Nice things that have immediately been ruined

[riverpebbles]

I have loads. But two in particular come to mind.

1. Spent ages choosing a long down coat. Extremely indecisive but also v cold with ds playing football, so this was painful. Then within a week caught it on barbed wire and ripped it. Not badly, mended it invisibly, but the RAGE.

2. New kitchen installed (about 15 years ago) - always going to be stressful. Heavily pregnant, plus my DH got proper flu, so it was two weeks of hell. Within two weeks, I found a bag of potatoes that had rotted and the resulting revolting fluid had seeped right into the lowest shelf of the wall cabinet - you know, the bit that forms part of the structure.

Upgrading my phone after 8 years. It will be fine with this heavy duty case I thought. I will get one of those screen protectors soon. National Trust day out four days later, took a photo of nice flowers and it slipped out of my hand face down onto gravel and smashed screen. The repair was £300 so I didn't bother and lived with it until it was so unuseable and the repair price had finally come down.

If my dear Godmother were still alive, I’m sure she’d be on here, telling you about when I was staying for a couple of days with her at the age of about 7 or 8. This was in the late 60s/early 70s, polystyrene tiling was all the rage, and she’d just had some new tiles put on the bathroom wall.

God knows what was going on in my head, but I decided that she would like nothing better than to have me bodge my name in letters a foot high in the new tiles! There was absolutely no malicious intent, and I remember quite clearly thinking that she’d be immensely pleased to have a lasting reminder of my stay in her bathroom.

She was commendably restrained. I don’t remember any furious outburst, but I think she was very tight-lipped. I was left in no doubt about the inappropriateness of my actions, at any rate, and still cringe about it today.

I got a second hand M&S sofa in perfect condition. It was the exact make I wanted in the material I would have chosen - it was still available in the shops but too expensive. Getting it at a fraction of the price was unbelievable. Within the first week my daughter had got stains all over it.

Less than a year later I saw a leather sofa that was perfect for my room and matched my decor. It was a few years old but excellent condition with one scuff mark on the back. Once I got it cleaned and polished I was so happy because it looked fantastic. Within the first week my daughter had got pen all over one seat. It was not too bad but then she ripped the side a few weeks later.

I can't have anything nice - well I can - it just gets damaged very quickly.

I bought a lovely cashmere jumper. Following the guidelines I hand-washed it not to ruin it in the washing machine. Caught the bloody thing in my sink plug cover and ripped a hole in it. Aaaarrrghh!

@Fernandina

DH once reversed my brand new car into a wall at a filling station. He'd taken it to fill it up with petrol, and was absolutely mortified when he got home.

Luckily for him I saw the funny side.

My boss picked up her brand new car. Put it in reverse to drive off of the forecourt. Reversed into a post, put it straight in to first and went back on to the forecourt and left it there to get the dent fixed 🤣

We're currently renovating our new home. Already we have 4 chips in the tiled floor. It's a huge floor and took my DP forever to lay it. We're just going to have to live with it and try not to get too angry when we notice the chips.

Also bought a lovely slipper bath which we managed to get all the way home in a van, carried it to the outbuildings and my DP knocked over a very heavy rusty sharp metal pole the previous owners left and it hit the bath in the only place the padding had fallen off. I was so annoyed I didn't even care my DP almost broke his hand trying to stop the pole falling.

We got a £1000 carpet fitted on our stairs and landing.
The DAY that it was fitted, our terrier 'dug' at it and ripped a 20cm by 20cm hole in it - right in the middle of the landing.
We had to do a patch up job with a bit of off cut and it looked awful the entire rest of the time we lived in that house.
Said terrier is currently napping next to me, 6 years later and a lot calmer!

Brand new car, quite pricey.. 3 weeks after taking ownership, I hit a bird on a fast A road. Cracked & broke a bit of the plastic grille. Not really obvious until I point it out. BUT I KNOW ITS THERE!!!! 🙄

Bought DS4 a lovely down jacket from Boden as one of his Christmas presents. Being the 4th boy, he usually wore hand me downs. I woke up on Christmas morning to him showing me a rip in one f the front pockets. At first I was unhappy at the thought of having to return it. Then I found the wrapping it had been in & DS4 had blatantly got the scissors out of the kitchen drawer & cut right through the paper - and the coat fabric 😩. It was impossible to do an invisible mend.

Two that spring to mind are - accidentally putting a brand new cashmere jumper of dh's in the tumble dryer - when it came out it would've fit an action man.

And installing new granite workshops at a cost of about £3k - and a week later dropping a bowl on one which caused a 1cm chip right in the front and centre of the most noticeable part! I think I cried a bit.

@Manzana

our first own home, bought a new all in one fridge freezer, pristine, our flat mate brought home a surveying tripod, lent it against the kitchen wall where it gracefully tilted sideways and put a deep dent into the door of the fridge. I lived seeing that dent for the 20 odd years the fridge lasted.

Moved into a house, bought expensive top end new upright freezer. Put it in the utility room with the broom and mop. Broom SOMEHOW falls down across the closed door, one end on the wall, one end on the freezer door. Every time we try to open the utility door, the broom wedges more deeply into the brand new freezer door. Dent remains to this day.

My friend's parents had just bought a super fancy new family car. That same week her mother forgot to put the handbrake on and it rolled off the drive... Into the canal

@Helenahandkart

Inherited a beautiful 150 year old teacup from my grandmother - the one she drank out of as a child in the 1920s, and my ‘special’ teacup when I visited her. Unpacked it and immediately dropped it on my tile floor and smashed it into a billion pieces.

Oh this is heartbreaking. Reminds me of the time my grandmother gave me HER grandmother's watch. I was TEN (10), clearly too young for responsibility for heirlooms. But I wore it to school and lost it the same day. Never told my parents. Still burn BURN with shame.

Bought lovely Ted Baker dress for my sister's wedding. Took it to dry cleaners afterwards and only when I went to put it on for something else a few months later did I find the dry cleaners had damaged a large section of fabric at the back so I could never wear it again. Stopped using that dry cleaner after that.

Thank you all for making me feel so so so much better about my bad luck / carelessness. I now tell myself when I get anything slightly nice / expensive 'this will be wrecked one day, could be tomorrow, suck it up'.

Insisted my very elderly dad bought a new kitchen carpet (part of a campaign to rid his house of the smell of old age). Chose a near-indestructible 'you can scrub this with bleach' kind. Near £800. Looked beautiful. A few days later, burned my hand getting something out of the oven, dropped the hot tray - the carpet isn't heat-proof and will forever bear the outline of that tray, in melted synthetic fibres.

It's a few months ago now. Still hate myself for it. House, though, smells 'normal'.

Bought son a puffer coat, bit pricey but lasted for 3 years so good value and he loved wearing it. Wouldn’t wear any other coat.

By the time he was 8 it was looking small so I bought a new one for school and going out and told him to wear the old one for dog walks.

Literally the next day we were on a dog walk and son ripped his coat on something spiky. Turns out he’d put the new coat on, not the old one, and it started losing it’s down filling through a massive gash.

Ended up sticking something over it, but it looks a bit naff, so bought another one for school/best and told him to wear ripped/mended one for dog walks.

We were on a dog walk the other day and as it was nice and sunny I said we’d go a bit further than normal. Son threw a strop as didn’t want to go further and yanked at his coat in frustration, ripping the cuff. Turns out he was in the new coat.

So now has 2 ruined coats and no prospect of me buying a third...

Thank you for starting this thread OP 😆😆

Our lovely antique claw foot bath tub, the most expensive part of the bathroom. While cleaning it when it was first installed, I dropped some stupid eco-friendly glass bottled cleaner in it, damaging the enamel and the tap in one go.

My new black cashmere jumper+new cream carpets+a friend's mental cat= carpets ripped and covered with black fluff.

Brand new expensive shiny phone, first day I had it I had put it in my pocket. Was in our garden (which was patio) and noticed some weeds growing out of a slab. Bent down to yank them out, phone fell out of my pocket and the screen smashed to bits.

Also managed to drop another new phone as I was getting into the car and didn't notice. Reversed over it.

I'm not allowed fancy new phones anymore...

We had a lovely new wooden floor fitted and a relative dropped off a puppy as a surprise for the kids (and then promptly disappeared so couldn’t return to them ) who proceeded to pee all over it and destroy it. Puppy was lovely but the floor sadly wasn’t any longer

We'd just had a lovely new induction hob fitted.

A couple of weeks later, DH drops a saucepan on it and chips the edge.....

Refurbed master bedroom. Cream everything. First day after putting finishing touches to room, left for work not knowing the cat was hiding under the bed. Came home to find she has shat all over the new bedding, clawed the very expensive new curtains and tried to dig her way out of the door and ruined the new carpet. I did cry.

Painted my bedroom the loveliest soft rose. I would just sit in my room and stare at the walls in bliss. That winter we had an ice dam problem and I woke one day to see water pouring down my beautiful walls. Took ages to fix and then was so discouraged I I painted them bog standard cream.

Brand new carpet, just laid ... dropped a massive tin of white paint on it. I cried.