The main purpose of our trip was to wrap up the renovations on our future apartment. Although things aren't as far along as we had hoped they would be, we're certainly making progress and have set our move date for September 21st (we'll return to our town on Monday to pack things up before coming back here on the 21st).
As Richard has been busy supervising the renovations, he's had so many crazy/interesting/weird experiences that I keep telling him he should blog about it. But the reality is, he's too busy and tired to really think about it. So here's some randomness about our new place and the crazy process involved:
- The control to our shower head is at the height of my head. Who knows why, but unfortunately, we weren't around when they were working on this. Good thing I'm not short!
- A few days ago, somebody came to install faucet to our bathroom sink. To prevent any leaks, the guy started caulking around the pipe. Richard was appalled and showed him how to use a wrench to tighten the pipes. Richard tried to make sure that he understood that next time he didn't need to use caulk to install piping...he just needed to tighten the pipe!
- Another day, Richard was installing the bathroom cabinets he had bought online since he wanted to be sure that it was done properly. As Richard was drilling away (thanks to the drill set from J&J), the workers were marveling at his drill, complete with a set of different bit sizes. Sometimes Richard would see the workers struggling with something, then hand them a tool that he knew would make their lives a lot easier. The workers have been quite impressed saying that he has tools for everything! Not really, Richard has what we would consider a few basic tools. But good thing he brought them all because they are definitely being put to good use! We're a little perplexed as to how these workers can work WITHOUT tools!
- Typically bathrooms here are tiled rooms that get wet everywhere. There's no separation between wet and dry areas of a bathroom. We've designed our bathroom to have a wet shower area (which will be partitioned with a shower curtain) and a dry area with the toilet and the sink. One of the workers thought that this was so innovative. We were encouraged that at least he thought our design made a lot of sense (instead of thinking that we're just foreigners with weird ideas) and thought that soon, other people will want a bathroom like ours. This made us chuckle.
- Right now, Richard is over at the apartment removing the covers/plates to the electrical outlets and light switches. The painters are prepping the walls and think that removing the covers is really strange. They think we should just tape around the outlets and let them paint around it...but we know that the paint will get everywhere. But they seem to think that once we take off the covers, we won't be able to put them back on later...I certainly hope that's not the case!
Anyhow, this whole process of renovating has been a crazy, stressful adventure that we're glad is almost finished. Just a few more weeks!
