Lessons from the “Plagues” of the Past Year and a Half: Part 2

Negligence, Not Fate

The past year and a half has been… a lot.

Medical crisis. Safety scares. Floods. Contractors. Insurance battles. Mechanical failures. And a steady stream of moments that made me stop, look around, and say out loud, “Are you kidding me?!”

If I hadn’t lived it, I’m not sure I would believe all of this could happen to one family in such a relatively short period of time. But it did – and while I wouldn’t wish these experiences on anyone, they’ve left me with some hard-earned lessons worth sharing.

This four-part series is about those lessons. Not silver linings or inspirational platitudes, but real-life takeaways forged in moments when things kept going wrong, even after it felt like we’d already had our share.

One of the hardest lessons I’ve learned is this:

Many disasters aren’t caused by bad luck or extreme weather. They’re caused by ordinary negligence.

And that’s a tough thing to accept, because it means doing everything “right” doesn’t always protect you.

The Flood That Started with a Garden Hose

In early November 2024, we learned that our Key West rental condo had flooded. This wasn’t due to a storm, a hurricane, frozen pipes, or anything we did wrong.

The elderly neighbor next door decided to take a garden hose into his attic to unclog his AC drain line. What he says he didn’t realize was that his drain line runs through our attic before exiting the building. When he turned on the hose, water flooded both levels of our condo.

Tens of thousands of dollars of damage. Ceilings, walls, floors – all soaked.

Here’s what saved us: a renter had checked in the day before, much earlier than usual for the season. He noticed the problem quickly, reported it, and mitigation started right away. Normally, the condo would have been empty, and the damage might not have been discovered for weeks, giving Florida heat and humidity plenty of time to do what they do best.

It could have been far worse.

When “It Rains, It Pours” Isn’t Just a Saying

Exactly one week later, we got another call – this time from the cleaning crew at our beach house. They check on the house monthly during the off-season. When they arrived, the carpet in a middle-floor bedroom was soaking wet. (The lower level is just storage and garage, with the kitchen and living areas on the top floor – an inverted house.)

A contractor working on the upper deck had left shingles off the roof where it meets the deck. After six weeks of no rain, of course, it rained. Straight down. Into the open roof. Through ceilings, walls, and floors. Water even came out of light fixtures.

About $20,000 in repairs, and again, it could have been so much worse. We live an hour and a half away and wouldn’t have been there until Thanksgiving. The cleaning crew caught it weeks earlier, right after it happened.

That phrase kept running through my head: When it rains, it pours. Sometimes literally!

I did manage to find some humor when a woman from the insurance company returned my call, and I had to ask which flooded property she was calling about. She probably thought I was strange since I had initiated the claim. Little did she know I was now juggling two flooded properties at once.

Not Everything Is Malice, But Damage Is Damage

Here’s the thing: I don’t believe most of this was intentional. No one woke up planning to flood our properties or cause massive damage. But negligence doesn’t have to be malicious to be devastating.

A garden hose in an attic.
An open roof left unattended.
Later, plastic sheeting over a furnace exhaust (see “Part 1”).
Siding installed over vents.

These were ordinary decisions made without enough care, and we paid the price.

Yes, we are fortunate to own multiple properties. I don’t minimize that. But responsibility scales with ownership, and so does exposure. When something goes wrong, it doesn’t go wrong quietly.

The Bandwidth Problem

Somewhere between finding and fixing the propane leak at the beach and choosing a new furnace for home – an unexpected Christmas present – the rental agent in Key West called in early December. The thermostat in the condo had failed, and the renters couldn’t control the temperature.

It wasn’t expensive. It wasn’t dramatic. It was just one more thing – arriving at exactly the wrong moment.

That’s how accumulation works. It’s not always the big disasters that exhaust you. It’s the steady drip of responsibility when you’re already stretched thin.

The Lesson

What this season has taught me is that you can do everything right and still be affected by other people’s mistakes. And when that happens, documentation matters. Inspections matter. Follow-up matters. Assuming someone else handled it correctly is a risk.

Trust, but verify, especially when safety, structure, or water is involved.

And perhaps most importantly: when something feels preventable, it’s okay to be frustrated. Acknowledging that it isn’t being dramatic. It’s being honest.

Because sometimes the hardest part isn’t the damage itself. It’s knowing it didn’t have to happen.

Up next in Part 3: what happens when systems fail you, why “no” is often just the first answer, and how taking things to the next level made all the difference.