Rain Drops Keep Fallin' on Our Heads - In the Kitchen

Well the workmen came the other day to fix the leak in the master shower. If you remember, it was draining directly into the kitchen. So the first guy came and began surveying the situation. 15 minutes later the second guy rang the doorbell. He entered the fray, which meant he needed to be brought up to speed as well. 15 minutes after they had him on board, a third gentlemen showed up. This guy was not actually here to fix the leaky shower, but rather to repair the hole in the foyer. Nonetheless, he was also brought up to speed on the leaky shower taking another 15-20 minutes. So after 1 hour in the house, nothing had been accomplished but EVERYONE was up to speed.

In order to test the validity of the leak, the shower was left to run for 90 consecutive minutes - at which point we were told they would have to drill a small hole in the ceiling. We said fine and went about our business. 30 minutes later we walked into the kitchen to find an 18 inch gaping hole in the ceiling and were told they had "some bad news". It appeared as though they were going to have to chip out two tiles in the shower to "adequately assess" the leak. Fortunately (as that particular tile is now nowhere to be found in China) they found a "workaround" and did not have to do any tile work. Our kitchen continues to have large hole and we have been told to shower downstairs until sometime next week.

One thing we cannot figure out is why these guys cannot perform their duties without opening every door and window in the house. (One aside - people here do not refer to the enormous number of mosquitoes as mosquitoes, but rather, as "blood suckers"). At one point, we walked into the kitchen - no workers in site, but both doors were wide open giving the "blood suckers" an open invitation to come in and cover the naive Americans in lovely pink, itchy welts.