Will we ever finish?

“Another day and nothing finished!”

That’s the usual cry at the end of every day. At the moment our luck seems bad, with nothing being easy, and I mean nothing. Today was all about more ceramic. Most of it had been chosen and we were going back to make a “final choice”, that is really just to confirm things and then place some orders. Straight off there was a problem. The main tiles, those that will go all through the entranceway, reception, hallway etc. were not available and would not be able to come from the factory for one month minimum, two months maximum. So there’s the first decision – do we want to wait two months until we begin to finish the house (all the ceramic work, especially the floor needs to be completed first) – or do we go back to the drawing board? We decided first to check some of the other choices only to find that everything except the small toilet has the same time frame. So there’s no starting even the bathrooms.

Feeling rather deflated we had something of a look for some others without really finding anything that took our fancy, although we did find one floor tile in stock that could be OK. And found another that might be fine for one of the bedrooms. So putting off a decision we headed off to a couple of the other really big ceramic places to see if they had any stocks. We found 80 sq. m. of the main tiles at one, unfortunately we need 140. So that has prompted a big rethink – 80 sq. m. of the original choice will be fine for the bedrooms and the new choice will also be fine for the rest. One bathroom we can still have the original tiles with a different one on the floor, we’ve managed to choose, finally, something we can live with for the big bathroom and it’s in stock, although Masry would like white on the floor and I need to try and talk him out of it if I can.

We’ve also decided on plain white for the kitchen which will suit me fine (although again we’re talking white floor but I think I have convinced him that this will not be OK). I seem to be always harping about how easy (or rather difficult) things will be to clean but I suspect that Masry has never had to clean, ever, so he just doesn’t get it. And given how much I hate housework it’s pretty high on my list of priorities!

We’ve also been and chosen some fancy glass inserts to make the 3 bedroom doors (Masry’s idea and a nice one, the doors will look beautiful and not see through), and yes, the glass will take a month! Then a carpenter has to make the doors as well, but hopefully we can get those measured once the floors are done and then made just waiting for the glass. So one thing has started to be finished.

Usually by the end of the day we’re beginning to find everything pretty funny, often almost hysterical at times. The glass shop was quite late so the usual routine of Masry saying “You choose it’s no problem for me”, and then me choosing and him saying “This is your choice? You like this? This? This is very bad” and me saying “Fine, what’s your choice?” and the whole routine being reversed while the shop assistant, in this case female, just looks at us with some bewilderment. However, last night Masry said – no you choose - and went out for a cigarette. Once he’d gone the girl and I were talking (she had some English) and she said to me in all seriousness “You must remember, the woman comes first, first always!” That caused the day’s near hysteria in the car as I argued vehemently for her being the wisest woman in Cairo and Masry argued on the side of her being completely crazy. But somehow I didn’t exactly end up with my choice…. Maybe I need to go back to the glass shop for another conversation.

We’ve also looked at furniture, re-visiting some of the same shops but making a final choice on one really nice blondwood bedroom suite for one bedroom and a dining room setting with buffet. We’ve also looked at appliances of all sorts over and over. There are a number of brands that I’m not familiar with and they’re made in all sorts of odd places like Turkey. Better quality brands (say like Bosch, made in Germany) are quite expensive. I figure some of that will be sheer chance if I choose something good at a reasonable cost. Maybe it will take 3 months.

And today the kitchen design man didn’t keep his appointment so that went nowhere as well. Add to that the fact that we couldn’t get a park anywhere near a couple of places we wanted to go and you’ll understand that it seems like it might take forever to finish!

Lyndall