The horror continues

WEBLOG:
I started to reply to Jason’s comment in my previous blog entry, and as it got longer and longer I decided to just make it a new entry, detailing on how ridiculously bad the quality of China’s construction work is. Jason commented that he’d probably end up doing it himself after firing a string of contractors, and yes, there were indeed many times when I wanted to just grab the drill/screwdriver/knife/paint brush from the hands of the construction workers and just do it myself, but it would just take far too long, and I’m the kind of guy that only gets handy when I have absolutely no choice.

I’m not one for exaggeration, but I swear there were moments when I could almost hear the slow turning of the gears in one of the contractor’s brain as he proceeds to pound on the wrong spot and completely destroys our very expensive bathroom tiles–just to hang a towel rack. There were numerous moments when a problem needed a solution and they would just stand there scratching their heads, and it only took me a few seconds to come up with a work-around solution. I would suggest my solution when they appear to be totally defeated by the challenge, and they’d mull it over and finally the light clicks on and they’d go “Is that even possible? Hmm, oh yeah, it just might work!” Now, I’m not all that smart–I doubt my IQ is that much higher than average, but the difference is I’m willing to think creatively to solve problems, while these supposedly very experienced contractors who allegedly know all kinds of clever trade secrets and tricks, seems to have their brains stuck in 2nd gear permanently. I believe the key is professional pride. I cannot detect any hint of personal or professional pride in these people–not during any moment, in any of them, during the 4+ months of construction. It’s like you snap the whip and they move an inch, and if you look away for a moment, they’ll fuck something up in the most absurd manner. I commented to Elena yesterday that now I know why there’s no comparative saying in Chinese for what we often refer to as “common sense” in the west–it’s because they have very little of it over here. This is not me being overly critical–it is simply a very honest observation.

I know I sound like a drama queen when I get this way, but you know what, let me post some photos and then you can imagine how you’d feel if your home, after spending the kind of money that makes your sides hurt, still looks like this a few days before completion (click on photos to see detailed photos of the horror and read additional details of how they have fucked up our new home):

These photos kinda puts things in perspective, don’t they? I bet you’d all be as pissed as I am–especially after having explained your expectations for 4+ months non-stop. They keep telling me “don’t worry about the rough edges–it’ll be clean when we’re finished” or “That’s only temporary–it won’t look like that when we’re done.” And now it STILL looks like that and they’re telling us they’re done. I’m going to be on them like white on rice until I get the home we paid for, and I’m not going to pay a penny for any kind of reworking they need to do to get the place looking like it should. I knew coming in that there’s absolutely nothing you can trust about China’s workers in any industry, but we hired a close friend–someone we trusted– to be the head contractor and he promised a rose garden. During the construction I even more than once asked why the contractors weren’t taping edges down or covering things up during painting, caulking…etc, and I was told over and over that they can clean it all up in the end. Now I hear “I guess my standard of excellence is different from your standard of excellence–this is just how we do things in China.”

I just hope we can get all of these problems taken care of so our original dream of building our little piece of heaven could come true. Our home will be our sanctuary, and we will not allow this kind of substandard work to be passed off as finished construction. Seriously, if it wasn’t the for the fact we have growing investments in China, and that I’d get to freelance doing anything I wanted at home, we’d never have moved back to China. Our only consolation was that we’d build our little cozy nest and we’d stay the fuck in as much as possible (it’s impossible to afford building a home according to our design in California), so it’s absolutely imperative that our home looks exactly as we had designed it. The next several days are going to jack our blood pressures sky high.