Mini Chaos

Our building is having its one year warranty check up. That means that the owners of the flats and the people who built the building go through and point out any problems that have cropped up over the first year of the building's existence.

Apparently there are many. Settling, cracks, noise issues, floors, etc. The building has been settling pretty severely and they are actually having to shore up bits of it. Eek!

What it means for us, as tenants, is that the landlord gets all his future problems fixed, but we have to move all our furniture around for the fixing.

So, right now, I have my very heavy, book filled armoire standing in the middle of the living room, books in piles everywhere, while the workman removes the baseboards on the wall behind and lowers them 1/4 inch. (??) Either the floor is sinking or the baseboards are too high, I'm not sure what's going on here. We also had to move the china cabinet and the bookshelf in the kitchen for the same reason. The dude is also filling some cracks on the walls and repainting those.

Now tell me this: Why do workdudes always smell the same? You know how when you have a carpenter or a contractor come over they always smell of paint and cigarettes and something else, just on the edge of unsavory, like they bathed in sheetrock dust? That smell also exists here in Norway! It's a worldwide smell, not just American! Plus the dude is also one of those noisy breathers, and I can hear him breathing through the whole house. It's kinda slurpy sounding, it's icky. Like he's breathing (and talking) with his tongue hanging out. Rather like a slobbery warthog. Squishy slurpy. Slurpy squishy. Eeeuuuwwcchh.

He keeps saying he has to "go get more tools" and takes off for an hour. Well, it's been three days now, how many damn more tools do you need and can I LEAVE THE HOUSE AGAIN EVER? I've just joined the gym and want to work out! (I probably, knowing me, only want to go work out because right now I can't, that would be so like me.)

Apparently the time schedules and excuses for not getting things done are, like the smell, pan-continental.

Update: he got here at 9:30, took an hour and a half for lunch and left at three, complaining about what a hard day he had. By my calculations, he worked a total of 4 hours. Hey everybody, come to Norway and be a contractor! You can snort and snobble all over someone's house AND work only a half day!