Stupid Homeowner Stories

[chperplt]

My parents come over a few months ago and notice that one of the four kitchen lights is out. I never noticed it and didn't really care. When the other three go, I'll replace them.

Well, two of the other three kitchen lights went out last week. I went to the store and bought 4 new bulbs at $4.50 a piece. These are the 2 year bulbs so they say.

I put them all in and then hit the switch. They all came on except for the light over the sink that my dad had commented on before. So, I get back up there and switch bulbs to see if the new one is bad.. It still won't light up, but the other three work fine..

My wife and I go out to run some errands and come home. I walk over to the stove area and see a switch next to the disposal switch.. What does that do I wonder..... It turns the fuking light above the sink on!!

I've only been in the house a year... What a moron I am!!

 

[Swass]

Dude that was awesome. I love it when I happen upon a good nugget like that in this forum with all the religious and political talk.

 

[ms6073]

I walk over to the stove area and see a switch next to the disposal switch.. What does that do I wonder..... It turns the light above the sink on!!

When my wife and I first met, she had been living in her townhouse/apartment for over 8-years. She did not cook very often but when she did, she would usually microwave or cook something like soup. Her reason for this was because the light over the stove never worked and she did not know how to turn on the vent hood fan for the stove. One evening I wanted to cook something that required browning turkey and asked her how to turn the light on over the stove? She replied that it was broken and never worked to which I suggested that we replace the bulb. She replied that the bulb had been replaced but still did not work when I noticed that there were two switchs located next to the stove and considering there were no windows in the kitchen, would have been hard to see unless the light over the stove was turned on. I decided to flip one of them on only to have the light above the stove turn on! Next I flipped the other switch and the vent hood fan started up - and my soon to be wife (an attorney) was suddenly very, very embarassed.

After we got engaged, we leased a nice house that had a Microwave/Electric oven combination that included a bread warmer. While moving in, the task of putting things away in the kitchen fell equally on both of our shoulders and not knowing any better, she assumed that the bread warmer was a suitable place for storing pots, oven pans and tupperware! A week later she decided to bake some buttermilk biscuits and shortly after the biscuits were in the oven, I started to notice the pungent odor of styrene melting!

I proceeded to the kitchen and looked at the oven but the opaque coating on the glass did not reveal much so I then opened the oven to look inside. As soon as I opened the oven door, sooty, black smoke came belching out followed by the kitchen smoke detector going off! I got a kitchen mitt and removed the blackened biscuits but the smoke appeared to be comming from the bread warmer. I then began to pull the bread warmer drawer open when a large lick of flames rushed out.

I immediately closed the drawer and then turned to my now wide-eyed wife and above the screeching whine of the smoke detector asked her to call 9-1-1! Being the calm, cool, and collected type who is not phased by little things like setting the kitchen on fire, she quickly asked "who's that?" Although the fire department was there in minutes, fortunately the flames were able to be doused easily with a pitcher of water before they arrived. The fire fighters were very understanding and were even nice enough to setup one of their industrial electric fans to help ventilate the lingering smoke out of the kitchen!


Michael

 

[FN FAL]

I was in the garage of my house and was going to use a drill to do some work. Damm if the drill didn't run. I tried another outlet and same thing, no drill sound.

So, I go in the kitchen and plug the drill in and whirrrrrrr it goes.

What the heck?

I go down in the basement and I can't even find a circuit breaker for the garage. Hmmmmmm?

I then go upstairs and and drag all my work into the kitchen to drill and saw on. Made a big mess. Cleaned it up with the vacuum.

I decided to vacuum the rest of the house since I draged the appliance out. Was working my way down the hall when I ran out of cord. So I go ahead and plug the vacuum in the outlet in the bathroom. The vacuum doesn't work now. Hmmmm? The outlet is one of those Ground Fault Indicator kind with the two buttons on it. I push in the red one with the word "reset" on it and the vacuum spools up.

Now I'm curious. I go out to the garage and plug the drill in and it runs!

Who would have thought the dang outlets in the garage would have been wired to the GFI outlet in the bathroom?!!?

 

[banned username 2]

I walk over to the stove area and see a switch next to the disposal switch.. What does that do I wonder..... It turns the fuking light above the sink on!!

I've only been in the house a year... What a moron I am!!

Don't feel bad, I have been in my "new" house for almost 3 years... there is still a switch in my living room that I have no idea what it does... It's a friggin' mystery!

 

[Dash8]

Re: Re: Stupid Homeowner Stories

Don't feel bad, I have been in my "new" house for almost 3 years... there is still a switch in my living room that I have no idea what it does... It's a friggin' mystery!

Until a few months from now you get a letter from a guy in bavaria telling you to
'cut it the heII out'

 

[banned username 2]

Re: Re: Re: Stupid Homeowner Stories

Until a few months from now you get a letter from a guy in bavaria telling you to
'cut it the heII out'

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!

 

[NuGuy]

Re: Re: Re: Stupid Homeowner Stories

Until a few months from now you get a letter from a guy in bavaria telling you to
'cut it the heII out'

LOL, classic Stephen Wright...that guy was a scream.

I lost one of a pair of socks. Looked everywhere, couldn't find it, so I called information. I go "where is my sock", she said "behind the couch" and it was.

I got home late one night. It was dark, and I accidently tried to use my car keys to open the door. The house started. So I drove it around the neighborhood. Cop pulls me over, asks "where do you live", I go "right here".

He is the master of the deadpan delivery.

Best.
Nu

 

[avoidingmyboss]

I was in the garage of my house and was going to use a drill to do some work. Damm if the drill didn't run. I tried another outlet and same thing, no drill sound.

So, I go in the kitchen and plug the drill in and whirrrrrrr it goes.

What the heck?

I go down in the basement and I can't even find a circuit breaker for the garage. Hmmmmmm?

I then go upstairs and and drag all my work into the kitchen to drill and saw on. Made a big mess. Cleaned it up with the vacuum.

I decided to vacuum the rest of the house since I draged the appliance out. Was working my way down the hall when I ran out of cord. So I go ahead and plug the vacuum in the outlet in the bathroom. The vacuum doesn't work now. Hmmmm? The outlet is one of those Ground Fault Indicator kind with the two buttons on it. I push in the red one with the word "reset" on it and the vacuum spools up.

Now I'm curious. I go out to the garage and plug the drill in and it runs!

Who would have thought the dang outlets in the garage would have been wired to the GFI outlet in the bathroom?!!?

I did this 2 weeks ago and it took me a week to find the GFI, in the freaking laundry room. I put in a hot tub and discovered that my a/c was wired with #12 wire and was melting thru the insulation. Send Fire Marshal Bill over. Maybe they should U.A. test construction workers.

Where's my hammer?

 

[Flyguy5432H]

LOL, classic Stephen Wright...that guy was a scream.

this was one of my favorites:

"I'm going on a trip next week, a friend asked me how i was getting to the airport, told him i don't know, but i'm flying to one of them."

 

[TonyC]

Re: Re: Stupid Homeowner Stories

Don't feel bad, I have been in my "new" house for almost 3 years... there is still a switch in my living room that I have no idea what it does... It's a friggin' mystery!

I would bet that it controls power to a receptacle, probably designed to control a table lamp. It might even connect to only one half of a receptacle. I'd die of curiosity trying to find out.

 

[banned username 2]

Re: Re: Re: Stupid Homeowner Stories

I would bet that it controls power to a receptacle, probably designed to control a table lamp. It might even connect to only one half of a receptacle. I'd die of curiosity trying to find out.

Oh I tried them all the first week we were in the house (both sides of each and every outlet in that room and all ajoining rooms)...

Finally got distracted and gave up...

 

[TR4A]

Don't feel bad, I have been in my "new" house for almost 3 years... there is still a switch in my living room that I have no idea what it does... It's a friggin' mystery!

I have an extra switch next the one that turns on the gas fireplace. Turns out its for the optional fan that is not installed.

 

[FN FAL]

I did this 2 weeks ago and it took me a week to find the GFI, in the freaking laundry room. I put in a hot tub and discovered that my a/c was wired with #12 wire and was melting thru the insulation. Send Fire Marshal Bill over. Maybe they should U.A. test construction workers.

Did you mean your airconditioning was wired lightly or the whole house's alternating current wiring? I would have thought that electrical code would have prevented such a dangerous thing?

Looks like you may be a victim of wiring that met an "old" code when your house was built, or fradulent contractors. Or maybe the previous owner did a lot of electrical "handyman" craft work around the house.

Good thing you found out the wiring was a little light...I'd hate to think what would have happened.

 

[Ailerongirl]

We've been in this apt for 6 months now....following the 'what the he!! does this switch do' theme, there's a switch in my bedroom, right by my door that I haven't figured out yet....and I'm beginning to think it's one of those things I never will!

 

[avoidingmyboss]

Did you mean your airconditioning was wired lightly or the whole house's alternating current wiring? I would have thought that electrical code would have prevented such a dangerous thing?

Looks like you may be a victim of wiring that met an "old" code when your house was built, or fradulent contractors. Or maybe the previous owner did a lot of electrical "handyman" craft work around the house.

Good thing you found out the wiring was a little light...I'd hate to think what would have happened.

According to code in the local area they are supposed to use #8 for all 220. My house is 7 years old. Something tells me the contractor had something fishy going on. I would have never found the problem if I didn’t put in my hot tub.

 

[JohnDoe]

quote from FN FAL:

"Who would have thought the dang outlets in the garage would have been wired to the GFI outlet in the bathroom?!!?"



I feel your pain.....An outlet in my basement is connected to the GFI out in the garage.

 

[ibaflyer]

...there's a switch in my bedroom, right by my door that I haven't figured out yet....and I'm beginning to think it's one of those things I never will!

Could be for power to/for a ceiling fan or if there is a ceiling fan installed, then it could be for a light fixture attachment for the ceiling fan.

Just a guess.....

 

[350DRIVER]

How about moving from one house to another...

"we had a Uhaul truck in our driveway packed with boxes, etc, and this neighbor comes over and says ya'll moving?" I said " naww we just pack that truck up once or twice a week and drive around the block a few times out of sheer boredom"




3 5 0

 

[NuGuy]

According to code in the local area they are supposed to use #8 for all 220. My house is 7 years old. Something tells me the contractor had something fishy going on. I would have never found the problem if I didn’t put in my hot tub.

Bah, builders annoy me in the extreme. If you build in a development or with a large builder, you have to watch them every day, and call them on every single thing you find wrong. They just brazenly try to get away with as much as they can, betting on the fact that most people are too lazy, busy and/or stupid to catch them at it.

You go into a car dealership, pay $$$ to order a car, and magically, said car appears 3 months later, to your specs. You pay the nice man, sign the papers, take the keys and drive away. Too bad building/buying a house isn't like that.

Best,
Nu

 

[Brett Hull]

Bah, builders annoy me in the extreme. If you build in a development or with a large builder, you have to watch them every day, and call them on every single thing you find wrong. They just brazenly try to get away with as much as they can, betting on the fact that most people are too lazy, busy and/or stupid to catch them at it.


Nu

The wife and I just went through this. It was so bad, we told them they could either tear it all down and start over, or give us our money back. We got our money back. I think after they figured out they were dealing with people who had a clue, they were caught. Here's what it looked like: http://www.despair.com/demotivators/incompetence.html

Avoid D.R Horton like the plague.

 

[FN FAL]

Yea, we got two of those builders building neighborhoods full of cracker box homes. As you look at them, they just exude fine construction quality...not!

We just got an offer to manage the eight plex we are living in. We do not have to mow the lawn, and we do not have to clean the apartments if a tenant leaves it messy, and we do not have to shovel snow. We just have to drag the lawn sprinkler out in the summer time, take care of calling the plumber, electrician or the cleaning service for the proprietor, should there be a problem. We have to show the apartments that are being rented and change the filters in AC/heating units.

This drops our rent down to 450 a month for a two-bedroom apartment, which is less than 7 years old.

We are looking for a house, but even with low interest rates, those sumbatchin bascages have raised the prices of their homes through the roof. In the nice neighbor hood around the corner from us, there is at least 5 nice houses for sale and I bet they will still be sitting there next summer and into winter again. If interest rates go up, they will become crack houses before they sell. One just got finished being built, the siding does not match and they want 279,000 for it. The whole time those people were building it, it had a for sale sign in front of it. Good luck.

One of the houses for sale back there, that was actually close in price to what we could afford, was taken off the market because the owner could not sell it. It was a split-level and the wife was not interested in it. I thought about putting a low-ball offer on it, but I bet the person selling probably was tired of low-ball offers and decided to stay in it.

Another one back there is an L shaped ranch that is for sale. Nobody has lived in it for at least a year. I do not know how a person can afford to make a house payment on a house and turn down reasonable offers. It went from "for sale by owner" to being listed by a real estate agency. I would put in a lowball offer on that property, but 450 a month rent in a nice apartment is hard to give up.

There is a certain amount of flexibility with living in an apartment. No lawns to mow, money left over every month to play with or save and if a new job comes up, I can move without some albatross of a house hanging around my neck.

We just lost a bunch of manufacturing jobs in our state and that trend has been going on for over two years now. I would expect that even if interest rates do go up a bit, all these people trying to make a million dollars off their 175,000 dollar homes are going to have to wake up and smell the stagnant home selling coffee and list them houses at real prices. Not get rich quick prices.

 

[Salty Dog]

If the light switch is part of a two or three switch wall plate, it may very well be wired for separate light and fan. In the homes I build for a major production homebuilder (yeah, yeah, cracker box rubber stamper, whatever) we wire both to the light so the homeowner can see the switches work and know that they will work should they choose to install a fan.

If the switch is a loner it could be for an attic light. If you have a scuttle (square cut into the ceiling so they can blow in the insulation) it requires a light for inspection purposes. Even if it's not a walk-in attic. Dead walls often require multiple scuttles to get ceiling coverage where needed.

GFCIs require their own circuit to the breaker so they will string as many in series as possible before they loop it back in order to save wiring $, regardless if it makes sense or not. In our homes, we have the kitchen plugs reset only by a kitchen master, bathrooms reset in the master bath, and the front/back porch reset in the garage. Costs a little more, but it makes sense.

While DHI is the competition and I relish their bad press here, claiming the whole company is f-d up based on one person's experience would be like basing my assessment of an airline on one flight or crew.

My company bonuses builders based in large part on customer satisfaction surveys and it's probably not the only one.

Just trying to throw a little truth out there...

 

[katanabob]

Many years ago, my dad was bound and determined to hang this big mirror on a particular wall of our house. Unfortunately, every nail driven into the wall seemed to be repelled by the stud. They would go through the drywall, then 'magically' change direction. Nothing a drill can't solve, right? Mere moments (and a small pile of metal shavings) later, there is water coming out of the hole and the drywall is wet. Nothing a little duct tape can't fix, right? He breaks about a two-foot diameter hole in the wall (so he can get to the pipe) and begins the taping ritual.

The best part? The mirror was able to cover the hole perfectly, and noone believed my story until the family moved a decade later.