Doors
I spent almost 5 hours today, shopping for a bedroom and a bathroom door. I had been looking around already for a while, but without luck. Today I went to a place near the Opera that does good quality work with Lena and asked them for a quote... they started talking to me about their German technology, airtight seals, quiet shut, etc, etc... then they told me it would cost $200 for one door. Now you cannot imagine what a simple door I was requesting. A frame of wood which is 8cm all the way around, and a piece of wood (also 8cm) across the middle which splits it into 2. Glass fills in the two big empty spaces. This is very little work and very little wood. I told him that I did not need a door with fancy German technologies, I need a simple normal door! He said he did not make those, and acted as if it was beneath him. At this point I changed my mind about asking him any more prices for all the furniture I wanted made, and let Lena have a go at him. She tore her hair out for about 15 minutes trying to get him to give her a straightforward price. He was flatly refusing on the basis that he cannot be exact. We explained the whole idea of an "estimate" just needing to be somewhere in the ballpark so we know if he needs to bother give us a more exact number tomorrow after calculations, or if it is just not in our ball park. He did not understand and went on with more incomprehensible dribble before we got fed up and walked out. He at that point came after us and tried to explain himself to us again, but it was the same stuff he had already told us. We told him to just call us when he has finished all his calculations.
Next we went to a place on Nalbandian, which had doors imported from England which are fancier, bigger and shipped all the way across the continent for only $80... they did not have my sizes, and they do not do custom sizes. From there we went to the Arlex and AVC offices and asked for advice from our friends there. We were directed to a place near the Republican Stadium which we never ended up finding. So we kept wandering to Nar Dos Street, more populary known as Shinararneri Poghots (Builders street) where I found a guy selling a somewhat decent door for $50. I was asking him about custom making one and he said he could make my doors also for $50. At this point Lena's remodeling foreman Rudik showed up by chance and I turned around to talk to him for a second and before I knew it the wood guy was being hauled off by the police with his door and other wood. Two cop cars and a bunch of officers just hauled him and his stuff away without any explanation except saying to him that "we told you we would come this afternoon". I assume it was a shakedown since the poor old guy wasn't doing anything and there was no formal arrest or anything. Rudik thought they just wanted the door, and it was all a pretext for that. In any case, it was quite disturbing. I dislike policemen a great deal in America (at least the traffic variety) but here they are just corrupt scum of the earth. So now we headed to another place with Rudik which was going to take forever to make it and for too much money, and finally we gave up for the day.
I spent almost 5 hours today, shopping for a bedroom and a bathroom door. I had been looking around already for a while, but without luck. Today I went to a place near the Opera that does good quality work with Lena and asked them for a quote... they started talking to me about their German technology, airtight seals, quiet shut, etc, etc... then they told me it would cost $200 for one door. Now you cannot imagine what a simple door I was requesting. A frame of wood which is 8cm all the way around, and a piece of wood (also 8cm) across the middle which splits it into 2. Glass fills in the two big empty spaces. This is very little work and very little wood. I told him that I did not need a door with fancy German technologies, I need a simple normal door! He said he did not make those, and acted as if it was beneath him. At this point I changed my mind about asking him any more prices for all the furniture I wanted made, and let Lena have a go at him. She tore her hair out for about 15 minutes trying to get him to give her a straightforward price. He was flatly refusing on the basis that he cannot be exact. We explained the whole idea of an "estimate" just needing to be somewhere in the ballpark so we know if he needs to bother give us a more exact number tomorrow after calculations, or if it is just not in our ball park. He did not understand and went on with more incomprehensible dribble before we got fed up and walked out. He at that point came after us and tried to explain himself to us again, but it was the same stuff he had already told us. We told him to just call us when he has finished all his calculations.
Next we went to a place on Nalbandian, which had doors imported from England which are fancier, bigger and shipped all the way across the continent for only $80... they did not have my sizes, and they do not do custom sizes. From there we went to the Arlex and AVC offices and asked for advice from our friends there. We were directed to a place near the Republican Stadium which we never ended up finding. So we kept wandering to Nar Dos Street, more populary known as Shinararneri Poghots (Builders street) where I found a guy selling a somewhat decent door for $50. I was asking him about custom making one and he said he could make my doors also for $50. At this point Lena's remodeling foreman Rudik showed up by chance and I turned around to talk to him for a second and before I knew it the wood guy was being hauled off by the police with his door and other wood. Two cop cars and a bunch of officers just hauled him and his stuff away without any explanation except saying to him that "we told you we would come this afternoon". I assume it was a shakedown since the poor old guy wasn't doing anything and there was no formal arrest or anything. Rudik thought they just wanted the door, and it was all a pretext for that. In any case, it was quite disturbing. I dislike policemen a great deal in America (at least the traffic variety) but here they are just corrupt scum of the earth. So now we headed to another place with Rudik which was going to take forever to make it and for too much money, and finally we gave up for the day.
posted by Raffi K. at 8:24 PM
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