Dealing with house repairs is always a challenge in China. The picture above is of Xiao Hong, the local property manager and problem solver who works for our landlord. The kitchen in our house was peculiar because it had no drawers, only cabinets with shelves. One of Kathleen's early requests to the manager was to install drawers for things like silverware and plastic wrap. This was done several months ago, but the drawers have recently been sticking and coming off the track.
A typical repair such as this will take 6 to 8 visits to correct, though the root cause is obvious - the drawer runners are too light duty for the application. The first two visits, Xiao Hong put the drawer back on the track, but did not actually repair anything. After the drawer continued to fail, he remedied the situation by taking half of our silverware out of the drawer, putting it on the countertop, and informing us that the items are too heavy. Fifth visit, he adds a couple more screws to the small runners to hold them more securely to the drawer.
One of Mr. Hong's idiosyncracies is that he never brings his own tools or hardware. Instead he goes to the hallway closet and helps himself to my tools and box of screws. What kind of handyman shows up with no tools and goes into the tenant's closet for a screwdriver and screws ?
There is no conclusion yet to this story. Last visit Xiao Hong told us that it is impossible to find heavier drawer supports. This is silly, of course, so I asked him to look anyway. We hope he will be back next week with new hardware. In the meantime, I will be hiding my toolbox on the third floor.
A typical repair such as this will take 6 to 8 visits to correct, though the root cause is obvious - the drawer runners are too light duty for the application. The first two visits, Xiao Hong put the drawer back on the track, but did not actually repair anything. After the drawer continued to fail, he remedied the situation by taking half of our silverware out of the drawer, putting it on the countertop, and informing us that the items are too heavy. Fifth visit, he adds a couple more screws to the small runners to hold them more securely to the drawer.
One of Mr. Hong's idiosyncracies is that he never brings his own tools or hardware. Instead he goes to the hallway closet and helps himself to my tools and box of screws. What kind of handyman shows up with no tools and goes into the tenant's closet for a screwdriver and screws ?
There is no conclusion yet to this story. Last visit Xiao Hong told us that it is impossible to find heavier drawer supports. This is silly, of course, so I asked him to look anyway. We hope he will be back next week with new hardware. In the meantime, I will be hiding my toolbox on the third floor.
1 comment:
Kathleen,
We had the same problem with the drawers in the office. BTW, how come the dude didn't remove his shoes? Finally, the guy Mr. Huang had before was much better. He was fired when the condo next to ours caught in fire during remodeling. I don't miss this stuff at all.
Bill
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