Lance and I met our neighbors several doors down a few nights ago. They are a pleasant couple from the UK who happened to be walking the trail behind our house and stopped by to say hello. They turned out to be lovely people who adore wine and laughter. After a pleasant and spontaneous evening of food and fun the lady of the home mentions to me that their house (which is the exact replica of our house) cost them $800,000 US dollars to purchase. My mouth dropped and shock was apparent on my face. I had no idea because Lance and I rent our home. NOTE: Blog readers I do not share this amount with you to startle you in some way I share this with as it deeply relates to my "caulk" story that follows.
We returned home in the early evening discussing how nice the day had turned out to be and the new couple we had met. As we entered our home Lance and I turned the discussion to the amount of dust that was accumulating in certain rooms in our house. It was noticeable in the kitchen above the sink and in all the bathrooms. We had noticed this several weeks ago and had brought this up to the attention of the company that maintains the property and they mentioned that all homes have gaps like these and there was nothing to fix. You see the exhaust fans (which are basically fans crudely installed into the walls of the kitchen and the bathrooms) were never caulked to keep the dust from coming in around them. About a 2-3 mm gap could be found around all of the exhaust fans.
Thus, Lance and I had decided to do this fix ourselves. We had purchased a caulking gun and a tub of caulk from the local hardware market. So after our lovely evening, we settled into the task of caulking holes in our home. We quickly discovered upon the first pull of the trigger that the gun was made of an aluminum composite. The trigger bent right in half when the first pressure was exerted on it. My husband pronounces "Good grief, this thing is a piece of junk." So goes India. :)
Realizing the gun was not going to work and that we would never find another caulking gun in Gurgaon....we searched the house for something we could use to push the caulk out of the tube and something else to smear the caulk into place.
We ended up using a long, narrow roll of connected trash bag ties for the smearing tool and a knife for the pushing implement. It was surely a funny sight to see. Me standing on my counter using trash bag ties to smear caulk into gaping holes above my sink and my husband using all his strength to push a tube of caulk up with a knife. Once the caulk appeared on the tube he would take my tool (trash bag ties) and smear the caulk on it for me to use.
In a house worth $800,000 who knew we'd have a problem like this.
That's India for you. As you deal with problems like this you start to see why the people in India sometimes use such strange short cuts for the problems they encounter. They have to because they wouldn't be able to find the proper tools to get the job done well.
Living here has taught me to deal about learning to accept problems as they arise. Learning to live with imperfections. Learning to laugh about problems instead of dwelling on them. Learning to find something that will work because the item you need isn't always available. Thank you India for these lessons and more to come.
We returned home in the early evening discussing how nice the day had turned out to be and the new couple we had met. As we entered our home Lance and I turned the discussion to the amount of dust that was accumulating in certain rooms in our house. It was noticeable in the kitchen above the sink and in all the bathrooms. We had noticed this several weeks ago and had brought this up to the attention of the company that maintains the property and they mentioned that all homes have gaps like these and there was nothing to fix. You see the exhaust fans (which are basically fans crudely installed into the walls of the kitchen and the bathrooms) were never caulked to keep the dust from coming in around them. About a 2-3 mm gap could be found around all of the exhaust fans.
Thus, Lance and I had decided to do this fix ourselves. We had purchased a caulking gun and a tub of caulk from the local hardware market. So after our lovely evening, we settled into the task of caulking holes in our home. We quickly discovered upon the first pull of the trigger that the gun was made of an aluminum composite. The trigger bent right in half when the first pressure was exerted on it. My husband pronounces "Good grief, this thing is a piece of junk." So goes India. :)
Realizing the gun was not going to work and that we would never find another caulking gun in Gurgaon....we searched the house for something we could use to push the caulk out of the tube and something else to smear the caulk into place.
We ended up using a long, narrow roll of connected trash bag ties for the smearing tool and a knife for the pushing implement. It was surely a funny sight to see. Me standing on my counter using trash bag ties to smear caulk into gaping holes above my sink and my husband using all his strength to push a tube of caulk up with a knife. Once the caulk appeared on the tube he would take my tool (trash bag ties) and smear the caulk on it for me to use.
In a house worth $800,000 who knew we'd have a problem like this.
That's India for you. As you deal with problems like this you start to see why the people in India sometimes use such strange short cuts for the problems they encounter. They have to because they wouldn't be able to find the proper tools to get the job done well.
Living here has taught me to deal about learning to accept problems as they arise. Learning to live with imperfections. Learning to laugh about problems instead of dwelling on them. Learning to find something that will work because the item you need isn't always available. Thank you India for these lessons and more to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.