Liliana De Klerk had planned to order a Chinese takeaway, put on a film and collapse on the sofa.
Instead she opened her front door and screamed.
Every room in the family’s five-bedroom home in Blackburn, West Lothian, had been destroyed.
A frozen pipe in the attic had burst while they were away for three weeks in South Africa, sending water cascading through the entire house.
The flooring was ruined. The ceilings had caved in. A building surveyor has since put the repair bill at £158,000.
“It was like a waterfall,” the 41-year-old told CreatorZine.
“The flooring was all destroyed, the ceiling was on the floor. I screamed, ‘Why us, why us?’ and started crying.”
The house will have to be stripped to its beams
The damage is so extensive that every wall and floor needs to be ripped out, the structure left to dry, and the entire interior rebuilt from scratch.
The family has been told it could take up to a year. Insurance will cover the structural repairs, but their contents claim has not yet been approved.
De Klerk, a senior recruiter for a pharmaceutical company, said the couple had been gradually turning the property into their dream home.
The living room, bathroom and kitchen had all recently been redone.
“I literally lost everything,” she said. “I mourn the memories. I lost pictures, my kids’ baby items, first drawings. We have lost everything from clothes to furniture to toys. It’s all gone.”
Her daughter broke her femur two days into the holiday
The flooding was not the first disaster. Four-year-old Charlize fell down stairs two days into the family’s trip to South Africa and broke her femur.
She needed surgery, with a plate and screws inserted into her leg.
She cannot walk for six weeks and faces another operation in six months to have the plate removed.
On the flight home, Charlize told her mother she could not wait to get into her own bed and cuddle her teddies to help her leg feel better.
Her bedroom sat directly above the water tank. Everything in it was destroyed.
“Her room was above the water tank. She lost everything,” De Klerk said. “My son is devastated too. He is very quiet. He likes to chill in his room and have some time for himself.”
Seven-year-old Killian no longer has a room to retreat to.
A one-bedroom hotel and no family in the UK
The family of four is now living in a single hotel room in Bathgate while they wait for the insurance process to move forward.
De Klerk and her husband Jean, also 41, have no relatives in the UK, which has made the situation harder to manage.
Friends have filled the gap. De Klerk’s best friend collected the children immediately so they would not have to see the house.
Others have sent donations, washed clothes and offered whatever they could.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help replace essentials while the family faces months of displacement.
“People’s generosity has been incredible,” De Klerk said. “The whole community has stepped up.”
Why it matters
Burst pipes during cold snaps are not rare, but £158,000 of damage from a single incident is the kind of figure that makes homeowners check their loft insulation.
De Klerk says there was no warning, no sign anything was wrong before they left, and that they maintain the property every year.
For anyone planning an extended trip during winter, the story is a blunt reminder that the risk is not theoretical.
The family did everything right and still came home to a shell.
De Klerk said it feels like a mountain that is impossible to climb. Insurance will eventually cover the structure.
What it cannot replace is a four-year-old’s teddies or a seven-year-old’s quiet space. The family waits.
