Waiting for the electrician or someone like him

5-14-13  Tues.

The man, who shortly before changed something to make the flow of hot water to the sink and showers stronger, went to work, with his wife, designing the route to wiring that would power the firebox. Leona had told me that he would have no choice but to run a wire up the wall, through the carpentry on the ceiling and into the circuit breaker box in the tea room. That’s not exactly what happened. The man decided he could run the wire to the same outlet as the living room air-conditioner, which he said had a separate unused breaker to use. That is not the problem. The problem is the man used red and white wire through a one inch diameter plastic sheath, like a fat aluminum sheath electric wiring is encased in with wiring I’ve seen in the states. He ran the thick obtrusive tubing up the inside 45^o angle of the wall a few feet from the firebox in plain sight, and the tubing was affixed to the wall with raw nail holders.

      The same workman ran ugly wires on the outside of the tiles in the kitchen to make a second outlet on the right side of the kitchen. He just ran wires from outside the first outlet up to the ceiling, secured it with nail holders, and ran it in a loop sloppily seven feet to the corner of the kitchen and down the wall. I didn’t see the final product because I had to leave. Leona said the wire would be concealed  by the cabinets but I told Leona that the wire should be right over the cabinets, not up to the ceiling far away from the cabinets where they could be seen. Again, she actwed like I was complaining and she saw nothing wrong with it instead of simply saying that she would translate my concern to Jenny, the director of this project.

      I called Leona again from American Eagle during my break between classes. She said she had contacted Jenny and Jenny agreed that it would look ugly and something needed to be done. By then the issue had become why Leona was taking my concerns personally and arguing against me instead of sympathizing and relaying my concerns to Jenny, as if she knew better and I was being picky. It was her home too that was being compromised.

      What should have been done, and what I thought we were going to do before we bough any condo, was contact an electrician to check out the wiring and make sure everything was okay Leona didn’t do that. Now she says it wouldn’t have mattered because the previous owner would have said to take it or leave it. The wiring in our new home had some issues as I result that we had no recourse to rectify or be compensated for. Most of the outlets don’t have a third grounding hole. One outlet didn’t even have the wires connected. The firebox was purchased before an electrician could tell us if it would be feasible.

      The electrician/plumber made five three-inch holes and one five inch hole through the dropped ceiling so he could run the wire through it to the fireplace from the air conditioner outlet. I told Leona that she should make sure that they use tape and plaster and sand it down to reseal the holes to make them look like they weren’t there. This is a problem because the carpenters who put up the dropped ceiling and beautiful round medallion in the dining area had neglected to tape and plaster and sand the seams so that the seams in the wood cracked as soon as there was our first 6.0 earthquake a month or so ago.

      The third issue I have with the interior decorating is a matter of aesthetics; the three rails for the partition between the living room and dining area had fixtures for the partitions in the first and third rail. I pointed it out to Leona and Jenny when she was over Sunday. Even Jenny thought the fixtures were placed incorrectly and agreed they would have to be altered. It turns out that the woodwork which the carpenter was building right in our living room (the house was noisy and full of saw dust) to hold the glass partitions was making them so thick, at least 1 1/2”, that it would need the first and third rails to hold it. In answer to a question I posed to Jenny Sunday, this is why a jut was added on the inside of the movable partition; the stationary glass partition would be affixed there.

      Leona said she had told me the partitions would be wood. I amended that fact to reflect she’d only told me so a few days earlier. No one thought that they would be so thick. I had originally thought they would be painted aluminum, not pine with plastic wood veneer. To this day, Leona has not forwarded me the 3D images Jenny generated and sent to her.

      The neighbors complained to the doorman about the workers not following the 12:00 noon to 1:30 curfew; they had started again ripping apart the bedroom and sawing at 1pm today despite knowing the house rules, probably so they could finish and go home early.

      I told Leona to get a new electrician but she isn’t going to take me seriously. I refuse to bite the bullet and look at something I feel was done incorrectly and is not nice to look at. (I don’t mention my complaint about the shape of the faux fireplace because it was apparently Leona’s idea directly to do so.) I suggested she ask the electrician to use different wiring and hide it better perhaps along the side of the balcony sliding doors that would be concealed by drapes. We’ll see what happens. It is a major problem in Taiwan that I am not able to communicate fluently with the workers and have to depend on Leona who may or may not relate my concerns.