We had a very busy day in Chelsea!
As I mentioned earlier the repairman was scheduled to come and make some adjustments to our very, very, very old radiators.
They arrived on time but the building handyman had not yet arrived from New Jersey so they were delayed by a half hour. Then the fun began. It took from about 10:15 until almost 4:30 to replace the valves on both of our radiators. Did I mention that they are very, very, very old.
We have, basically, a two room apartment w/a small galley kitchen and a bathroom. There is a radiator in both rooms. Since they were both being worked on we couldn't escape to the other room and we really couldn't leave. Problems included the new valves did not fit the dimensions of the very, very, very old radiators so the legs on the very, very, very old radiators had to be sawed down. They finished the radiators, turned the heat in the building back on and then took their lunch break. At this point we went out to get some food as well. When we came back the heat was coming back through the building and the handyman and the radiator repairmen needed to check that the seals were good and that the radiators were not still leaking (that was why they needed work, they were leaking into our downstairs neighbors ceilings). Bad news, both of them were leaking. That's when they decided to saw the legs down. That took a good 45 mintues to an hour and then they had to reconnect the radiators. Once that was done the heat was turned back on and finally, success, no leaks in our radiators. Now we seem to have some control over the heat as well. We never turned our radiators on because, as those of you who have been to our apartment in the winter know, this place can get so hot we have to open windows. Now that the valves have been replaced, if the heat is turned off we won't get residual heat. Hooray! We won't have to spend the winter with the windows open a crack or more.
One of the good things about the day is that a portion of our bedroom floor that was in bad shape was replaced as part of the radiator repair. It had been in bad shape for a few years but it wasn't dangerous and we didn't really walk much near the radiator so there was no pressing need to replace the floor boards but the handyman said the building owner decided we needed to fix the floor before the radiators could be put back in place because the wood was weak. It's fine with us. We now have nice floorboards and a strong floor again.
After the workmen left we spent another two hours putting everything back in order. Of course, it will soon be put back asunder because we will be putting up the Christmas tree tomorrow and Monday.
It's been a long day and I'm glad it's over!