My first post in March after such a lull and it has me ranting. I'm an Architect with no experience in Residential Architecture. So when we decided to remodel our house, I knew my parents would be looking for my inputs. I started by searching Home Designing websites and some blogs written by practising architects with more than 20 years of field experience. I have to say that redoing involves a lot of stress and lot of fact crunching. I have been looking at samples of flooring and wall tiles, kitchen designs and bathroom fittings and fixtures. All the building services lectures come back flitting to me. I was almost tempted to retrieve the building services drawing sheets and go over details. It's no wonder that building construction is in so much demand everywhere. Interior designing is way too overrated and over-hyped. I have witnessed as a layman prior to my architecture education, the enormous amount of treachery that goes with unassuming people who are conned by contractors. Now we are worried about water supply and stacking the waste material in the building premises. Nonetheless, it is a learning experience in creating a house.
And now comes the subject of my ire. A restaurant establishment with their kitchen located on the ground floor of my apartment complex had the ingenious idea to extend their chimney right outside our second floor living room window. It jaunts out, this structure a two feet wide monster emanating the vicious of foul smells and a largely disturbing constant loud noise of the chimney stack walls. I spent the entire day today arguing with the restaurant manager and the workers doing this chimney business. To no avail, like always in our Indian society, women are not heard or heeded by the men at all. How do we stop an illegal thing from taking place when our voices are stuffed out? I am veering out of the topic here but I strongly must put it in writing here about the unethical practices employed by building contractors in local building systems. It seems that no amount of legal repercussions or ethics actually matter in such cases. It never is enough to ensure safe building practices.
I wish I could write about the stress me and my family has endured over the past sixty days of this remodelling but I cannot. I do not wish to relive those days. It's utterly foolish to even state that with today's modern means, home repairs and beautification should be easy and stress free only instead it isn't because the workers, labourers, the masons are the same people who do not necessarily look at their craft as craft. Sometimes I wonder if I expect perfection everywhere especially in this particular discipline that I am trained in and work my best to create the best. We all want beautiful, comfortable, decent houses to live in, and our dwelling in them creates the homes they are. A very interesting example that comes to my mind is of two entrepreneur partners in 1860's who married sisters and built identical houses next door to one another. It is said that nobody wanted to have the nicer house or the worse house. I chuckled at this story, probably we all will. It's just like us to be different yet not stand out for fear of being too left out. We are coming to an end of these woes now. Finally everything finishes tomorrow. But just when I think of the renovation as completed I forget about the re-stacking and rearrangement of furniture, accessories in kitchen and other rooms. My mind is in a tizzy right now when I think of how the entire world seems to conspire together in bothering us over trivial issues. Let's hope the new sun brings enough sunshine to fight the world with a determined veracity.
And now comes the subject of my ire. A restaurant establishment with their kitchen located on the ground floor of my apartment complex had the ingenious idea to extend their chimney right outside our second floor living room window. It jaunts out, this structure a two feet wide monster emanating the vicious of foul smells and a largely disturbing constant loud noise of the chimney stack walls. I spent the entire day today arguing with the restaurant manager and the workers doing this chimney business. To no avail, like always in our Indian society, women are not heard or heeded by the men at all. How do we stop an illegal thing from taking place when our voices are stuffed out? I am veering out of the topic here but I strongly must put it in writing here about the unethical practices employed by building contractors in local building systems. It seems that no amount of legal repercussions or ethics actually matter in such cases. It never is enough to ensure safe building practices.
I wish I could write about the stress me and my family has endured over the past sixty days of this remodelling but I cannot. I do not wish to relive those days. It's utterly foolish to even state that with today's modern means, home repairs and beautification should be easy and stress free only instead it isn't because the workers, labourers, the masons are the same people who do not necessarily look at their craft as craft. Sometimes I wonder if I expect perfection everywhere especially in this particular discipline that I am trained in and work my best to create the best. We all want beautiful, comfortable, decent houses to live in, and our dwelling in them creates the homes they are. A very interesting example that comes to my mind is of two entrepreneur partners in 1860's who married sisters and built identical houses next door to one another. It is said that nobody wanted to have the nicer house or the worse house. I chuckled at this story, probably we all will. It's just like us to be different yet not stand out for fear of being too left out. We are coming to an end of these woes now. Finally everything finishes tomorrow. But just when I think of the renovation as completed I forget about the re-stacking and rearrangement of furniture, accessories in kitchen and other rooms. My mind is in a tizzy right now when I think of how the entire world seems to conspire together in bothering us over trivial issues. Let's hope the new sun brings enough sunshine to fight the world with a determined veracity.
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