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Published On: Oct 30, 2006 02:28 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Oct 30, 2006 02:28 PM
The Roof
In July 05 we decided our old house was
waaaay too big and our landlord was driving us crazy, so it was time to move. We
looked around for a few weeks and found our current apartment. Our requirements
for a new place included: a) must be small and b) must have outdoor area for
dog.
Anyway, we were happy with our apartment. It's at the top of a 5 floor building, so we have a lounge/dining/kitchen area and bedroom/bath on one level, and then another bedroom/bath and roof area upstairs. Excellent! We really loved the roof as it was open on 3 sides. The high-up view around the Old Quarter is so cool! We had big plans for a great sitting-out area!
Soon after we moved in, a couple of workmen appeared on the roof, doing some work. They seemed to be installing some sort of frame. Naively, we thought that it was some sort of security grille as the rest of the house has these on the windows. So the workmen were there most days for a couple of weeks, and then one day we returned home to find that they had gone, and seemingly finished their work. And what they had left was an enormous, disgusting frame contraption along the whole left side of our roof.
We spoke to the landlord and asked what was going on. He was all apologetic along the lines of "someone was supposed to tell you" - and obviously hadn't - that they were putting up a billboard along that side of our roof. WHAT!? We had literally just moved in, and no one had ever mentioned THAT when we signed the lease, but it had obviously been organised since it started SO soon after we moved in. We were furious - who wants to sit behind an enormous billboard? Surely the people living in the house should be ASKED first - we signed the lease for the apartment as it was, not as it was about to be with billboarded roof!
The landlord did the "oh, please have sympathy for me" thing. (What about US!?) We said that we would accept the frame, as long as the billboard was raised up so that we would still have the view from our roof intact. He agreed - a compromise had seemingly been reached.
The frame remained, with no billboard, for another couple of months. Not knowing how the whole thing would turn out, we didn't go ahead furnishing the roof area. And thank goodness! One day, a bunch of workmen came and put the billboard up which covered from floor to ceiling of that whole side of the roof! Explicitly against the compromise that we had agreed on. ARGH!
We went back to the landlord who told us that - unfortunately - the sign would not be stable enough if it was raised higher and - again - please have sympathy for him...grrrr.... Our argument was: well if you can't put it up per our agreement, then you shouldn't have put it up! They didn't even tell us this whilst they were putting the monstrosity up, and we live here! The landlord then said they would try and see whether they could raise it up higher somehow. So time went on with this horrible billboard on one side of our roof.
Eventually, we came up with a compromise that they could put bamboo blinds on the inside of the roof along the side where the billboard is. This way, we wouldn't have to see the billboard, but they could leave it up. We thought it was pretty reasonable.
We then received an email from the landlord saying they would be sending someone to remove the whole sign! We responded that they didn't have to, as - as per previous correspondence - we were prepared to compromise. No response.
Then yesterday, a load of workmen turned up and removed the billboard, and today they are removing (EXTREMELY LOUDLY!) the frame that was attached to the side of the roof.
It's so weird! At first I felt really guilty for being so unco-operative, but we DID offer an alternative solution. It seems like such a waste of time and effort on their part when they could have had a different solution. Russell thinks they found a better place to put the sign, so decided not to bother with compromise.
Roof saga over - hopefully!
Anyway, we were happy with our apartment. It's at the top of a 5 floor building, so we have a lounge/dining/kitchen area and bedroom/bath on one level, and then another bedroom/bath and roof area upstairs. Excellent! We really loved the roof as it was open on 3 sides. The high-up view around the Old Quarter is so cool! We had big plans for a great sitting-out area!
Soon after we moved in, a couple of workmen appeared on the roof, doing some work. They seemed to be installing some sort of frame. Naively, we thought that it was some sort of security grille as the rest of the house has these on the windows. So the workmen were there most days for a couple of weeks, and then one day we returned home to find that they had gone, and seemingly finished their work. And what they had left was an enormous, disgusting frame contraption along the whole left side of our roof.
We spoke to the landlord and asked what was going on. He was all apologetic along the lines of "someone was supposed to tell you" - and obviously hadn't - that they were putting up a billboard along that side of our roof. WHAT!? We had literally just moved in, and no one had ever mentioned THAT when we signed the lease, but it had obviously been organised since it started SO soon after we moved in. We were furious - who wants to sit behind an enormous billboard? Surely the people living in the house should be ASKED first - we signed the lease for the apartment as it was, not as it was about to be with billboarded roof!
The landlord did the "oh, please have sympathy for me" thing. (What about US!?) We said that we would accept the frame, as long as the billboard was raised up so that we would still have the view from our roof intact. He agreed - a compromise had seemingly been reached.
The frame remained, with no billboard, for another couple of months. Not knowing how the whole thing would turn out, we didn't go ahead furnishing the roof area. And thank goodness! One day, a bunch of workmen came and put the billboard up which covered from floor to ceiling of that whole side of the roof! Explicitly against the compromise that we had agreed on. ARGH!
We went back to the landlord who told us that - unfortunately - the sign would not be stable enough if it was raised higher and - again - please have sympathy for him...grrrr.... Our argument was: well if you can't put it up per our agreement, then you shouldn't have put it up! They didn't even tell us this whilst they were putting the monstrosity up, and we live here! The landlord then said they would try and see whether they could raise it up higher somehow. So time went on with this horrible billboard on one side of our roof.
Eventually, we came up with a compromise that they could put bamboo blinds on the inside of the roof along the side where the billboard is. This way, we wouldn't have to see the billboard, but they could leave it up. We thought it was pretty reasonable.
We then received an email from the landlord saying they would be sending someone to remove the whole sign! We responded that they didn't have to, as - as per previous correspondence - we were prepared to compromise. No response.
Then yesterday, a load of workmen turned up and removed the billboard, and today they are removing (EXTREMELY LOUDLY!) the frame that was attached to the side of the roof.
It's so weird! At first I felt really guilty for being so unco-operative, but we DID offer an alternative solution. It seems like such a waste of time and effort on their part when they could have had a different solution. Russell thinks they found a better place to put the sign, so decided not to bother with compromise.
Roof saga over - hopefully!
Posted: Fri - January 6, 2006 at 11:35 AM