Returning from vacation horror stories - lets hear'em

This sort of came up in another thread but I think it would be fun to have a thread of it’s own. I’m sure that if I search I would find one, but I’m lazy so I’m starting a new one.

Returning from vacation horror stories. Not the horror stories while your on vacation but that would be a fun thread as well, but the surprises you have upon your return and discover that that on little thing you though you took care of, wasn’t. Pictures of course would add to the experience and I have one to go along with my story which I will post up when I get home from work.

Our worst returning from vacation horror story started the day we left and worked its magic for the nearly three weeks we were gone. One of my boys decided to take a swig of milk probably as the limo was waiting in the driveway and forgot to put the milk back in the fridge. For three weeks the milk sat on the counter. I bet it got hot in there too as it was the middle of July, the air was off, and the house was sealed tight.

We got back from vacation in the late afternoon and as soon as I unlocked the door the smell hit you. It was strong, very very strong. It was sour, dead, and rotten smelling all at the same time. As I entered I saw them, flies, thousands of flies all over the windows trying to get out. It looked like a scene right out of the Amityville Horror as the buzzed from window to window. There were way too many to squash as each window had hundreds.

My wife found the source, the gallon of milk left on the counter ½ filled with maggots and covered in flies. That went right into a plastic bag and just to send them off to wherever flies go, a liberal dose of Raid was squirted into the garbage bag as well. As to the ones flying around, well the most effective way to get those guys was with a shop vac. I just went from window to window vacuuming them up. After about two hours of this they were getting pretty space but even so, we kept a flypaper strip in the kitchen and other rooms for a week and every day there would be a few new ones.

So lets hear your returning from vacation horror stories.

woooow that is a bad one! I would have had to move out of the house.

To finish up with the story, here are the pics.

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Well, it wasn't exactly coming home from vacation, but when my wife and I came home from the hospital on 9-17-07 with our new (and first) baby girl we pulled into the driveway and I could tell something wasn't right. the walk from our drive way to the front door was wet, there was no rain and the sprinklers hadn't done it. I went to see if the hose had been turned on and left on, but it was off. Thats when I noticed water coming out of the drain connected to the closet where the washer/dryer are and the water heater. As I looked down the front of the house I saw water coming out from all along the front of the house between the wall and the slab. I ran inside and the whole house had flooded from the water heater blowing! The dogs were running up and down the hallway with water splashing all around them and looked like they were having a great time! two and a half weeks of living with my parents we got back in, but the insurance wouldn't pay for new carpet (that was 11 years old) so we had to pay for that ourselves. That went from a great day to a bad one really fast!!!

What happens when a hotel throws caution to the wind?

A $17.5 million dollar lawsuit, that's what happens. At least to this hotel that decided to bypass the carbon monoxide detector on the boiler. The detector had switched off the boiler for safety reasons while staff simply bypassed it to please the hotel occupants need for hot water. The air conditioning system sucked up the carbon monoxide leaving some with illness and some with brain injury.

Rutha73 wrote in post #4718851
I ran inside and the whole house had flooded from the water heater blowing!

I had something like that happen to me a couple of times. First time, I got home alone from a trip to see water coming from out of the basement door... opening the door revealed a flooded basement in a good two inches of water, and I could hear gushing water from inside. A hot water pipe in the ceiling had burst and was spewing water everywhere.

The second time was similar, except didn't result in as much damage. I was at home at the time, and heard what sounded like a gunshot from inside the house, followed by the sound of gushing water. Considering that I was home alone at the time in the building I was a bit apprehensive when I went to investigate! Turned out to be a toilet's ceramic water tank had spontaneously cracked and split down the middle.

Triptoph wrote in post #4773668
...! Turned out to be a toilet's ceramic water tank had spontaneously cracked and split down the middle.

Hmmm… Too much a$$buse I see. Maybe someone is spending a bit too much time perusing the photography mags while perched on the throne.

When I came home, I couldn't believe it! I was the same person that left for vacation. No improvements.

This happened when I was a kid. We had gotten home from my dad's softball tournament/vacation in Florida. It had rained at home almost the entire time we were gone. We came home to 18" of water in the basement. Some of it had dried, but you could tell where the water was by the markings it left on the walls. My mom and dad owned a shirt printing business and lost most of their inventory. Insurance of course paid for everything and we got a new basement. Apparently, there was an issue w/ the drainage system from the city and the storm drain backed up into our house causing the flooding.

I came home to a non functioning rear projection TV. Seems the image alignment circuits was hooped. Broke out the soldering gun and some parts from downtown and it was fixed. Saved $350 doing it myself.

Rutha73 wrote in post #4718851
Well, it wasn't exactly coming home from vacation, but when my wife and I came home from the hospital on 9-17-07 with our new (and first) baby girl we pulled into the driveway and I could tell something wasn't right. the walk from our drive way to the front door was wet, there was no rain and the sprinklers hadn't done it. I went to see if the hose had been turned on and left on, but it was off. Thats when I noticed water coming out of the drain connected to the closet where the washer/dryer are and the water heater. As I looked down the front of the house I saw water coming out from all along the front of the house between the wall and the slab. I ran inside and the whole house had flooded from the water heater blowing! The dogs were running up and down the hallway with water splashing all around them and looked like they were having a great time! two and a half weeks of living with my parents we got back in, but the insurance wouldn't pay for new carpet (that was 11 years old) so we had to pay for that ourselves. That went from a great day to a bad one really fast!!!

Wow. Somebody's water broke, all right. =)

"returning from vacation"


that is the horror story lol

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danpass wrote in post #4796152
"returning from vacation"


that is the horror story lol

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Boy, that's the truth.

I heard a story about a guy who had been messing around behind his girlfriends back - long story short, they split up, he goes on holiday to 'find himself', she goes to his house, soaks the carpets and sprinkles grass seed all over the place, weeks later he returns to an indoor lawn.

Robert16 wrote in post #4799264
I heard a story about a guy who had been messing around behind his girlfriends back - long story short, they split up, he goes on holiday to 'find himself', she goes to his house, soaks the carpets and sprinkles grass seed all over the place, weeks later he returns to an indoor lawn.

just fell off my chair!!!