Living by the tracks

Every day the people living beside the train tracks watch hundreds of people pass by on trains.

And in turn, passers by catch glimpses of them in their homes, in their yards.
Bathing, cooking, doing the laundry.
Heading off to school.

One life standing still, one blurring past.

Or maybe standing still an illusion.

Stacking bricks

It's kind of fascinating to me how you can stack brick on top of brick on top of brick, and then it's possible for person to live on top of person to live on top of person.
Rectangles of brick that make up rectangle boxes of rooms that separate us from one another and give us some semblance of our own space and privacy.
Delhi: as far as the eye can see is
brick stacked on brick stacked on brick--person stacked on person stacked on person...

Incredible.

Billowing curtains

I love to watch my curtains blow in the breeze. Billowing.

It's very relaxing to watch the interplay of light and color, shadow and movement.

If I didn't have work to do, I'd just sit mesmerized by them.

That curtain man was right to take pride in his work.

If only it didn't include the background construction noises...

Latest painting projects

My latest painting projects have been this stool, which came with the apartment and which all the handymen have used and abused. I was making it live outside. But now that I've painted it and it's clean, it can live in the house.
I also got a mailbox. The mailman just lays the mail on the bottom step of the building where anyone could take it. I hope that by putting the mailbox up, the bills and letters and packages will actually get to me. Mailboxes are not common things. And it was not easy to find one. This one was handmade out of stainless steal and needed painting. Maybe I should have made it red, a more standard mailbox color, but I wanted blue.

Another carpenter, another mess

I have invited another carpenter over. (Will it never end?)
He is hard at work making a mess. And making a new window to replace the rotted one the landlord's friend broke on my first day here.
I am chagrined at the sight of so much sawdust again. But also know that monsoon is coming and I have to be able to keep out the rain, and the birds.

Couch transformation

The landlord left a couch in the apartment. I agreed that it could stay only if I could have it re-upholstered. He said I could do whatever I wanted to it.
It was in terrible shape, flattened cushions and crusty material.
I had it fixed. It's condition could only be improved from what it was, and it sure is better now.
Watch the transformation from disgusting and ugly to green and able-to-be-sat-upon:

Sparkly paint

When I first went out to look for paint (weeks ago), I was shown the shade chart and at the bottom were some sparkly swatches.
"What's this?" I asked. "Is it really shiny like this?"
Sure enough. Metallic paint colors.
Great. I took two liters.

I had to wait awhile for the specialized painter to be available to come paint the wall for me. First he wanted to come when I wasn't home. Then it was a problem with the compressor for the airbrush. Then a scheduling conflict.
But today, he finally came.

It didn't even take very long.
Now I have a pretty sparkly wall.

Can you see it sparkle?

More paint

I've been doing some painting.
There were beds and a shelf left in the apartment for me to use but they were in very bad condition. Instead of replacing the damaged wood and vinyl, I striped it off, sanded them down and painted them all. They look much better--and cleaner--now.
And that means that my guest room is finished--so you can come and visit me.

Enjoy the curtains

The curtains are fixed now. It took me two days to beat the dust out of them and thoroughly clean the windows--it's hard to clean with your arms so high above your head.
They're pretty. Now I can enjoy them.
And now I wouldn't mind if the curtain man came back. :)

Assembling a bed

Today I put together the bed.
I thought it would be harder than it was. I am relieved that it was not.
Now I have a place to sleep.

Sparkling clean

I spent six hours cleaning the bathroom today. I even got the corroded metal faucets to shine once more.
I don't know if my fingers have ever been this pruney.
It is finally a room clean enough that I give it a mark of satisfaction. That means: one down, six rooms to go.
If you can't really see the sparkle, humor me and pretend you can.

The painter is gone

It has been twenty-four days since he first showed up and said painting the apartment would take ten days.
Four rooms and five colors later, he cleaned his last paint brush and said goodbye.
He's been a helpful person to have around. Beyond his painter duties, he's made the carpenter not take too many naps, found a glass guy to fix things, made sure the trash collector didn't ask for too much money, gone to find a locksmith when I was locked out, and bought wire for the electrician.
When he finished, he only asked for $20 above his original estimate. I didn't mind that at all.
As helpful as he's been, though, I'm so glad he's gone and I'm that much closer to having things finished around here.

New cupboards

The cupboards were another thing in very bad shape when I first arrived. Warped from weather and years of being unused, termite eaten. The formica was peeling off the cupboard doors and they were a mess.
I had the doors removed, thinking maybe new doors with new formica--known here as shamica--would do the trick and be enough. But two carpenters came to give me estimates on the work and both said the whole thing needed to go because it was in such bad shape.
All right then. Give me something new and pretty.
Six days later I had new cupboards with nice, green shamica. They just needed painting, and no problem there because the painter was still hanging around painting things.
Behold the transformation. I have kitchen cupboards. And when the paint dries, I'll put something in them.

Washing machine: check

It may not seem like a big deal. But the washing machine is now connected and I can wash my clothes and the tons of other dusty things around the apartment.
The washing machine service guy came, looked over the machine, brought the new pipes I needed--after a week of waiting for them to be delivered, that is. Then he connected it all for me, too. And that was good, because even though I can probably do that, what took him twenty minutes would take me an hour and a half.
I do a load of wash now just about every day because it's so nice knowing I can clean something.
Now I just need a drying rack for those three sheets I'm currently washing...

The gaping hole

One of the worst things about the apartment when I first moved in was the fiberglass covering the pipe shaft in the kitchen. It was dirty, old, and warped. All the dust and pigeon dirt could float right in. And it's next to the sink where it all gathers on the dishes.
The fiberglass had to go.

Finding someone to fix this was not easy. The carpenter said he would do it, but as noted, the carpenter did not finish all he said he would.
He did remove the old fiberglass pieces, though. Leaving a gaping hole into disgusting-ness right there in the kitchen.
Old pipes going up into the dust.
And down into a mess of pigeon droppings.
Ew gross, I do not want to stare at that all the time.
Or give the pigeons such easy access into my home.

Well the carpenter wasn't going to come back and fix it. So a sheesha wallah, a glass guy, was called in.

The glass guy arrived and said he'd charge $20 to fix the shaft and the two other broken windows in the flat--that included glass, cutting, and labor. Nice.
He was done in forty minutes. After waiting almost three weeks to have this ghastly ugliness removed from my sight.
Hooray it's gone.

The curtain man was appalled

The curtains he had made were beautiful, and he'd taken all that time to hang and arrange them just so before he left. Thus I didn't want the curtain man to return.
I'd done things kind of backwards and invited the dust creating, mess-making sort of workers after the curtains were hung instead of before. The best I could do was to tie them up to keep them out of the dust--they were just too difficult to get down.

So there was one last small curtain being made for a different room. I hadn't called him about it because I hadn't wanted him to come and see what had become of his beautiful work in the living room.

But this evening he brought over the last small curtain and there he stood at the door and his face said it all. He was very distressed.
He started scolding the painter and the carpenter for letting this happen, "Oh they'll get bad. They're getting dirty. This is very very bad."
I agree, but what to do?

The painter piped up that it was the a/c installer and what can you do about those messy, troublesome a/c installers?
That was inventive.

So the curtain man straightened things as best he could, but then had to turn his back on the rest, knowing there was nothing more to be done right now while the carpenters were still at work and the dust still flying.
Ah, poor, sad curtain man.

Pretty lights

I got new light fixtures for the apartment. The old ones, even if they weren't broken, were hideous.
The new ones make the light pretty.

Locked out

It was an awful beginning to the day.
I'd arrived at the apartment to open it up and let in the painters when they got there. There are three locks on the main entrance. One on the outside metal, screen door and two on the wooden door behind that. An upper lock and a lower lock. I have keys to the outer metal door and the upper lock on the wooden door. The bottom lock is broken and it has no key at all.
I was aware of this and was careful not to lock the bottom lock, and until yesterday, I meticulously checked every day before closing the door to make sure it wasn't locked. But with so many people going in and out of the house, I can't watch them all.
Yesterday I was tired and in a hurry. I didn't check that bottom lock.
So when I tried to open the door this morning--well, that just wasn't going to be possible.

The boy who comes to collect trash was there outside the door. He tried to be helpful and turn the key himself. I let him keep trying while I tried to think what to do.
Not long after, the painters arrived. They tried the keys and told the boy to go off and find some wire to try to open the lock with.
The boy was quick and brought back both the wire and an older boy to watch what was going to happen because the crazy foreigner locked herself out of her apartment.
That whole assumption was kind of maddening--the fact that they all believed this was something I had done. All of them except the true guilty party, that is (I suspect one of the painters had set the lock to close). Yes, I'll take responsibility for not carefully checking to see whether the lock was closed and being the one to close the door. But I didn't set the lock, and I didn't appreciate taking all of the blame.

One painter went off to locate a locksmith in the nearby bazaar and the other found a brick for me to sit on during our wait.
When the locksmith finally arrived, he looked the door over, said it would be hard work and asked too much money to do the job. He knew we were "held captive" in this situation and intended to get all he could out of it. Even though none of us had the tools necessary for the job (being that everything helpful was locked inside), the locksmith was sent away.

And so we waited for the landlord to show up.
And while we waited, a pattern was put in place. The two boys had disappeared. It was only the painters and I left. Every few minutes one of them would try the keys, say what a bad thing this was, ask if it were possible I had more keys in my bag somewhere, and then tell me "no tension, no tension". While I would think of a new person to try and call for a new idea or some needed consolation.
For three hours this was how things went.

And then the landlord arrived. He had a screwdriver, a hammer and a chisel. And, he had a friend of mine on the phone who was familiar with the broken lock and other handy, fix-it things.
It was only a few moments before the door was opened and the offensive lock removed so it could never happen again.

Oh may it never happen again.

For my birthday, I'd like water, please.

I'm moving this week.
This is a way bigger job than anyone anticipated.
We thought there would be some repairs and fix ups--a few days' work-- and lots of cleaning.
The landlord thought there would be some minor repairs and a little cleaning--a day's work.

The reality is much different.

Yesterday:
One of the men who came yesterday to remove the old furniture and other trash (why do people keep old medicine containers or not throw out their coke bottles?) broke a window in carrying it out. His hands got cut and that was the end of the junk moving out.
There was no electricity and the electrician was no where to be found.
There was no water to begin washing away the pounds of dust. And further inspection revealed the water pump has actually been stolen.

The dust is thick over the old furniture that needs to be removed, the peeling cupboard doors needing replacements, and every other inch of the place.

The floors are actually white marble. Can you tell? :(
There is so much dust you can see it in the air in the photo.

Here's some video so you can see and hear the work taking place.



See the view from my balcony? Perhaps there's a silver lining in sight?

The electrician came today and now there is power. Hooray!
So tomorrow, I'm hoping for water...

Unpacking progress

It's taking me a while to unpack. I'm at a standstill, actually. So this is how my room once looked and how it will likely look for some time to come.