It’s two o’clock on Sunday afternoon (the first day of the working week) and we have just paid the final money to the owner of the house and signed contracts. Mohamed and the lawyer and the building owner are now in the government office registering the contracts and so I thought I’d take the opportunity to tell you that at last “one thing is finished”. I have been very excited ever since we realized we could complete the house today and not having bought a house for a long time, or ever having bought a new house, it’s a really exciting feeling and a very happy day. I can’t keep the smile off my face.
Still it’s a different feeling to what it would be in Oz I think, again I think it’s because I don’t understand the language or quite how business is conducted so I feel very peripheral to the whole process, even the doorman and the plumber seem to have bigger roles than I do. Still I refuse to let that put any sort of dampener on today, it’s very exciting to be moving towards making a far more long-term home here in Cairo.
Monday night
All the house papers are here safe and sound and things are starting to be finished even more. After all the formalities yesterday we went back to the house and met with a couple of tradesmen hoping to soon get things started. After that we went to Cleopatra Ceramics and made some final choices, ordering the tiles for all the hallway, living areas, entrance etc., for the bedroom floors, the ensuite bathroom and the kitchen walls (not that I knew they were being ordered at the time!) We ended up with the second choice for all the living areas, another tile entirely for the three bedrooms (grey), as the man didn’t have 80 sq. metres at all of the other tile (Masry told me he wouldn’t have, don’t know how he knew), a very nice black & white combo for the ensuite and plain white for the kitchen walls. The small toilet off reception is a sort of golden brown marble type deal, they didn’t have the trim tiles I wanted so we have others. A total of LE 18,000.
When we got to the car Masry asked me why I chose the tile I did for the floor of the small toilet and then we got into something of a heated discussion, all based on a language misunderstanding. It’s very frustrating when that happens and it happened twice yesterday, today I have tried to make sure I knew what Masry was saying and vice versa. We went to Kabnoury the kitchen and window design people after we ordered the ceramics. Another major misunderstanding that made Masry “very sad”. Sometimes I get so tired of just sitting or standing listening to all these men talk in Arabic and not understanding any of it – well occasionally getting the general drift. Last night because I wanted lots of changes to the design there was lots of smiling and joking – I suspect (rightly or wrongly) some of it about the woman who couldn’t be satisfied, but maybe I was wrong about that, you know what they say about making assumptions (Masry says that sometimes “I just think bad things” and maybe I do). But all I want is a functional kitchen!!
The quotes for the windows and kitchen were really expensive (LE 50,000 each) so even after quite a bit of re-jigging (taking until after 11.00 pm) and price reduction we said we’d think about it and let him know. Today we had another man come sent by the man (another Mohamed) from whom we bought the house. Masry likes him enormously, saying he has integrity (“When he says one plus one it is always two, not three, not one”). Anyway, this man has quoted on the windows, balcony doors and insect screens (all double glazed windows) and awnings at around half the price and will also come back and work out the kitchen when the ceramic has been finished. We had discussions with the plumber today and the kitchen design was re-done by Mohamed and Ibrahim the plumber so it has some elements I wanted and some I didn’t. The answer I get if I press is “I think this is the best”. The washing machine is indeed in the kitchen and right beside the stove, at least at this point!
All the ceramic that we had ordered yesterday was delivered today and two men carried it all up the five flights of stairs for the total sum of LE300 (around $65) and I reckon there was a couple of tons of it. The cement was also delivered, and there was three tons of that, and the man and his crew will begin to lay it all the day after tomorrow. Tonight we went to Mahgoub and chose the kitchen floor – I wanted dark grey but have ended up with pale blue and light grey as a compromise . However, we seem to have also settled on the final bathroom although yes, you guessed it, I believe the floor will still be white. We also got the two bases for the showers, shower cabinets seem to be a rarity here so I’m struggling a bit with these. But there will be separate showers in each bathroom and I hope Masry understands how important a good shower is to me now. We’ve had slight ups and downs over that one too.
Most of the shower cabinets seem to be super deluxe, huge things that include a jacuzzi shower with about 20 nozzles, radio, telephone and all sorts of other electronic gadgetry that I simply can’t imagine one using in the shower. All I really want is a decent shower head and room to move!
Mohamed (the house man) also is sending a carpenter who will make all the doors, hopefully also at a good price, including the ones that will have the glass inserts. Today I stood for 3 hours at the house while all the coming and going happened with the plumber, ceramics delivery, carpenter, windows man, doorman, painter and plasterer. I think I spoke about 100 words the whole time (although I did have an excellent game with one of the doorman’s children, a very cute little boy called Omar, about 3 I think who was very ticklish and loved to be chased. It didn’t seem to matter that he spoke Arabic and I spoke English, we got on fine). So this is what I mean by being very peripheral to the process. I simply can’t wait until I can speak the language properly. At least I can read numbers now and so I can tell the prices of things and I recognise some spoken words. I know how to say “no” as well, also handy.
Regardless, I am very pleased that Masry is doing so much, he’s a very sharp negotiator and certainly has an eye to keeping costs contained, while trying hard to give me mostly what I want. He handles talking to half a dozen tradesmen at once very calmly, all the while taking what seems like a hundred phone calls a day. But he’s also very determined to get what he thinks is best, although I’m not sure that he thinks of it that way, I think he’s just used to being deferred to and treated as if he always does know best. Often he says: “Just trust me please Lyndall – you will see, it will be beautiful. I only want the best for you.”
There’s still so much to choose, I’m hoping it will get easier as it goes – I’m learning lots of life lessons in this process I can assure you.
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