We have been told that we are the first people living in this villa, that our compound is brand new. But there are sure a lot of problems for being new, as I'm sure I've mentioned. Also, I've noticed that building standards aren't even close to what they are at home. Here are some examples of what's "wrong" or not done well in our villa, and some of this is not just our villa, but how things are done here. (I write this for a few reasons. (1) So I can remember this. (2) Some of you readers might get a kick out of it, and 3. To remind myself when/if we leave that it wasn't all grand here ;) I am not complaining. I am grateful for what has been provided for us. It's just not built as it would be in America). Here's the list:
1. The exhaust vents in every bathroom and the kitchen (and not just in our villa, everywhere I've been) are really just a hole in the wall with a small box fan permanently attached to the wall in front of the hole. I can see daylight and the wall outside. So, that means that if you dont' keep the fan on at all times, the room gets super hot and an extra layer of dust finds its way into the house. And when it's so hot outside, you can't leave the fan off or you can't go into the bathroom. So we waste a lot of electricity keeping every exhaust fan on so that the rooms stay cool and not as dirty. The vent in the bathroom between Elliott's and Amelia's rooms broke (already? we had only been here a month and half.) and for two weeks we couldn't use the bathroom because it was like a sauna in there. It took the maintenance guys two week and about three phone calls just to come and look at it. It took me calling the guy and saying, "The vent is broken. I can't use the bathroom for my kids. I want someone here tomorrow to come look at it." And that's when they came. Unfortunately, another one it broken now. We had been told when we first got here that we would have to be firm and almost exaggerate how the situation in order for things to get fixed. I didn't exaggerate, but I was direct about it.
2. There is absolutely no weather stripping around the doors. Daylight comes in through the door in the kitchen and even more dust. The other two doors aren't as bad, but they also let in a bunch of hot air and dust. Some people have gaps under their doors about an inch wide.
3. The windows in the bedrooms and the living areas are all double windows. Where the two windows meet (overlapping each other) there is a gap in the top corner with nothing there! In Elliott's room, you can see the line of dust that has been blown in. I first noticed this just a few days ago when I opened Elliott's curtains and noticed that the air was significantly warmer. I hadn't opened his curtains at all because his window faces west and it always felt warmer in there. But it's cooling off so I opened the curtains. And then I saw the dust. And then the gap. There isn't another pane of glass. I can feel the air move in. When it's so hot and dusty, wouldn't it make sense to seal off the gaps? This morning our whole house smelled like a bon fire probably because of so many gaps in the walls, doors, and windows.
4. Our air conditioners drip water. The one in the front room dripped so much water that we had to keep the couch away from the wall so it wouldn't get wet. Then the one in our room started making a loud popping sound and then it dripped water quickly, requiring us to move our bed right before we went to sleep the night it started. We called maintenance and they fixed both. But now another one leaks, just not as bad, but it's leaving an orange line on the off-white wall.
5. There is caulk and grout missing in places. In bathrooms it's missing near showers. Around the house grout it missing in random spots between the tile on the floor. Grout falls out from between the tile below the outside lip of the tub and the tub if I lean on it to wash the kids. Our toilet, when we first came, had a "fix" that required caulking a pebble in between the lid and then tank. Steve asked them to fix that and so they just caulked the whole lid to the tank. Lovely.
6. A transformer in the tube lighting in the kitchen caught fire. (This could be a whole post on it's own.) On Saturday Oct. 20 I went to turn on the kitchen light, and it tripped the braker. So Steve switched it back and I turned the light on again. The braker was tripped again. So Steve called maintenance and someone came to look at it. Well, he didn't look at the light at all, he just moved the wires to a spare braker. But later that evening there was a hot smell, like something burning, but we couldn't see any smoke or really pinpoint where the smell was coming from. We assumed the guy fixed the problem, then there was a pop and a flash and the transformer was on fire. This time the braker was not tripped, the emergency light didn't come on (like it had when the braker was tripped earlier) and the smoke detector didn't go off. I had to manually switch the braker, but it wouldn't have done any good b/c the guy never mentioned what he did and he didn't label the switch on the braker box. Steve took the panel off and the woosh of air put out the fire. The maintenance guys came withint 15 minutes. He wanted to just replace the transformer, but Steve requested a whole new fixture since there was a fire, there's a likelihood of damage. Two days later we had two new fixtures. He replaced the other one as well. It looked like it was about to go as well. This whole experience doesn't inspire confidence in their system here. If the turning on the light trips the braker, wouldn't that suggest that there might be something wrong with the light? But we survived.
That's quite the list. The strange thing is that none of these things are new and are common enough that even I know about them. So why don't they do them?
1. The exhaust vents in every bathroom and the kitchen (and not just in our villa, everywhere I've been) are really just a hole in the wall with a small box fan permanently attached to the wall in front of the hole. I can see daylight and the wall outside. So, that means that if you dont' keep the fan on at all times, the room gets super hot and an extra layer of dust finds its way into the house. And when it's so hot outside, you can't leave the fan off or you can't go into the bathroom. So we waste a lot of electricity keeping every exhaust fan on so that the rooms stay cool and not as dirty. The vent in the bathroom between Elliott's and Amelia's rooms broke (already? we had only been here a month and half.) and for two weeks we couldn't use the bathroom because it was like a sauna in there. It took the maintenance guys two week and about three phone calls just to come and look at it. It took me calling the guy and saying, "The vent is broken. I can't use the bathroom for my kids. I want someone here tomorrow to come look at it." And that's when they came. Unfortunately, another one it broken now. We had been told when we first got here that we would have to be firm and almost exaggerate how the situation in order for things to get fixed. I didn't exaggerate, but I was direct about it.
2. There is absolutely no weather stripping around the doors. Daylight comes in through the door in the kitchen and even more dust. The other two doors aren't as bad, but they also let in a bunch of hot air and dust. Some people have gaps under their doors about an inch wide.
3. The windows in the bedrooms and the living areas are all double windows. Where the two windows meet (overlapping each other) there is a gap in the top corner with nothing there! In Elliott's room, you can see the line of dust that has been blown in. I first noticed this just a few days ago when I opened Elliott's curtains and noticed that the air was significantly warmer. I hadn't opened his curtains at all because his window faces west and it always felt warmer in there. But it's cooling off so I opened the curtains. And then I saw the dust. And then the gap. There isn't another pane of glass. I can feel the air move in. When it's so hot and dusty, wouldn't it make sense to seal off the gaps? This morning our whole house smelled like a bon fire probably because of so many gaps in the walls, doors, and windows.
4. Our air conditioners drip water. The one in the front room dripped so much water that we had to keep the couch away from the wall so it wouldn't get wet. Then the one in our room started making a loud popping sound and then it dripped water quickly, requiring us to move our bed right before we went to sleep the night it started. We called maintenance and they fixed both. But now another one leaks, just not as bad, but it's leaving an orange line on the off-white wall.
5. There is caulk and grout missing in places. In bathrooms it's missing near showers. Around the house grout it missing in random spots between the tile on the floor. Grout falls out from between the tile below the outside lip of the tub and the tub if I lean on it to wash the kids. Our toilet, when we first came, had a "fix" that required caulking a pebble in between the lid and then tank. Steve asked them to fix that and so they just caulked the whole lid to the tank. Lovely.
6. A transformer in the tube lighting in the kitchen caught fire. (This could be a whole post on it's own.) On Saturday Oct. 20 I went to turn on the kitchen light, and it tripped the braker. So Steve switched it back and I turned the light on again. The braker was tripped again. So Steve called maintenance and someone came to look at it. Well, he didn't look at the light at all, he just moved the wires to a spare braker. But later that evening there was a hot smell, like something burning, but we couldn't see any smoke or really pinpoint where the smell was coming from. We assumed the guy fixed the problem, then there was a pop and a flash and the transformer was on fire. This time the braker was not tripped, the emergency light didn't come on (like it had when the braker was tripped earlier) and the smoke detector didn't go off. I had to manually switch the braker, but it wouldn't have done any good b/c the guy never mentioned what he did and he didn't label the switch on the braker box. Steve took the panel off and the woosh of air put out the fire. The maintenance guys came withint 15 minutes. He wanted to just replace the transformer, but Steve requested a whole new fixture since there was a fire, there's a likelihood of damage. Two days later we had two new fixtures. He replaced the other one as well. It looked like it was about to go as well. This whole experience doesn't inspire confidence in their system here. If the turning on the light trips the braker, wouldn't that suggest that there might be something wrong with the light? But we survived.
That's quite the list. The strange thing is that none of these things are new and are common enough that even I know about them. So why don't they do them?
3 comments:
wow! so am I to understand that I should send caulk and grout and weatherstripping for your Christmas gifts? it sure does sound exciting. . .if you like that livin' on the edge with electricity kind of feeling. I think of you all the time.
Interestingly, a few of these also apply to the first apartment Nate and I had in Provo. We got a little stuffed wiener dog pillow thing to go against the base of our front door to keep the draft out and it seemed to help a lot. Since it helped us keep the cold out, maybe something similar would help keep the cold in for you?! Perhaps a rolled up towel? We also had to put some of those in our windows there b/c they didn't close all the way. It was a charming little place....
What a list! It made me wonder if the older villas have had EVERYTHING replaced by now and that it would seem like they are brand new. This makes me think of the phrase from A Tale of Two Cities.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"
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