This is how I feel when someone floods my apartment (again) and causes me to have no TV or Internet while another person attempts to do repairs:
On the first day of repairs, I was expecting a lot of work to be done because last time they had to cut holes in the ceiling, which caused a big mess. So I got my PSW, Kayla to cover everything and put away the TV. The TV and Internet are hooked up together and can only be plugged in where the painter has to work, so I just used data on my phone for entertainment.
"It looks like a giant piano!"
On the day of the actual flood, the water came through the lights, so an electrician came to make sure everything was safe. He told me he'd come back the next day and not to use the ceiling fan until then. Mysteriously, he never returned so I waited a few days to try out the fan. It still worked but it wobbled and looked like it might decapitate someone if it came off. I was hoping the electrician would come back but the building's supervisor told me, "The painter can fix it." This rubbed me the wrong way. Nothing against painters, but sometimes painters are just good at painting--not fixing. I asked if the painter was also considered a repairman, due to the previous disasters in my apartment with someone who should have stuck to painting. She never replied. When I told the painter about the fan, he didn't want to touch it in case it fell down, but the supervisor convinced him to do it. As he worked on it, it dropped further from the ceiling, so he just gave up and left it hanging by the cords. Then he went onto his next job. He didn't offer to put the TV back so now there was no TV, Internet, light or safety.
See the patch of mud? That's all he did that day besides wreck the fan. He told me the screws were stripped and the fan needed bigger screws or to be replaced altogether. I had Kayla look at the screws and she said they were fine. I was really uncomfortable with the fan like that so I emailed and phoned the supervisor and I had no reply. The painter was supposed to come back the next day but he had to go to the hospital so I sat another day without the electronics. As you may know, I am doing a series of collages for my wall (so it will look like one big collage) and I used this time to catch up on that project.
I didn't end up using these pieces but I'm sure you'll see them down the road.
"Travelling with Asthma"
My other PSW, Tanya came that night and took one look at the fan and said, "I'm calling my husband!" and they had the fan put back up in ten minutes. I didn't tell the supervisor because I didn't think I'd get a reply.
The next day she called me to tell me an electrician was coming to look at the fan.... I told her that a friend fixed it and she said, "Oh goodness! This is going to cost money!" So I guess she cancelled him, but if she had told me she had planned on getting an electrician, I would have waited. How long was I supposed to just leave it hanging like that without a response? The painter came a few minutes later and was so rude about the fan. He told me it won't stay up because we didn't use bigger screws. Um, they are the screws meant for the fan and Tanya's husband wouldn't them if they were actually stripped! He didn't even paint. He took five minutes to add another coat of mud. Then he left again. Since then, the paint can and I have awaited his return, which will hopefully be this afternoon.
