We live in a beautiful villa with expansive rooms and high ceilings. But that’s just the facade. The pretty exterior covers a poorly constructed network of wires, pipes, and vents.
That’s why I was on our roof at 1 am last night, trying to figure out what part of the broken system was making a terrible grinding noise. After flipping about 20 breakers, It turned out to be the water pump. Yay! Turning it off meant no water for the house, but a peaceful night’s sleep for me.
Today I flagged down the maintainence guy in our compound and told him we didn’t have any water. He sent over a few of his guys to “fix” the problem. They did — or at least I have water now, but like everything here, it will only be a temporary fix. They brought in a rusty replacement motor that they poached from a vacant house in our neighborhood. It will work until it gives out and then they’ll replace it with another secondhand replacement of the same quality. Since labor is cheap, management doesn’t care how many times they send guys out to do a repair — better that than to spend any money on parts that will last.
The AC units are the same story. They go out, the guys come “fix” them and then the next week another one kicks the bucket. At least this time of year we can laugh and move the kids to sleep in another room instead of sweating (and/or swearing) while we wait for someone to pick up the emergency maintenance line. I’m not exaggerating when I say that the AC in Carter’s room has gone out at least 8 times since we’ve lived here. And that’s just the one room. We have AC repair people (and I use that term loosely) at our house more than once a month, every month.
My favorite surprises are the uneven electricity. It’s not uncommon to flip on a light switch and be greeted by a loud bang and a flash of light. It doesn’t happen as often in Abu Dhabi as it did in Bahrain and I thought I was over my light switch PTSD until yesterday. This time I flipped on the lights in my bedroom and there was a big fireball as the lightbulb exploded and flaming glass showered over my bed. I probably should be concerned, but I was more annoyed about having to pull out the vacuum to suck up the glass shards than anything else. It’s just the way things are here. Appearances are deceiving. Houses look elegant, but then you find out that your toilets perpetually clog because the water delivery system wasn’t designed properly for the size of the house. There’s nothing grand about that.
Someday, my dream is to live in a solidly constructed tiny-ish house. I don’t want a 250 sq foot model on a flatbed trailer, but I’d be content with a 900 square foot cabin that didn’t trip fuses several times a month and gave me a solid sounding “click” when I turn on a light switch rather than a shower of fireworks. Large spaces are overrated — except when you get to fill them with carpets.
Tiny houses rule
Reminds me of the first villa in St. Maarten. My room/bathroom had a smell that would make anyone think I was very sick. Wretchedly sick. One of the kids, sprayed a full can of air freshener before I arrived. We put overturned cups over the drains. There was a constant sound, a gurgling of water that made me think like the Titanic, we were going down. So, gorgeous house, big bucks expensive and silly problems that could be fixed except for being on “island time.” We left that villa for another one. No smell but in one day I broke the microwave, the stove and all took days to fix. Now all I can think about is how that beautiful island will ever be rebuilt because again, they are on Island time. So glad you are back!
Yes, we live on “island time” (inshallah) here too. There is no long term plan, so the cheap fix always wins.