Turns out the source of the leak was the radiator in my neighbor's apartment directly above mine. Old piece of garbage. Anyway, for whatever reason their radiator began to leak, and it went on for so long, and got so bad, it soaked through the flooring and leaked through my bedroom ceiling. After calling the building's maintenance guy, Doug, last Monday, the dud finally showed up on Wednesday to check it out. I live in a pretty reputable apartment in a decent part of Chicago...I was stunned our maintenance was so slow to address this. However, once he showed up, he checked out my ceiling and declared much of it will have to be replaced since the water damage was so bad. I wanted to shriek. He went on to tell me how he'll have to break through the ceiling...causing me to clear out my once perfect bedroom and make due with sleeping in the living room for the next few days. This is just one of the many horrors this leak has bestowed upon me.
In addition to evacuating my room and transforming my living room...I had to let Dough and his team of carpenters into my apartment. I never even let SUE, my grocer, set foot in this place. It was horrible, it really was. I couldn't sleep the night before they came in. I shook and sweat in my bed (the pullout sofa) all night, on the verge of tears. The fortunate thing, however, is that this exhausted me so much that by the time Doug and the guys showed up, I was a little less anxious about the whole thing. I had been dreading this day for nearly a week.
Each day they came to break through and reconstruct the ceiling, it got a bit easier to deal with having outsiders in my place. Of course once they left around evening everyday, I immediately vacuumed, scrubbed, and disinfected the path of flooring they walked on to get to my bedroom.I so badly wanted them to wear plastic bagging on their feet, but knew better not to ask. Not only is it seen as a ridiculous request by most, but I guess it would have been a safety hazard with them standing on the ladder and all.
...wait, I smell something burning...DAMNIT it must be my Stouffer's lasagna!
To be continued...
Marty
These people you talk about... Sue, Doug.. they must be a different kind of humans indeed. I understand, mi amigo, mi madre rarely lets strangers in our home. You cannot trust many people these days. This leak you speak of, I am familiar with. One time, during a storm we had a leak. It started falling in mi hermana's room, where the little ones slept... anyways mis pobres hermanas could not sleep anymore, the muck kept falling upon their blankets- this presented more complicated things for the next day. I had to use pices of my own clothes and straps of old broken shoes to plug the hole up. At least this Doug is nice enough that he may fix the hole, I am glad you have a system for letting them enter, remember mi amigo, be careful with strangers.
ReplyDeleteLook on the bright side: you lived.
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