Remodeling

As you probably know, we have been remodeling my apartment.  So far, the work has gone well and I am happy with the quality of work.  The tile and walls in the kitchen are done (minus the paint).  The walls in the living room and entryway will be made flat and painted.  He started on the living room today and might finish up the first coat of plaster tomorrow. Below are some pictures and some funny stories from the remodeling.

Kitchen Before/After

• We picked out paint colors and bought four cans of paint. The paint comes in 5 lb buckets.  Since we bought four cans, I went ahead and picked one can up to carry out to the car.  Well, the people in the store laughed that I was carrying paint as a female.  I guess I should have let Adam take all four cans of paint.  I thought I was being really good by not picking up 2 cans.  
• The man doing the work is called "the master" here.  He is doing a great job, but each evening he asks me questions and doesn't seem to like the answers that I give him.  I keep trying to get him to talk to Aben (my Kazakh dad and the one in charge of the renovations for Interlink).  However, he seems to want to ask each of us what we think and then go with the answer that he likes the most.  
• We were one tile short for the floor, so we had to run by the bazaar and buy an extra couple tiles.  Azamat, our office driver, made our job so much easier by driving us so that Adam and I could just jump out of the car and go get the tiles instead of trying to find a place to park.  It made a one hour project a 30 minute project.  I am so grateful for the great staff we have at the office that are always willing to help out.  
• Adam has helped haul all sorts of stuff to and from my fourth floor apartment.  I have been very grateful for his willing help.  I help out some, but know better than to pick up anything really heavy.  I did break the rules by carrying a circular saw and power converter up to my apartment and a couple tubs of trash out.  
• The master and I have had 3 debates about the paint.  This evening, the final debate had him telling me I was wrong about putting primer up, that we didn't have enough paint, and that we had chosen a bad color.  He thinks we should add water to the paint to change the color ... I told him we picked that specific color, which he didn't think was a good choice.  He seemed reluctant to paint it for us.  We'll see what happens tomorrow.  
• In the midst of all of this, I am continually reminded of how thankful I am that even though the master and I have some disagreements about how things should be done, he is doing a really good job.  I am very thankful that it is possible to do this work and I don't have to try to figure out a way to do it myself.  I am also thankful that Aben (my Kazakh dad) is handling all the details and I can just point the master to him.  
• Today I took the day off and just read a book.  It was nice to just relax and not think about work.  I didn't quite realize how tired I was.  
• At the bazaar we saw a small car with a lot of foam boards stacked on top of it.  It brought us joy and laughter.  Thought you might enjoy the picture we took.  

Meeting Baba Tonya

In Kazakhstan most apartment buildings are comprised of several stairwells that open to the outside at the back of the building.  Those stairwells each go to the top floor and have two or three apartments off of each level.  Since my entire building is located above a dentist office, the first level of the stairwell has no doors (the dentist office has a large entrance on the front side of the building).  My apartment building has about six stairwells.  I am on the top floor of the third stairwell.  Each apartment has a separate owner.  The owners come together to pay for things like cleaning the stairwells or cleaning the yard outside the apartment.

Yesterday I met Baba Tonya.  Baba is the affectionate term for grandmother in Russian and is often used to show respect to someone that is of grandmother age, even if they aren't related to you.  She lives one floor down on the opposite side of the hall.  She is the governor of our stairwell.  She collects the money to pay the yard cleaners.  She also informed me that since people don't want to hire someone to clean the stairwell, everyone is responsible for the stairs on their floor.  Usually the two people on the floor each take turns. However, Baba Tonya informed me that the people opposite me are not good about cleaning.  I assured her that I would make sure our level of stairs were clean each week.  This task consists of sprinkling some water on the steps (to keep the dust down) and then sweeping the steps.  I will plan on doing this once a week, starting tomorrow

It's good to know that Baba Tonya is always around and keeping an eye on things.  She knows everyone and is aware of everything that is going on.  I never mind having someone like her around.  It will be a bit hard to communicate (since she only speaks Russian), but I hope to gain her approval by keeping my stairs clean.