Lt. Killer M
25-08-2006, 17:21
Finally I manage to make this thread, partly as explanation for my sudden and long silence, and feel that it is (almost) true: we moved! Now, Rita and me reside in Stuttgart, and 'again' for me. I grew up about a ten minute walk from where I live now.
The move was a real bother - first, the movers ruined the floor, wall and ceiling in the old flat by letting a large wardrobe door slip and crash - it hit the parquet floor, then tilted and hit the ceiling (very low as it was an attic storey we lived in), then slipped sideways to embed its corner over 4 cm deep in the wall. OUCH!
Then, they ruined said door and the second one, which has a mirror in it, by carrying them flat instead of upright - they both have a distinct bend to them now. Along with other damage to the wardrobe, it took a carpenter and his aid a FULL workday to fix - after a 12 week wait for the replacement parts. I wonder whether the movers managed to still make a profit on our move....... I guess not.
Also, the flat was horribly screwed up by the renters. The doors are mate-glaze dark wood verneer - they had them re-glazed to hide damaged areas. Well, the guy who did it, supposedly a professional painter (it later turned out he is a floorer and a crook), sanded the verneer the wrong way, leaving light and dark spots, then put the glaze on in spots only. In two places, there was tracks of the glaze running down over 20 cms - it really looke like a child had painted the door over. UGH! Now, I am not one to demand golden doorknobs etc., but if I rent something I will look out after it - it is not mine, after all. But these people just ried to get by with minimal expenditure and didn't give a flying shit whether they damaged things. It would be funny if it wasn't so expensive, but they tried to hit the fact that they had broken the kitchen ventilator by sellotaping it into place again. Arseholes!
In the end, the damages amount to about 6.500,00 €; a sum we will have to sue them for. [aargh][aargh][aargh] [butcher]
In other news, we now have a nice large flat with room for little Killers and our chinchilla. One of the babies was so cute I had to keep him, and then he needed a mate, so in addition to Rita's two pairs I also own one couple now. The male I kept is named Speedy. When I names him for being so fast I didn't know how well the name fit - he became even faster and is by far the most able 'avoid your hand and vanish under the cupboard' animal I have ever seen! :). And I bought a female companion for him, a 'homo ebony' - I was lucky that Rita came along to the breeder, because they would never sell such an animal to a chinchilla noob, and even as someone who really knows Chins they breeder will onyl sell such an excpetional animal if he or she really likes you. In fact, there was a 'sold' note on the cage, to keep people from asking....... But somehow the lady took a liking to us and offered us 'Shy' (I named her Shy because she was, at first, not being used to being touched etc. Now, Speedy is starting to 'color off' and she has become much bolder). She cost a whopping 220 €, but then, she IS an exceptional variant, and, I must say, an excpetionally beautifull example of a 'homo ebony'. I can hardly wait for the first batch of babies! Both parents could hold their own at an exhibition (though I will never ever put a living creature through that hell), and their offsrpings........ We'll see!
Our move also turned me into the owner of rather a surpriging amount ot tools - most for building the kitchen and so on, but others (usually the expensive ones) for building new cages for our furry friends. (Yeah, yeah, I know what you're waiting for, and I WILL post pics of the chins once I get around to taking some). So far no fingers lost. And our neighbours all turn out to be very nice and not mind my drilling holes with a percussion drill at 9:30 p.m. on a Sunday.
Luckily, we decided to tile all the flat - 40x40 polished stoneware in a light beige for all rooms but loo, kitchen and bath, which have a dark red polished stoneware floor. Sweeoing floors is easy, and the poliching means tat they reflect a LOT of light - rather important in a flat that is 12m deep almost and has windows at the front and back only. It cost us an arm and a leg, but it was worth it. My wife is rich ;) At first, we asked a local tiler, but the price he asked was so horrenduous (15.000,00 € for 96 sqm!) that we quickly looked for other alternatives. We found a guy from Ossinesia (ex-GDR) willing to come to Stuttgart for 4 days and do the job for close to 4.000,00 € (and no, no moonlighting!). He brought two colleagues, and they did a wonderfull job. Every craftsman or other person who regularly sees a lot of tiling who since entered our flat felt compelled to laud his work! My hat's off to him - so if you need a tiler, ask me for his addy :)
So, work calls, much (bad and funny) to tell about that laters!
The move was a real bother - first, the movers ruined the floor, wall and ceiling in the old flat by letting a large wardrobe door slip and crash - it hit the parquet floor, then tilted and hit the ceiling (very low as it was an attic storey we lived in), then slipped sideways to embed its corner over 4 cm deep in the wall. OUCH!
Then, they ruined said door and the second one, which has a mirror in it, by carrying them flat instead of upright - they both have a distinct bend to them now. Along with other damage to the wardrobe, it took a carpenter and his aid a FULL workday to fix - after a 12 week wait for the replacement parts. I wonder whether the movers managed to still make a profit on our move....... I guess not.
Also, the flat was horribly screwed up by the renters. The doors are mate-glaze dark wood verneer - they had them re-glazed to hide damaged areas. Well, the guy who did it, supposedly a professional painter (it later turned out he is a floorer and a crook), sanded the verneer the wrong way, leaving light and dark spots, then put the glaze on in spots only. In two places, there was tracks of the glaze running down over 20 cms - it really looke like a child had painted the door over. UGH! Now, I am not one to demand golden doorknobs etc., but if I rent something I will look out after it - it is not mine, after all. But these people just ried to get by with minimal expenditure and didn't give a flying shit whether they damaged things. It would be funny if it wasn't so expensive, but they tried to hit the fact that they had broken the kitchen ventilator by sellotaping it into place again. Arseholes!
In the end, the damages amount to about 6.500,00 €; a sum we will have to sue them for. [aargh][aargh][aargh] [butcher]
In other news, we now have a nice large flat with room for little Killers and our chinchilla. One of the babies was so cute I had to keep him, and then he needed a mate, so in addition to Rita's two pairs I also own one couple now. The male I kept is named Speedy. When I names him for being so fast I didn't know how well the name fit - he became even faster and is by far the most able 'avoid your hand and vanish under the cupboard' animal I have ever seen! :). And I bought a female companion for him, a 'homo ebony' - I was lucky that Rita came along to the breeder, because they would never sell such an animal to a chinchilla noob, and even as someone who really knows Chins they breeder will onyl sell such an excpetional animal if he or she really likes you. In fact, there was a 'sold' note on the cage, to keep people from asking....... But somehow the lady took a liking to us and offered us 'Shy' (I named her Shy because she was, at first, not being used to being touched etc. Now, Speedy is starting to 'color off' and she has become much bolder). She cost a whopping 220 €, but then, she IS an exceptional variant, and, I must say, an excpetionally beautifull example of a 'homo ebony'. I can hardly wait for the first batch of babies! Both parents could hold their own at an exhibition (though I will never ever put a living creature through that hell), and their offsrpings........ We'll see!
Our move also turned me into the owner of rather a surpriging amount ot tools - most for building the kitchen and so on, but others (usually the expensive ones) for building new cages for our furry friends. (Yeah, yeah, I know what you're waiting for, and I WILL post pics of the chins once I get around to taking some). So far no fingers lost. And our neighbours all turn out to be very nice and not mind my drilling holes with a percussion drill at 9:30 p.m. on a Sunday.
Luckily, we decided to tile all the flat - 40x40 polished stoneware in a light beige for all rooms but loo, kitchen and bath, which have a dark red polished stoneware floor. Sweeoing floors is easy, and the poliching means tat they reflect a LOT of light - rather important in a flat that is 12m deep almost and has windows at the front and back only. It cost us an arm and a leg, but it was worth it. My wife is rich ;) At first, we asked a local tiler, but the price he asked was so horrenduous (15.000,00 € for 96 sqm!) that we quickly looked for other alternatives. We found a guy from Ossinesia (ex-GDR) willing to come to Stuttgart for 4 days and do the job for close to 4.000,00 € (and no, no moonlighting!). He brought two colleagues, and they did a wonderfull job. Every craftsman or other person who regularly sees a lot of tiling who since entered our flat felt compelled to laud his work! My hat's off to him - so if you need a tiler, ask me for his addy :)
So, work calls, much (bad and funny) to tell about that laters!