"La Pew Correspondence/Correspondence from hell"

6/26/08

Dear Tenant,

Tomorrow morning work will commence in your apt. unit on the medicine cabinet installation. Workers will be removing the old medicine cabinets and installing new ones.

Please remove all items from your med. cabinets and from the immediate area in front of and surrounding the cabinets to allow free passage and wasy access to the work area. Please secure any valuables during the duration of this work.

If you have any questions, please contact management for assistance. Thank you for your cooperation during this work.

I always have a hard time deciding whether or not to leave while they are working. They keep your door propped open all day, and they come and go. When they are done the work for the day, they neither close your door, nor lock it.

I decide to leave the house. Of course I lock the door. Shouldn't they have the common sense to go to the office if they need to get in? They don't honestly expect me to leave the house unlocked all day do they? When I returned at the end of the day, I discovered that no work had been done at all!

Next morning (Monday) they do show up. They are in and out all day. All they have done is caulked the walls in the kitchen, taken my old medicine cabinet down, and put it in the bathtub.

By 4:50 p.m. No medicine cabinet has been installed. They don't know any English. I yell down the hall to them.

elana-"Pardoneme"

worker-"Si?"

I motion for him to follow me. I take him to the bathroom and I say: "Fin?" "No mas trabajar hoy?" (You're finished working for the day? I'm incredulous that they would leave my old cabinet in the bathtub and not even put up my new one)

worker-"No mas trabajar hoy."

I'm angry, and I say nothing. He brings 3 others back to my apt. with him and they confer in Spanish. Apparently, they decide that it isn't a good idea to be in and out all day and have done nothing, so they put up the new medicine cabinet.

I wonder if they are definitely coming back tomorrow, but I know that even if they say yes in Spanish, I can't know for sure, because we just aren't given that kind of respect here at La pew.

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8 a.m. July 1. The cacophony of hammers and banging starts in the bldg. my floor is shaking and every couple of minutes my body is jolted by what sounds like my ceiling crashing in. I wonder if they are coming back today to paint. I leave the following note on my door.

Pintaduras Listo!

Attencion

Por favor pinta despues de 11 en la manana!

(I have no idea if this note is going to do any good. It says: Attention Painters, I am ready. Please don't come until after 11 a.m.)

At 9 a.m. BANG BANG BANG, BANG BANG BANG

on my door. It's the supervisor. He yells thru the door, can we come at 10 instead of 11?

I don't have a choice do I? I ask.

No, he says, we have to stay on schedule.

I think to myself that it's all about their schedule and our needs do not matter.

We agree that he'll come back at 10.

Deja Vu

This should be sounding familiar folks, like my post from 7 weeks ago. At 9:05 bang, bang bang. I yell thru the door, It's not 10 o'clock yet~!

We here to paint, painter 2 yells thru the door (the same exact man that did the same exact thing 7 weeks ago. Word was never given to him that I need til 10 a.m.)

E-But the supe just said he's giving me until 10!

I'm worried about my belongings but I HAVE  to leave the house today, (day 2 physical therapy) and WANT to leave the house today, so I'll just have to hope for the best. I'm not too worried that the contractors will steal from me. But I am worried about maint. I've had about 40-45 dollars worth of bras and underwear stolen in the last 2 weeks, not to mention other stuff like the charger for my cell phone.................................................