My week of madness

Now I have posted the pics yesterday. But you never start any story with the climax so we are going to go back a bit and add the back story for the full effect.

Rewind to last Tuesday:
I called hubby at work and asked him to make me a doctors appointment because my throat was killing me. So we went to the Doctors after he got home from work and low and behold I had streap throat. I was put on antibiotics and sent home. Told to come in Thursday for a check before I was approved to return to normal schooling.

Wednesday:
Even though I was written home sick. Which is treated very differently in Germany. Here even people who are employed are  paid all sick days, there is no limit. I attended school since we had a special seminar. A professional trainer came in to teach us about German resumés and interviews. Now that did not go to bad. Except that the russian chick who is always mean to e kept asking the most obscure and ridiculous questions, like about wording in her personal cv that did not help the group. Well that pissed off the teacher so when I asked legitimate questions that actually affected all of us, such as where to place the Cover letter in the map (germans have  fancy system) I got yelled at.

Thursday:
My throat starts feeling better, but then I develop a cough. We go back to the doctor and he orders me home and in bed through Tuesday. Germans are very firm believers that if you are sick you are in bed, I have even heard stories where people claim someone worked while sick then had a heart attack or stroke and died, all because working with the flu. Man in the states I would have died a long time ago ha. So I am told to finish out the antibiotics and add one of the expectants that makes everything come up.

Friday- Sunday:
Hey my throat feels great, but cough turns into full blown bronchitis. Sucky. Spend the weekend in bed. Now sick 7 days so the house is not tip top, I mean not anything like Hoarders on A&E but not tip top.

Monday: I wake up and go into the kitchen to make coffee. As I walk bake to bed with my coffee I hear water dripping. Did I leave the machine on? The sink running? Nope. So as I turn around I see water running down the halls of our hallway. I call hubby at work tell him its serious and to get home. He notifies the landlord who then tell us he had a company renovating his bathroom. They said it was safe to turn on the water and were currently gone to lunch. So the water spread down the walls and into three streams of water in this time. So the company is back from lunch, do they come, nope. Landlord has them finish up upstairs first. I finally went up and said look the water is still coming and they came down. They them proceeded to stab the walls, cut out portions never finding the source. 5 hours later still didn't find it Went back up stairs and ripped out the newly renovated bathroom, and finally find a pipe    hole after 5 hours.

Now the landlord has no respect walks in the house without knocking, snoops around and walks straight into other rooms that has nothing to do with the leak.  By the end of the day I am exhausted and still sick.

But the highlight of the day was his wife coming down and going off about ow our house is an embarrassment to them and we should just move out and if we do not conform the their standards they will evict us. Now first let me tell you what a joke that is, because you can't just ask people to leave in Germany like in the US. Even people who stop paying rent cant just be told to leave. The landlord must pay thousands and go through a lengthy legal process that takes years to get people out. So they are just blowing steam out their mouths.

So now you wonder what is so bad about our apartment dun dun dun...
1) Hmm young married couple living on one income, not all that unusual to have only a few pieces of furniture in the living room. Maybe second hand, maybe they don't match but you are just starting our right? Nope not ok, she said if we are not going to use the room which is apparent we don't just to move into a studio apartment. That our lack of furniture is embarrassing because people look in the windows and ask if we are moving out.
2) Curtains- She does not like the design, the way they hang, the cut. And we need to buy new ones.
3) Why are we storing our old kitchen, just throw it away. Excuse me, what I choose to keep in my storage area is fine as long as it ain't dead bodies.
4) Mold- they claim since they have to return some nebenkosten this year that we do not heat enough. Therefore the mold is not a problem with the building even though there is a damn hole in the wall. Therefore and here is the kicker, the apartment must be 70 degrees at all time. Um no, even in the states most people do not keep the apartments so warm, and sure as hell not 24 hours a day. Any apartment over 6-65 degrees should not have mold issues. Fertig.
5) Oh and the best part, her idea of a clean house is one that is not lived in. She does not want to see anything on counters, papers on a table -nothing. the house should look unlived in. One shoe print in the whole house by her standards show it is filthy. And then she asked do we not learn how to clean in America. Excuse me, my house is clean, just because we live in it and it actually looks like a lived in home does not make it filthy. We have no trash lying around, no food, no pests. So why is it an issue if my cookbooks lie in a pile on the table? I can understand complaining when tenants do things that affect the structure of the buildings, but you cannot tell me how often I need to mop my floors that crosses a line.

So the conversation was left with, I will help you, but this is your last chance. My last chance at what? Living in your jacked up apartment where your pervy overbearing husband gardens outside m bedroom window on a daily bases- bite me.

So all day long in and out, landlord, his wife, construction workers, poring water, walls ripped out. Just not my day. But did it end their - nope.

Tuesday:
You would think it would get better after the crises, but no. Landlord is back at the door at 8 am, once again walking in without knocking. The construction crew brings in a machine to dry things out that should be the end for the day right. But no he find 1001 excuses and comes in at least once every half hour. So what was his complaints today, it just gets better I tell you.

1) When you moved in I put in a new stove and now its ruined. Wow are you serious because of one brown ring that just needs to be scrubbed. I am sorry I didn't realize your bathroom would implode in to my house nor that you would be here so often that you could have moved in the past two day, nor did I assume you would inspect other rooms, when the issue is in the hall.
2) A spot of mildew in the bathroom- That has never happened before we must be doing something, so he insists on showing the work crew and then says we must heat the bathroom to 70n degrees to while having the window open year round, wow.
3) Wife comes down. Normally I keep my laundry in a basket on my dryer, but since its pulled out I have a small pile by the washer- my god not ok. She runs in an brings me a hamper and informs me that is how people live in Germany. I am poor and I am an immigrant but I am not and idiot. If you want to help me feel free, but do not do so by belittling me as a person.
4) landlord does not like the way hubby has set up the washer and demands the construction crew set it up his way. He has no right to make any other repairs nor touch our personal belongings, and you better believe if he tries to bill us for that all hell will break loose.
You know there was more, but you get the idea.

And to top it off at the end of the day he informs me i need to be home tomorrow for the wall guy, but he doesn't even have a time set up or know when he is coming. Um yeah people have a life they have school or jobs, you work around them not visa versa.

Then comes today:
Oh thank you lord, he did not show up until 10. Of course just to make sure us idiots did not turn off the dehumidifier. But the best part was i locked the door. He still had to try to open it, but once realizing he could not walk in he had to ring the doorbell. Not two minutes after leaving he comes back to inform me they do not like my husbands ashtray outside. Well would you prefer all butts went on the ground? Oh and they want the entry way cleaned even though construction workers messy it up every 5 minutes. Did I mention I am sick and supposed to be in bed??? Oh I almost forgot he said because of the tiny bit of mildew the professional dryer has to go in the bathroom next. Hubby said that is enough no and no. None of this junk has anything to do with the water leak. He was only allowed in to fix that problem. It is not the home inspection hour. Nor does he have any right to make "repairs" to our personal belongings such as our washer. So I have no idea what will happen now but hubby said he is telling him today he only has authority to fix the hall. If he wants to talk about others things later we can talk, but he cannot just come into the home and do as he pleases.

So the best part is that we get no compensation. Under German law he is required to offer us other accommodations during this time and not charge us rent, well you know neither of those will happen.

So is he fixing yes. And I am happy he is so proactive about it. But he does not need to come in every 5 minutes. He needs to learn to knock, stop snooping, and respect peoples privacy and rights within their own homes rented or not.

I am so tired emotionally and physically.