One step back and two steps forward

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The new home is almost done–we’ll be moving in about two days or so. Right now we’re doing the final round of inspection, and it’s just so infuriating dealing with contractors in China, because they seem to have no common sense whatsoever, and doesn’t seem to have the ability to engage their critical thinking skills or think outside the box, let alone respect professionalism or work ethic. It’s even worse that they do not bother consulting you when they aren’t sure about where to cut/place/glue/nail anything–they just GUESS and then do it. By the time you find out it’s already too late. We’ve wasted a bunch of material because of that kind of bad work ethic. Unforgivable mistakes like dripping paint onto our expensive and rare lamps, installing the light switch cover so that it goes OVER part of the mirror frame, crooked frames and walls and wall sockets/switches, paint job where none of the edges are clean–like a three-year-old coloring outside the lines, windows where all the sealant look like they were applied with a finger, looking like someone rubbed chocolate sauce around the glass, wallpaper where the edges look like they were torn by hand–you name it, we had to deal with it. Over and over again I expressed shock at the ridiculous low quality of the craftsmanship displayed by the contractors in China, and every time the response was, “That’s just how things are in China.” But being the perfectionist I am, I don’t let anyone get away with that kind of low quality–especially when it comes to what’s to be our home for the foreseeable future. I would point out every little imperfection and demand that they improve/correct it. There are few things that they fucked up on so badly that nothing can be done anymore (such as cutting the wall switch hole so close to the bathroom mirror that the switch plate actually covers part of the mirror frame–in fact the dumbass actually cut a hole out of the the mirror frame so the switch plate would sit on it without too much of an angle!), and we’d have to live with the result of their dumb-ass mistakes. We still have a few more days of final corrections to go, and I hope all the imperfections could be fixed–they would have to be, otherwise I’d get angry every time I look at those problematic spots in our home.

The studio is pretty much done at this point–just need to get the door knobs and the curtains in there (and the cosmetic touch up’s ). Here are a few photos of how it looks now (the first reflection side panels with floor stands will be placed at where the window is):

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Elena and I will be back in California for a few weeks in November, taking care of her citizenship application. We’ll be shopping while in California and bringing a bunch of stuff back to China–things you can’t find in China (or are too expensive due to import tax), or the quality is far inferior. I look forward to being able to visit a half-way decent pro audio store again–even if it’s something like Guitar Center. The ones they have in Fuzhou are like a hole in the wall, selling the cheapest of the locally made brands–stuff that any serious musician wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole. Anything above the lowest of the low-end you will not see here, and even the lowest of the low-end from known brands are considered the best of the best here. It’s really sad. It’s suppose to be a lot better in the big cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou…etc, but even if they sell the good stuff, they charge at least 25% or more (and often 50% to twice as much) than what the prices are in the States. The exchange/return policies in China are also not nearly as flexible as in the States. Returns are unheard of–you can only exchange for the exact same item if it’s defective, and maybe you can exchange for something else and pay the difference, but never something that costs less and get money back. Shopping is also a joke–they don’t even let you try anything out–they just want you to fork over the money and get the hell out.

While in California we’ll be pigging out too. Ever since the toxic food scare in China, we’ve tried to not eat out whenever possible, not to mention food in Fuzhou generally sucks anyway. You know it’s bad when McDonald’s and KFC are at the top of your eating out list (though to be fair, the Chinese branches do have inventive locally designed menu items that are very tasty–stuff you cannot find in the States, such as the Peking Duck wrap or Passion Fruit Custard at KFC, or the Szechuan spicy hot flavored items in McDonald’s). The only fine dining we found to be worth our time and money is the buffet at a four-star hotel in Fuzhou called Shangri-La. That is the only place with decent western, Japanese, or Southeast Asian food (though Ramada hotel in Fuzhou isn’t too bad either).