Work Projects

Although I (Aaron) have lived in our current apartment for almost a year, there are many things that still need done. It’s one of those cracks in the mirror thing...you know what I’m talking about.....it’s when you realize that there is a crack in the mirror and it drives you up the wall. But then, as you continue to look in the mirror day in and day out you overlook the crack and get used to it. Well, that’s how I’ve been living a lot of the time. Sometimes out of laziness (yes, I admit it), but also sometimes b/c I just don’t know how to fix the crack. But now, cracks are beginning to be seen and the mirror is getting fixed.....

First fix....the toilet. Our toilet seat has been loose for some time and I could not for the life of me figure out how to tighten it. I felt like an idiot having to write our landlord (it’s actually a business but we have a rep, Frau Ehrlich from the company that works with our building) and say (in German of course) “our toilet seat needs tightened and I don’t know how to do it...can you please send someone to help”. She sent the foreman (Herr Rohrbach) of the renovations of our place before we moved in and he tried to help too. He couldn’t figure it out either but after a quick phone call to the plumber who actually installed the toilet, it was a little quick fix and now I know how to do it in the future.
Second fix....the tv. Since I had to email Frau Erhlich about the toilet, I emailed her about the tv too. I’ve had a tv since February but haven’t really had the desire to watch much tv so I didn’t worry about it. But now we have new internet service which also gives us tv channels that we want to watch (namely ESPN America and other English channels) and I couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working. Thankfully Herr Rohrbach brought an electrician with him and after 2 holes in our wall, we determined that the cable that carries the tv signals into the outlet had been snipped somehow. Two hours later we had the tv working. The second job was for the painter to come and cover the holes again...which he did. So now we have tv!!
Since Herr Rohrbach was here, I also asked him about a lot of other projects that I was hoping to do but hadn’t up until now b/c the wiring in this place is WEIRD and I’ve always been afraid to drill thinking I was going to screw something up! This leads to other things getting done.....
Third fix....the kitchen. We have a rather tiny kitchen (see picture)with not much workspace at all so I’ve been wanting to add a foldable table attached to the wall for some time now. I bought the table back in May, and just have not done it b/c I’ve been worried about wiring. But, Herr Rohrbach assured me that there weren’t wires there so with the help of Kelley Philips, we assembled the table yesterday (see pics).




Yep, the cracks in the mirrors that I’ve known about for so long are slowly, but surely, getting fixed (much to the relief of my wife!)