drip drip drip
Last night was a bit more dramatic than our usual mundane weeknight. We had done dinner, bath and book as usual and were just winding the kids down for bed when I heard a tapping sound coming from the living room. To my horror the tap-tap-tap was being made by the relentless dripping coming down from the ceiling. After six weeks of living with it, we had already gotten used to the leaky ceiling, but the amount of water coming down and the rate at which it was dripping upped it to a whole new level altogether.
J and I immediately grabbed a big bucket and a bunch of old rags to mop up the big puddle on the floor. I called our concierge (a man who lives in another building in our estate whose job is to maintain and resolve any issues with the building) and told him what was going on in mangled French. Thankfully he is well familiar with our problem so he came over almost immediately. The first time the ceiling leaked, he came over to take a look and told me it was 'pas grave' (not serious) but when he saw the situation last night he definitely changed his tune. In just over thirty minutes, our large bucket was already almost half-full. The concierge brought over plastic sheets and extra buckets and somehow managed to construct a water collection contraption to collect the water from the various leaks (yes, leaks, plural) all along the big crack in the ceiling. After he left, J modified the water collection buckets so that we wouldn't have to wake in the middle of the night to empty them.
Now it looks like we live in a construction site. The ceiling is a mess. The entire room is a health and safety hazard. The constant sound of the water dripping onto the plastic sheet is very loud.
The kids were of course very excited about this sudden turn of events and got all revved up. It was impossible to put them to bed amidst all the fuss so they went to bed way past their usual bedtime. After they were asleep, J and I wrote a strongly-worded email in both French and English to our regie and attached photos and a video of the situation. The only good thing about the huge contraption in our living room is that it made our photos look more dramatic than if it were just a bunch of buckets on the floor.
J told me this morning that he had bad dreams all night about the ceiling collapsing in on us.
This morning various people walked in and out of the apartment to shake their heads solemnly at our ceiling. Someone from the regie's office called and promised that repair works to the room upstairs directly above us were going to begin today. Later on, some repairmen came to take measurements of the room - it looks like our entire ceiling will need to be replaced, and it is a HUGE ceiling. Our living and dining areas share the same ceiling and together the length of the wall is something like 12 metres. The repairmen told me that they expected the works upstairs to be finished tomorrow, then the pipes/room had to be dried out, and then they will start repair works in our apartment next week.
I hope this will finally be it - the repair, the end of the problems. It has been SIX WEEKS since the first leak and the regie claims that it is the insurance company that is holding everything up. I can't understand why. How can a country like Switzerland, which boasts such a high standard of living, allow us to live like this? J is beginning to flex legal muscles and I am so glad we have left a constant electronic trail of what happened when, and how nothing was done all this while. The repairmen who came this morning were the same men who came six weeks ago to look at the first crack, before everything began to deteriorate. Today I overheard one of them mutter into his phone, 'c'est grave' (it's serious). I told them, winter is almost here, and Christmas - what about Christmas, what about the children? (Admittedly we don't do anything special for Christmas in our family but to the Europeans Christmas is a Big Deal so that's one more card I can play.)
Actually, I'm not surprised. Things can be so inefficient here. When there's a problem in the apartment and repairmen come to take a look, they literally appear on your doorstep with just a measuring tape and a piece of paper. They assess the problem, make notes, and then promise to call back with an appointment to fix it. Sometimes it can be fixed within the week. For other things, like a broken window in The Bun's room, it took something like three weeks before they managed to cut the glass to measure, bring it to the apartment, and install it.
So I'm a little sceptical about their promise to repair our ceiling next week. We're just going to have to continue leaning heavily on them. I have now added words like 'unacceptable', 'compensation' and 'ridiculous' to my French vocabulary. I'm not looking forward to the actual repair work and the mess and disruption it will create at home but I can live with all that provided everything is fixed once and for all! At times like these, I really miss Singapore and its efficiency.
J and I immediately grabbed a big bucket and a bunch of old rags to mop up the big puddle on the floor. I called our concierge (a man who lives in another building in our estate whose job is to maintain and resolve any issues with the building) and told him what was going on in mangled French. Thankfully he is well familiar with our problem so he came over almost immediately. The first time the ceiling leaked, he came over to take a look and told me it was 'pas grave' (not serious) but when he saw the situation last night he definitely changed his tune. In just over thirty minutes, our large bucket was already almost half-full. The concierge brought over plastic sheets and extra buckets and somehow managed to construct a water collection contraption to collect the water from the various leaks (yes, leaks, plural) all along the big crack in the ceiling. After he left, J modified the water collection buckets so that we wouldn't have to wake in the middle of the night to empty them.
Now it looks like we live in a construction site. The ceiling is a mess. The entire room is a health and safety hazard. The constant sound of the water dripping onto the plastic sheet is very loud.
The kids were of course very excited about this sudden turn of events and got all revved up. It was impossible to put them to bed amidst all the fuss so they went to bed way past their usual bedtime. After they were asleep, J and I wrote a strongly-worded email in both French and English to our regie and attached photos and a video of the situation. The only good thing about the huge contraption in our living room is that it made our photos look more dramatic than if it were just a bunch of buckets on the floor.
J told me this morning that he had bad dreams all night about the ceiling collapsing in on us.
This morning various people walked in and out of the apartment to shake their heads solemnly at our ceiling. Someone from the regie's office called and promised that repair works to the room upstairs directly above us were going to begin today. Later on, some repairmen came to take measurements of the room - it looks like our entire ceiling will need to be replaced, and it is a HUGE ceiling. Our living and dining areas share the same ceiling and together the length of the wall is something like 12 metres. The repairmen told me that they expected the works upstairs to be finished tomorrow, then the pipes/room had to be dried out, and then they will start repair works in our apartment next week.
I hope this will finally be it - the repair, the end of the problems. It has been SIX WEEKS since the first leak and the regie claims that it is the insurance company that is holding everything up. I can't understand why. How can a country like Switzerland, which boasts such a high standard of living, allow us to live like this? J is beginning to flex legal muscles and I am so glad we have left a constant electronic trail of what happened when, and how nothing was done all this while. The repairmen who came this morning were the same men who came six weeks ago to look at the first crack, before everything began to deteriorate. Today I overheard one of them mutter into his phone, 'c'est grave' (it's serious). I told them, winter is almost here, and Christmas - what about Christmas, what about the children? (Admittedly we don't do anything special for Christmas in our family but to the Europeans Christmas is a Big Deal so that's one more card I can play.)
Actually, I'm not surprised. Things can be so inefficient here. When there's a problem in the apartment and repairmen come to take a look, they literally appear on your doorstep with just a measuring tape and a piece of paper. They assess the problem, make notes, and then promise to call back with an appointment to fix it. Sometimes it can be fixed within the week. For other things, like a broken window in The Bun's room, it took something like three weeks before they managed to cut the glass to measure, bring it to the apartment, and install it.
So I'm a little sceptical about their promise to repair our ceiling next week. We're just going to have to continue leaning heavily on them. I have now added words like 'unacceptable', 'compensation' and 'ridiculous' to my French vocabulary. I'm not looking forward to the actual repair work and the mess and disruption it will create at home but I can live with all that provided everything is fixed once and for all! At times like these, I really miss Singapore and its efficiency.