Now that I've handled that little election thing it's time to get back to the more important stuff - What the "F" is going on with the Piso project?
Well, I was in Madrid in June / July and swore I was just going to hang out, relax, visit friends, eat menu del dia, drink wine, read El Pais and get pissed off, etc. and not work on the goddamned piso. But I couldn't take it. I decided to start on the cabinets in the kitchen. So, I made the long train trek to the dreaded IKEA, stressed out there, spent too many Euros, fought with the IKEA girls in the kitchen department, got a million boxes back to the house somehow, and got to work.
I tackled the hardest part of the job, the lower cabinets. This included new oven and cooktop, new sink, new dishwasher (gotta have wasteful American-style conveniences - including my garbage disposal I brought from the States), positioning washing machine and clothes dryer - yes a dryer, and a new very heavy solid oak countertop. I got it all installed but not fully working - then I ran out of time and energy.
Doing "obras" in a piso is a huge pain in the ass. You are working inside the house. If you cut a piece of wood the dust goes everywhere, if you have to get rid of some trash or old cabinets, it's five flights of stairs down to try to find a place to get rid of it. It's constant dust, dirt, and mess. Not to mention just getting the construction materials to the piso... there is no car, no elevator, no parking, en fin, it's rough.
I am not finished of course. I'll be back in early December to continue with the torture - but you know I love it.
3 comments:
Continued success with el piso. I broke out in a sweat just reading the part about lugging all the construction materials up and down the stairs. Blech.
If you had wanted to, you probably could have gotten Bob Vila or Extreme Home Makeover to sponsor the project and complete it in a week!! But then you would've wound up with a higher tax bill from La Hacienda and zero bragging rights for having done the project yourself. :D
I'll be in Madrid from the 6th of December til the 20th - let me know if you'd like a hand with anything.
Thanks Midnight,
I'll call you when I have a particularly heavy something to bring up the stairs...
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