We all walked into the store. It is a huge warehouse store, kind of like a Home Depot in the States. I have no idea what the name of the store was. Vitaly and Leonid had been there before and had chosen a tile pattern and color for the floor. We were there to approve or disapprove of it, but actually I think we were along simply to say, "How wonderful!"
Vitaly and Leonid took off at a fast pace through the tile section, while we 3 followed much more slowly. I'm talking about tiles that go on floors. There were also tiles for walls, kitchen tiles, bathroom tiles, tiles that were beautiful, tiles that were strange, tiles that looked like glass, tiles that looked like the desert Southwest or possibly Italy, tiles that I wouldn't use if they were given to me with a hundred dollar bill attached to each one (after all, who really wants an orange like the peel of an orange orange wall? Now really??? Yuck.) There were many that were absolutely beautiful, but way too expensive. There were tiles for outside use that had big blue snowflake stickers in the corner, tiles for inside with hand print stickers in the corner, and tiles for inside with a footprint sticker in the corner. There were slick tiles and there were rough tiles. Most of the tiles would have been a bear to keep clean - either to light, too dark, too shiny or too rough where dirt would get stuck. There were tiles with pictures on them - roses, lilies, cornucopias, Ukrainian village scenes, fishies. There were tiles up the wazoo.
Why do I belabor this point? Because a mere 15 years ago none of these tiles were available here. You had a choice of: this kind in these 3 choices of color or white (pink, blue, green - maybe there was also a yellow but I've never seen it), or this smaller sized tile in packs of different colors of brown. The first was for the wall, the second for the floor. A lot of older flats have these tiles on the walls in kitchens and bathrooms and I've been able to determine just a bit as to when the room was last remodeled by the style of tiles used. The more design in the tile, the newer it probably is, until you get to the bigger tiles that are now available. too much info to go into now. Here are the tiles in our bathroom (oh! there was also gray! I forgot about the lovely gray - which actually isn't too bad): walls in toilet room
and floor (yes, that is how wide that room is - put your hands on your hips and you'll bang both elbows on the walls )
and shower room view of wall between it and toilet room (the towel and washcloth are hanging on the radiator for that room, it only works in the winter when they've turned on the heat finally) 
And here are the tiles in our kitchen: 
I just white-washed the walls last night - oh my! How yellow those white tiles look now!! My guess is that our flat was remodeled more than 15 years ago - or that these may be the original tiles even. Our landlord has taken good care of the flat over the years and is "picky" about how things were done in the past. He doesn't really care about what we do because he plans to do a total makeover whenever we leave anyway, EuroStyle it's called. We can't afford to do that. But once again I am way off subject, so let's go back to the Ukrainian Home Depot-ish store.....Sergei, Olya and I walked up and down 2 or 3 aisles and then around several pull-out display sections, looking at tiles and talking about what we did or did not like. I soon realized that our likes and dislikes were very different from each other. Uh oh. Well, this is their choice, really - that is why there were no Americans on the committee, after all.
When I realized that Olya was seriously thinking of floor tiles in the sanctuary that were dark cream color, non-slip with crevasses that would catch and hold dirty mop water forever and look very, very ugly within just a few months, I said: "Whoa! We need to stop a minute and remember what the goal is here!"
I then reminded them that this is going to be a public building and that the streets around the church are not paved, that people are going to end up tracking dirt and mud in (especially kids will and the kid population in the church is growing). I reminded them that everything in the church needs to be pointing toward a specific goal. What is our goal? To draw attention up and forward, toward the pastor and the pulpit (or whatever they end up with). That the church needs to be light - yes, the walls will be painted a light color (too dark for my tastes, but what I suggested was too light for their tastes) and that the floor should be darker. Disagreement on 4 faces. I was asked what I liked and I pointed to a tile that was medium dark and basically a single color, altho in my heart of hearts I really, truly would have preferred the Southwest looking one).
TOO DARK!!! Vitaly was horrified. Leonid was horrified. Sergei and Olya were not happy. I could tell these things. Again, I reminded them of the purpose of the building and our goal. Well, apparently Vitaly and Leonid had already chosen what they wanted and it was either very colorful (Sergei's take on what they said) or very, very light (like white??) (Olya's take on what they said). I just knew that neither of them were happy with me.
I needed backup at this point. I thought to myself, "I could really push this and be an ugly American at this point and say things I would really regret. Or I could let them make a several hundred dollar major mistake they would have to live with for several years and be very unhappy with eventually. Or - I can pull out the big guns!" I pulled out the big guns - my cell phone! And dialed Julia's number.
She didn't answer right away and I was getting scared (ok, not scared, just very disappointed) when finally she answered. I gave her the basics of where we were and why and then handed the phone to Olya so she could explain the problem. After all was said and done I asked Olya what Julia said. The answer: the darker the better so it doesn't show dirt. :) I laughed to myself and smiled a little smile.
Why did I call Julia? Well, Julia is Russian by birth and speaks Russian fluently and she and Jamie just built a house here and went through this whole process themselves. She spent hours and hours looking at stores and on the internet, comparing prices and getting ideas, etc. She is in Kiev right now and won't be back until Wed. and with a brand new baby in the house, she probably wouldn't have come to Nikolaev anyway (actually, it was really nice for me that they asked me - I really enjoyed it, no matter what you read here! {grin} But I needed back-up at that point).
Well, no one was happy. The tiles need to be laid soon, which means they needed to be bought sooner - like now. Since no one was pleased - we went to look at toilets.
Hmm. To my way of thinking, a toilet is a toilet. I didn't know there were 500 choices to make about a toilet. Well, that's not quite true, after all, I've written about the different toilets I've encountered here in Ukraine before. I just never faced several dozens of choices face to face before. With two young Ukrainians and two older Ukrainian men and one of the young ones being very opinionated about what is and is not a good toilet, while the two men had planned to just put squat pots in each of the toilet rooms (!!!!!!Yikes!). So, we spent as much or maybe even more time deciding about the toilets. Leonid and Vitaly left to go look at something else. Olya chose two toilets to choose from. I said, "Wait a minute! This one is shorter than the other!" "No it's not, they are the same size." "Measure them!" Sergei finally used his arm and measured and sure enough, the one was about an inch shorter than the other.
Now why is that important? I'll tell you why! I've sat on shorter toilets here before my knee surgery. There were a couple times I was afraid I was going to have to call Mel to come help me stand back up. There are kid sized toilets here, too, but these are "adult" toilets that are just shorter fro some very strange reason. They are also cheaper.
So, a discussion began again. What is the goal in buying these toilets? First - remember it is a public building, that children and old people will be using them, that men and women will be using them, that well people and people with health problems will be using them. They are not going into a private house. Therefore, paying less money for a flimsy plastic seat that will break soon is probably not a good idea when you can pay more now for a seat that will last much longer. And many more suggestions. So, Olya and I added our toilet requirements and we all decided that we were not going to buy a toilet at that point.
Leonid and Vitaly were ready to go home at that point, both of them not happy. Sergei and Olya were not happy. I was walking a razor thin line, afraid I was going to fall off and cause a church split before the church was even built.
Needless to say, the ride home was - more of the same as the ride over, only more so if you can imagine.
That was Friday. Monday afternoon Olya called me. She and Natasha K. (who is also on the committee but couldn't go on Friday) were at our new local Home Depot-ish store looking at tiles and toilets there. They had been to 3 places (maybe more) and had narrowed down their choices to 3. They wanted me to come over and give my opinion.
Uh-oh. First, I was just getting ready to white-wash our kitchen, so I had to put some stuff away and change clothes. Second, what was I getting myself into? Third, I wanted Mel to come with me (he was not happy about it at all but did come). Fourth, we had to be to the maternity hospital in two hours. and Fifth - we had to pay for 3 taxi's to get it all done in those 2 hours.
We got there and while Mel was checking my bag that had the things for our trip to the maternity hospital in it (you have to check all bags at a counter in front or lock them away in little cupboards at all stores here), I went on in and found the two girls. It was funny. They were looking at light shades and I walked up and stood behind them. So in-grained in the Ukrainian psyche is closeness that even though I was practically breathing down their necks, they did not turn around and look at me. They said a couple things to each other, then turned and walked off toward the live plants. I followed on their heels. Finally after about 4 minutes, I cleared my throat and Olya turned and saw me. She jumped. :) ha ha! She told me she knew someone was there but just thought it was another customer so she didn't turn around.
We went to look at two of the choices they had found (the 3rd was at another store). I was very pleasantly surprised to find that they had chosen a very Southwestern looking tile and some decorative tiles to put between them to divide the entrance from the sanctuary. I was very pleased (I did not say anything at all about my preference for that style the first day, just mentioned in passing that I liked it). Olya did not remember that at all. I also was thinking something when she said exactly what was on my mind: the main tiles came in two complimentary colors. I was thinking that the entrance could be the slightly darker more orangeish tint, while the sanctuary would be pretty with the complimentary slightly lighter and more brownish/tannish ones, with the decorative tile inbetween. She suggested it and I whole-heartedly agreed. Whew!
We went over to look at the 3rd choice, which had green in it. I liked it, too, but not nearly as much. Plus those tiles were a few centimeters smaller, so more would have had to been bought and laid down.
They had also chosen two styles of toilets again. We went over there to see and again one was shorter than the other. Olya didn't agree - she said she even asked the salesman and he said they were exactly the same. So I borrowed her purse and held it up against each toilet, measuring the height on her purse strap. One was about an inch shorter than the other. She argued that they were the same - the salesman said so. I just showed her again. :) What can I say - they were obviously two different heights!
So today is another day. Sergei was over earlier and he told us that yesterday after Mel and I came home, Vitaly met them all over at the store and they bought and/or ordered the tiles and toilets. Vitaly still thinks it's all way too dark. I like them a lot. Sergei told us that Olya went through every box of tile, tile by tile and pulled out any that were cracked or broken or chipped. He said Vitaly's attitude changed a bit when he saw that they really were caring about the quality of what was being bought, not just being difficult to get along with.
Now we'll see what happens and how it looks when they are all laid and installed.
Our landlord came over today for the next 6 months of rent. Sergei translated for us because we had 3 things we needed to talk to them about. One was the couch in the livingroom - it's falling apart and we never ever sit on it - can they take it away? We ended up with Sergei, Ivan and Mel hauling down to the neighbor below us.
After it was gone and I'd cleaned up the dust and things that had been hiding back of if, Cheyenne went nuts.
She started running through the house, tail all puffed up, eyes black, full speed ahead. I went into the other room and she hid and attacked me when I came out. No claws, just playing like a wild tiger. She meowed really loud, ran over and jumped on her scratching post/perch and got angry that the phone is now on it, too. She jumped here and there, meowed a few more times, tore through the flat again.
Obviously she is not happy that we didn't ask her first if we could get rid of "her" couch!
Cats don't like change. No, they really don't. But they get used to it, eventually.
Neither do people most of the time. And boy did I see that in action over the past few days. But with a lot of prayer, hopefully we'll all get used to it and get along with each other!
No comments:
Post a Comment