving it, so I ground it flat, center punched it, held it between my knees and started drilling it out. Cheap drill bit break, the broken bit is now a half inch in my thigh and jeans are now shorts.

4.) Changing oil in ex's jeep, a buddy comes over. Wife and buddy decide they're going to help. No drain plug in the oil pan, oil went all over the driveway, one of them starts it. She finally had the wherewithal to shut the engine off after it started ticking. Never did get the tick out, had to replace the lifters. This is why I'd rather follow my process and do it myself. I've never had anything like that happen when it's just me. Ex quit bitching about my processes after that.

5.) At my cousin's shop, he was charging a battery. He welded something, then was grinding when it sounded like a bomb went off. A spark went to the right spot near the battery and it blew. It blew the top quarter of the battery. Never did find the pieces, they just didn't exist.

6.) A coworker said to take ASE tests, they would sponsor my race car. Cool, no problem, took a bunch of them. I was working on ex's blazer, brakes squeak. Never could get the squeak out. She got home before me one day, calls me at work and says she figured out what was wrong with her brakes. I'm thinking, she must have taken it somewhere. She says, I just got the results of your ASE tests in the mail and you failed brakes! (I failed the part on ABS, passed it the next time. We split, and now she has to pay a mechanic, I think my skills are more appreciated.)

 

[southalabama]

Almost really bad.

Had stored a utility trailer in back of a building. Tires deflated during the hurricane. Then I let them sit. When to jack loaded trailer. Contrary to what I'd been taught I put my hand between fender and tire. Jack fell. Pinned hand between fender and tire. I couldn't reach jack. Phone was laying in another room. I started going into shock then came to grip with fact I had to get myself out. It took 30 minutes but I was able to pry the fender and pull my hand out. It didn't break the skin but I had a crease across the back side of my hand that lasted months.

Another time I was in the attic of the office building working on lights. No one knew I was there and it was a hot southern day so the attic was well so got it took your breath away. I was gonna make a connection and ended up staying to long. I started passing out and realized I had to get out. I slipped and dinged the sheet rock up in the ceiling. I was able to make it to the scuttle hole and get out. I no longer go in the attic alone. The sheet rock was patched and to the casual observer you can't tell where I almost went threw but I can spot it. Had my wife outside the hole in the house she went inside to watch tv and left me. I had to "explain" how important she stay and check on me periodically.

Tired one evening and changed wife's tire on honda. I put new tire on and lugs. Went to put the wheel cover on and it didn't fit quiet right. I hoped it would stay put. The next day she came home missing a wheel cover. I then realized what I did. Wheel cover needed to go on before lug nuts. Was tired when I did it.

 

[mdr]

Moved water heater from internal closet to external tankless. Converting water heater closet to pantry, removing gas vent from closet through attic. Slip while in attic, fall through closet ceiling - stuck with legs in closet and upper torso in attic. Very amused wife and kids. I'm a handy guy.

As teenager, changing oil on Dad's XKJ (8 qts? 10?). Pull plug, drain oil, pull filter. Replace filter. Refill oil. You know what I forgot! 8 qts. oil on the floor.

 

[WVBrady]

I was patching a rusted out place in the back floor of my Probe. I cut out the rusted part and cut a larger piece of sheet metal to patch the hole. I was going to use panel adhesive and pop rivets, so I drilled several holes for the rivets. When I got underneath the car, I found that I had very neatly drilled some of the holes in between the brake lines and fuel lines. Only the fact that it was a small drill bit and the fact that there was a little "give" in the lines allowed the bit to pass between them without damaging them.

 

[AlwaysFixingSomething]

Thats also when I learned the value of learning how to do things the old fashioned way...YouTube!

LOL!

DIYers learning from other DIYers nothing could possibly go wrong there

 

[Jon Jacobs]

just got my 65 mustang out of the paint both, started re-assembling the engine. Machined up my own hi rise for the carb, was bragging to my buddies about what a great machinist I was, when I slammed the hood down the breather stud went through the hood. Bravo.

 

[ZRX61]

slammed the hood down the breather stud went through the hood. Bravo.

I know some ******* who did that to a fairly well known custom Charger the day before it left to go to SEMA....

 

[nicksnothereman]

OK, who's brave enough to admit to them?

4. Jaguar maintenance, part one
Doing underside and brake maintenance, refit wheels for driving to MOT test - what's that thumping noise? Why had front driver side just nosedived? Yep, wheel barely hanging on by one lugnut as genius forgot to torque wheels

4.5 Jaguar maintenance, part one point five
Again, underside maintenance, but I'm playing safe - rear wheels chocked, car up on both jack stands and trolley jack - remember to torque wheels after lowering car, back car up a bit, what's that clunk this time? Two flattened wheel chocks!

chris

How do you "flatten" a wheel chock? Wheel chocks are supposed to prevent the wheel from moving, you're not supposed to be able to go over them or it defeats the point and at no point should they "flatten". Just saying british dude.

I'm usually pretty careful if it's in the "danger zone". Sometimes I mis-cut wood and there's too much wobble in the finished project but that's real easy for me to fix with risers and it's not life threatening.

 

[Cmjl67]

Nick, it's real easy - put car in reverse, hit accelerator and drive two ton jag over them

chris

 

[Lippyp]

I was running some alarm wires around the house, was routing them for the contact switch on the front door, drilling through the door casing and BANg Fizz, darkness, yep, they'd routed the wiring for the nearby light switch in there and I'd just drilled through it. Cue a partial rewire and a lot of swearing. I also put a nail through a central heating pipe nailing down a floorboard not to mention nailing the cat under the floor once, the ****** had nipped down an open hole when I'd been doing some electrical work.

 

[monomach]

How do you "flatten" a wheel chock? Wheel chocks are supposed to prevent the wheel from moving, you're not supposed to be able to go over them or it defeats the point and at no point should they "flatten". Just saying british dude.

I'm usually pretty careful if it's in the "danger zone". Sometimes I mis-cut wood and there's too much wobble in the finished project but that's real easy for me to fix with risers and it's not life threatening.

I'm with him on that one. All it takes is forgetting that they're there.

I've run over and flattened plenty of steel chocks. They hold the truck if it's stationary, but once you give it gas, they crumple like paper.

Did it so many times, I had to switch to huge solid rubber chocks that would hold a semi.

 

[1grnlwn]

Had to put new tires on the bobcat, put jackstands on back and just used bucket to hold up front. After lunch I come out to find glass door laying in bucket in a million pieces. I started looking for the piece of $*** that vandalized my bobcat. After a few hours I realized that the door had not latched and as the bucket leaked down the gas shock popped the door open and the leak down action lifted the door off the pin hinges, shattering the door. Expensive set of tires!

 

[juiced10]

My first car was an 84 Ford LTD wagon. Checked the fluids and noticed ****** fluid low. Bought a couple quarts and added them. Checked a week later and noticed low again. Did this for a bunch of times and just kept adding. Finally a friend in Auto class in HS said he would look at it to see what the problem is. He started laughing hysterically when he pointed out I had been putting ****** fluid in the oil dipstick. He said we need to change oil asap and when the 5 gallon bucket started overflowing he just kept shaking his head!

 

[Lippyp]

One of my sisters did something similar. Her car (a peugeot 104) started acting up, hard to start and was leaking oil everywhere. Damn crankcase was full almost to the top! Turned out she'd been topping the oil up everytime she saw what she thought was the oil light coming on, turned out it was the low fuel light and the daft cow was shoving oil in without checking the dipstick.

Another time the same sister filled my dads 72 beetle up with diesel.

 

[bugnout]

A month into ownership of my first house, decided to take care of the slow draining bath tub. I got a drain snake and spent 1/2 hour getting it through the big clog. Tub drained great. I spent another hour running water into the tub while I cleaned the tile and scrubed tub. Finally decided to throw the shower curtain into the washer. As I took it downstairs and was walking through the kitchen, I heard running water. Thought maybe the kitchen sink was left on. Dropped the curtain on the washer and walked back to the kitchen sink to turn off the faucet only to step under a waterfall. I was soaked by water coming from the ceiling... I had punched the drain snake through the tubs copper trap and for the last hour been filling the ceiling with a hundred gallons of water.

I punched a hole in the ceiling where the trap was located and let the rest of the water pour out. Surprisingly, I found a plumber available on Sunday to replace the trap. He was kind, only charged me $50 for the house call.

 

[Robbo]

Decided to install my own in-wall speaker wires for surround sound. Drilled my first hole and managed to cut through security system wire.

Got that all buttoned up and went on to the next one. Moved the insulation and found the top plate easy enough, drilled through it where I thought I was supposed to, and suddenly light comes streaming into the attic and my wife says "you're in the bathroom" from below. It was an extra 2x4 nailed on the top plate for a place to screw the ceiling drywall to in the corner, and I had drilled a nasty hole right in the corner...that was hard to patch...

All of this was done from in the attic that had a very low roof. Spent a lot of time on my belly in the attic in December reaching overhead with an angled drill... I had several "why did I want to do this" moments... But loved the clean look of the home theater room after I was done.


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[drcliff]

Pulled the intake off my Lincoln 2yrs ago. Loosely stuffed a paper towel into each intake port so no crud would fall in. Buttoned it all back up and had a hell of a time firing it up. Finally got it to light and it ran like hell. I looked around and realized there were NOT eight wadded-up paper towels sitting anywhere. I left them in the intake ports...

Next weekend I pulled the heads and did a valve job.

 

[Spinaker01]

This actually happened to me once as well! Trouble light was blown and garage was dim. The first test drive was FRIGHTENING. Metal on metal sounds really bad. Luckily no real damage done.

 

[ebmiller88]

This happened just a month or so ago, around Easter. My wife wanted me to put the Easter decoration boxes back up in the attic. I say no problem, and she wants to come up and take a look around to see what else is up there. While she's looking around, she misses a board and goes right through the sheetrock ceiling, makes about a 2x2 foot hole and sends fiberglass insulation nuggets everywhere. No biggie, I guess. A friend in our neighborhood just happens to have a small remodeling job going on, so we get her contractor to patch it up. He takes a couple days to get it ready to prime and paint. I think, while it's still cool, I'll go up there and put down more plywood flooring to make sure this doesn't happen again...Hey! While I'm at it, I'll reroute that A/C ducting that's in the way so I don't have to duck under it while I'm up there. I'm taking off the duct from the A/C plenum, step back off the step ladder....miss my floor board....and go right through the sheetrock, about 2 trusses over from where she went through....and make a 3x3 foot hole...and send insulation nuggets everywhere. Guy comes by later that afternoon to sand and prime and I tell him I have a problem, and point up the stairs to the hole. He stands there a second, looks at me and back up the stairs, and says he'll see me on Monday, smiles and heads out the door. I'd like to know what he was thinking.

Ed

 

[greg9719]

Had a friend with Nissan Altima who wasn't too mechanically inclined but decided he wanted to start changing his own oil. I let him use my garage and tools. I was busy with another project and didn't pay much attention. He gets it all buttoned up and goes to leave and chirps the tires on his way out. I figure he's just enthused in his newly found mechanical abilities and don't think much else of it until a few minutes later he calls me and says his car won't move.
I hop in the truck and drive a few blocks down the road. Take a look and turns out he had drained the transmission fluid and now had 10 QTS of oil in the engine. I towed it back to the house and off to the parts store we went. Needless to say it was a pretty pricy "oil change". He went back to having the dealer do the servicing after that.

 

[ArkTinkerer]

Working on an older house. Was doing insulation in the attic but some old post/peg wiring was being a pain. Figured it was time to get it out of the way since the house had been rewired by the previous owner. Cut, cut, cut, cut... Wife yells up--"Hey all the lights just went out!" Went and got lunch and quit for the day...

 

[danieldd]

Many years ago I wanted to build a bookcase for the study in our 3 bedroom house. All 3 bedrooms were off of the hallway and the room that was our study was a direct 90 degree turn after entering the hallway.

So I bought this neat set of plans for a double wide bookcase with adjustable shelves. I built it on the back patio, glued and nailed everything together, got it finished, then sanded and stained the entire bookcase. It looked really good and I was quite proud of it. I eagerly called my friend over to help me get it into the study as it was going to be a nice complement to the desk I had already placed in there.

He comes over and we lift up the bookcase and proceed to carry it into the house, heading toward the hallway. As we enter the hallway and proceed to turn into the study we find the bookcase is too large to ever make the transition from the hallway into the study. No amount of turning, sliding, cussing, fussing was going to get that bookcase to go into the study - it was simply too big to fit.

My friend ended up going home with my new bookcase in the back of his truck.

It sure looked good in his house!

 

[mrpowderkeg]

Did front brakes on my wife's 03 Stratus 2dr coup (same as a Mitsubishi eclipse... Dodge in name only). I used what the local part's house had on hand, low dollar ****. I am meticulous when it comes to doing things, this was the one time I have ever had a problem with brakes. I take the car out and so some easy driving to get some heat cycles into the pads. I finally bring it back to the shop and let it cool off for an hr while I do some other stuff. I take the car out and still I do not like how the brakes feel, I bring it back, inspect, bleed the brakes and still they're just not gripping, the peddle feel is fine, but it's like they will not work correctly... Finally I said the hell with it, and gave the brakes hell. I have never ever experienced being able to fully bury the brakes and slowly have the car slow down, all the while (this was at night) the glow from the brakes were lighting up the road surface. I get it back to the shop, and let her cool down. They then grabbed properly, but the rotors were warped, with a slight pulse, but not too bad.... Yup I had to listen to the wife complain about them, so a week later using a different parts house, I change everything again, this time with no problems.

 

[Big Bad Dad]

One of my sisters did something similar. Her car (a peugeot 104) started acting up, hard to start and was leaking oil everywhere. Damn crankcase was full almost to the top! Turned out she'd been topping the oil up everytime she saw what she thought was the oil light coming on, turned out it was the low fuel light and the daft cow was shoving oil in without checking the dipstick.

Another time the same sister filled my dads 72 beetle up with diesel.

" the daft cow"

 

[jkwilson]

I'll have to think about some of my own entertaining screw ups. Hopefully not too many because I over-think everything before I start.

An old acquaintance of mine was a dandy. He went to an auction once to buy a Jeep, and ended up buying the house. Turns out the house hadn't been lived in for quite a while because it had no insulation and minimal plumbing, HVAC and electricity. The house was square and watertight, but not really livable by modern standards.

The roof had a low pitch and access was very difficult because of all the rafters and braces that were used.

I suggested he lower the 12ft ceilings, use the space he created to add insulation and ductwork, and to take the siding and sheathing off, replace the windows and add wall insulation in the process. He asked around and was amazed that others thought that was the way to go.

With help from a few friends, he got the windows, siding and insulation done over a summer. Did soffets and gutters while he was at it and was pretty proud of himself. It did look nice and was a huge improvement on the house.

But he was overly confident.

When winter rolled around, he decided to box in the ceilings on his own. He installed carefully levelled 2X6s around the walls for his new lowered ceiling and did a wonderful job. He then spent the winter, alone, nailing 2x4 joists in all the rooms. Unfortunately, he nailed them flat to the bottom of the 2X6s. I can't imagine how he felt when another friend told him they needed to be on edge.

He ended up making about $30,000 on the house, but I bet it was a grueling job tearing all those joists down and putting them back up.

 

[slickgt1]

I picked up my used X5. First thing I decided to do was swap out all the oil. Now, this ***** has a lot of oil in it. 10 liters in the engine, 5 each drain and fill of trans, both diffs, transfer case. I get it up on ramps, all 4 wheels. Wow, it is so high up, I can use my old 5 gal oil drain bucket (compound bucket). I use that to drain my funnels, and catch cans into. So yea. Started this whole process late in the day. About 4-5pm. It was getting late already as I just finished buttoning everything up. Checked all the levels, plugs everything. Car on, no errors. Great start cleaning up. I grab my corded extension light, and pull it out. ****, it seems to be stuck on some ****. I don't even bother bending over to look what it got hung up on. I gave it a manly tug, and instantly went pale. I just flipped over that 5 gal bucket of oil in my garage. Ran out of sand, rags real quick. I was so soaked in oil, sacrificing my clothes to stop the oil flood was a no-brainer at that point. Went upstairs naked at around 2 am. Wife thought I was mugged. Spent the next 2 days washing the floor a million times. Slippery tile could not even begin to describe it.

When I renovated my own house, I went all out. Built my own furniture, vanities, even doors. I made a huge double hanging vanity for the master bathroom. It had to hang in a C type of wall section. All the rough in plumbing sticking out of the wall. Father in law and I go to put it in place. Now this is also late, and its very hot. We must have brain farted somewhere. So we lift this monster into place, slide it in and let go. Wow, look at that its hanging here all by itself. The walls must be jacked to have it wedge in like that. All of a sudden we hear hissing. Um, wtf is that. Yea, the walls turned out to be square and level. We just broke one of the copper pipes for the hot water. Now instead of turning off the water to remove the vanity, we go and pull that out. The valve flew out of there like it was rocket propelled. I even tried to stick my finger in there to stop the water, year right. Spent all night with the shop vac, fans, lights, to make sure my Brazillian cherry unfinished floors survive. They did, by some miracle.

 

[Cmjl67]

That last one rings a bell - not sure how or why basement ended up flooded but remember days of trying to pump and dry things out after room flooded

That second ex wife (the one the door fell on) was the ultimate scud when it came to any repairs being done within a mile radius of her - I've still tendon damage on left hand from replacing radiator hose on lincoln, even brakes redone by professionals would fail within half hour, pipes would burst immediately before trip from NJ to VT for skiing trip, her kids would flush toys (and everything else - still got scarred fingertips from flushed and then broken light bulbs) down toilets, decks would rot, everything metal would rust, lights and fuses would blow, trees would die and blow down, etc, etc, etc.

I'm glad I'm divorced and 7,000 miles away from her and thankfully she doesn't know where or have a phone number - I was her second (ex) husband - I think the last I heard she was onto husband number five - I wonder why?

chris