Ok, the real subject of this post are the home improvements
that have been going on around our house for the past year:
- The Great Leak of ‘11
- Tore out our old wood floor that had gotten water under it during the Great Leak of ’11
- Added windows to our balcony to make them more functional year-round
- Fixed a leaky shower
- Got an air conditioning unit installed (yay!)
As I mentioned in an earlier post, getting repair people to
come out to your house here is nearly impossible. For example, the Great Leak
of ’11 started about 4 days before our wedding. My parents, my brother and I
were staying in the new house the week before the wedding. Everything was
already getting pretty stressful, then a phone call came from my soon-to-be
husband one night after everyone had checked in – the neighbors had called him
to say we were leaking on them and could I go downstairs and check it out. I was
sleeping in the living room, so I had to wake everyone up just to find some
clothes, and went downstairs. Yep. We were leaking. We called the guy who had
done our bathroom remodel every day for the next three days, but somehow he
just couldn’t squeeze us into his schedule. To me, this was an emergency. We
could not take showers. We could not do laundry. I was getting married. He
finally got around to coming while we were on our honeymoon. My in-laws (they
aren’t reading this, but a big shout-out to them) came and took care of it
while we were gone. My mother-in-law told me after the fact she actually broke
out in cold sores after seeing a three foot high pile of rubble in what used to
be our bathroom, and all of the new flooring torn out. When we got back the
house looked exactly the same as when we left, and the leak was fixed. Turned
out it wasn’t the bathroom guy’s fault after all. Faulty furnace pipes.
Our wood floor didn’t take too nicely to all of that water,
though, so we finally decided we should replace it after my MIL and also my
best friend who was visiting fell through the floor a little. Having guests
falling through the floor is something to be avoided, if you can. So, in March
sometime we had the floor replaced in the living room, which meant clearing out
all of the furniture, paying a guy to come tear up the floor, re-plastering the
bottom of the walls ourselves, painting the room, then getting the new floor
put in. We decided not to do the floor ourselves since it didn’t cost that much
more to just have someone else who knew what they were doing do it. It took a
total of about 4 days. My father-in-law
saved us by coming each day to let the workers in and supervise them. He also
came when the windows were installed on the balcony, and before we even moved
into the house he came to supervise the bathroom , new windows, and new furnace
projects. He’s a life saver!
Here's me enjoying the new floor before we moved in all the furniture!
I repaired the leaky shower myself finally after the shower guys flaked out on us five times or so. I felt like quite the handy woman with my silicone gun and fixity powers.
Our most recent project is the A/C unit that came last
night. The guys were an hour late, and we started panicking and calling them
every 10 minutes. Turns out the delivery guy’s phone ‘ran out of battery’ and
that’s why we couldn’t contact him. My guess is he was eating dinner, which is
fine, but I just wish people would tell the truth. Two installation guys came,
and they decided that the best way to install it would be to lower it with a
rope from our upstairs neighbor’s house. Wait, WHAT? Is this normal? Why do I
ask if things are normal anymore? So, I was assigned the lovely task of going
upstairs and asking our neighbors who we’ve never met if we can lower our air
conditioning from their balcony with a rope. At least we got to meet our neighbors!
They said sure, not problem, and we gave them some cherries as a thank you.
They didn’t actually lower the a/c. They tied a rope and one guy pulled it up out
of our house and positioned it from their balcony. We were a little disappointed
at the end when he told us that we were all set – and we would just have to get
an electrician to hook everything up now. Um, what? I thought that was your
job. Anyway, we’ll try to get an electrician tonight and hopefully sit in a
blissfully climate-controlled room tonight. You just never know what will
happen here. I’m trying to roll with the punches.
Success!
Has anyone in other places had unreliable home improvement
people? I am starting to realize why the DIY movement is so big in the US. If
want something done right…DIY!
Pictures to come!
No comments:
Post a Comment