While no home is perfect, most of us hope that ours will at least be peaceful and safe. However, sometimes things go horribly wrong, and home owners have to try to pick up the pieces. We’ve gathered stories from 15 homeowners on Reddit that found absolute disaster in their homes. Some will make you cringe, others will evoke pity and there will be some that simply make you laugh (and feel grateful it’s not you). Either way, these home disasters are pretty wild.
1. Infested Smoke Alarm
While we’re glad that there wasn’t a fire, this looks like one pesky situation. Ants somehow always find a way to enter any and all crevices of the house, including the smoke detecter. We cringe to imagine just how many there are and if they’re living in the walls, too.
2. Paint Spill
It can be fun to paint areas of the house to add a little personality or clean up some spots—but it’s not fun to accidentally spill it everywhere. There’s a difference between spilling a little, but this right here, is A LOT. It looks like this poor soul has work on top of work to do. They wrote, “Damn this paint was $58 dollars a gallon.” We’re guessing they’ll be shelling out another $58.
3. Home Renovation
Owning your first home can be exciting, liberating and — one big mess. Sometimes housing shows make it look easy, but this is one ambitious job that may be best left fro the pros. All this Reddit user had to caption this disaster were the words, “Newly purchased house reno…” It looks like this house may be in need of some kind of miracle.
4. Gas Stove Burn
For those that have gone from an electric stove to a gas one, the struggle can be very real. Gas stoves are great for cooking, but an untrained hand, or spoon, can really get burned if they aren’t careful. This Reddit user wrote, “Recently moved.. Put a wooden spoon on top so it wouldn’t over boil… not used to a gas/open flame stove yet.” We’re really glad it was just the spoon.
5. Very Broken Sink
If this one made you gasp, you’re not alone. When many of us think of a broken sink, it’s not quite THAT broken. This poor Reddit user explained, “I went to wash my hands and broke the sink.” We really hope that wasn’t new.
6. Busted Railing
This is one for all the clumsy people out there that are prone to disaster. This poor house didn’t have a chance after this accident—neither did this Reddit user.
They wrote, “Fell down the stairs at a ski rental house about 5 minutes after arriving, broke the railing and badly hurt my right hip, not sure if I can ski and now we will have to pay the security deposit on top of that.” Sounds like a very much ruined vacation.
7. Windowsill Bullet Wound
We don’t want to make any assumptions, but we’re pretty sure this person should move as soon as humanly possible. While a lot of people worry about a fly getting in through the windowsill, others, like this Reddit user, have to worry about bullets striking the house. They wrote, “So my house just got struck by a stray bullet. Hit the windowsill right behind me.” We are very concerned for this person.
8. Exploding Washing Machine
There’s nothing like seeing something go from a blessing to a curse. Having a washing machine at home makes life so much easier — in theory. Yet, in this Reddit user’s case, it’s a very different story. They explained, “1 month into new place and the washer explodes.” Hopefully they have a warranty or something.
9. Broken Ceiling Fan Chain
Even the seemingly small things can mean a bit of a disaster. This Reddit user definitely wasn’t expecting to have this happen. She explained, “My ceiling fan pull chain just broke…” Some of the folks in the comments recommended she get an upgrade ASAP.
10. Toilet Snake
No, this isn’t a scary dream — it’s reality. In case you’re like us and didn’t think that toilet snakes were a thing, here ya go. We don’t know how this happened or why, but just hope this Reddit user isn’t too traumatized to use the toilet ever again. They simply captioned the photo with, saying, “Well there is a water snake living in my toilet somehow.” Kudos to them, we wouldn’t have been calm enough to take photo, let alone be in that bathroom again.
11. Frozen Toilet Tank
While many people aren’t exactly fans of the frost, this is taking things to the next level. Suddenly, it’s not sounding too absurd for the toilet to have a defrost mode. A Reddit user shared it, writing, “Person’s apartment is so cold that their toilet’s water tank froze and broke.” Imagining the price of replacing it is giving us a case of the chills.
12. Locked Out By Dog
Whoever said that dogs are “man’s best friend,” clearly never met this dog. We’re not sure what the owner could have done to deserve this, but it looks like this pupper clearly got some revenge. The Reddit user said, “My dog has locked me out of the house. It is raining…” We hope they brought an umbrella, who knows how long they’ll be out there.
13. Oven Scare
There are unfortunate home malfunctions, then there are self-inflicted home disasters. This one was 100% self-inflicted and kind of funny considering how it happened. One Reddit user explained, “Long story short, I saw a cockroach.” It look like a kitchen turned war zone over there, we sure hope they at least got the roach.
14. Shower Bird Poop
We’re sorry for what your eyes are looking at right now. On the bright side, we’re pretty sure living it is much worse. We don’t know how birds end up using someone’s open window as a toilet, but we pray to the powers that be for this never to happen to us. This Reddit user got the lesson of a lifetime when it comes to closing all the windows before leaving the apartment (should probably lock them too). They captioned the photo with, “After a few weeks I returned to my apartment.”
15. Falling Down a Secret Well in The House
This one sounds like it’s straight out of a fairytale or at least an episode of Punk’D, because how else does someone end up falling into a secret well in their house? We’ll probably never get answers. A Reddit user, posted, “Someone in my town fell 30’ down a well through the floor of their house they didn’t know existed. Literally a well that sucked.”
Let us know what you think in the comments of these home disasters and if you’ve ever had a similar struggle.
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