As a follow up my father took a replacement machine out to one place, flew in to meet up with it on delivery. took the crowbar out to strip the box down to be stopped by the factory staff who dismantled it much more carefully as one of the staff wanted the box to live in. Turns out that the machine that he had delivered twenty years earliers box was still housing the family of the same member of staff who'd had it straight after the last delivery. so there was much competition for the new house.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.