Chilly Weather and Clean Flats

Last Sunday afternoon, I ran out of hot water.

For several years now, I have been easily defeated by a seemingly simple process known as Nachfüllen; a process where you have to top off the water level in the hot water heater, which utilzes the radiators throughout the flat to provide warmth and the needed hot water for clothes cleaning and showering.

Last year, the Hausmeister had come by to sort things out in early January, and I watched closely, thinking I was comprehending exactly what to do: connect the hose to the main water source, connect the other end to the radiator, bleed it of excess air, then slowly fill the thing up until the gauge reached the appropriate level.

Through a bit of research on the internet, I discovered that in some flats, people have to regularly top off the water level. I always found this strange, thinking it might be nice if it just worked all the time. (yes, I can be extremely naive, huh?)

I asked several people about this process, and received not only lots of shoulder shrugging (i don't know but also some bits of helpful suggestions. Unfortunately, the process works differently in each apartment, depending on the radiators, the age of the apparatus, and the overall set up.

One friend actually knew exactly what to do, as she had done the same thing previously in her own place. However, even when I did make the effort, following her instructions, I did not achieve the required result, and she was at a loss as to how to direct me further.

At any rate, it is one of those things that, once the immediate crisis is past, you tend to forget about the problem. Until it happens again, which it did last Sunday.

Willing myself once and for all to solve personally this challenge, I connected up my hose, crossed my fingers, made a bit of a watery mess on the slab of concrete on my bathroom floor, and presto! It worked. The water level rose quickly, and I did a little leap of joy.

I immediately took a hot shower, put a load of laundry in, and went off to watch a football match.

Upon my return later that evening, I was a little fuzzy in the head. Since I had already packed for my weeklong business trip, I pretty much went straight to bed, and woke up early Monday morning, giving myself plenty of time to shower before heading to the train station.

The bathroom seemed a bit chilly, and I cursed when I saw the blinking light on the water heater flashing the error message indicating once again the water level was too low. I did not have time to get the hose out, and did not have the guts to take a quick freezing cold shower, so I put on my clothes and headed for the station.

As it was so early in the morning, I waited a couple of hours, then sent an SMS to the houseworker (who was coming Monday to lay the tiles on the bathroom floor) and asked him to please sort things out.

I stayed in Düsseldorf for a couple of days, as a colleague from Scotland had come over. Each day became progressively colder; the week started somewhat chilly, but the temperatures dropped dramatically by Tuesday morning.

Tuesday was a long work day, and around 8.30pm, my colleague and I called it a day, and headed next door to the hotel, electing to just eat in the hotel restaurant rather than venture into the cold. The hotel restaurant had pretty good food (we had eaten there the previous evening, also) but rather expensive, as hotel restaurants tend to be.

Towards the end of dinner, an email came in from our boss giving us an fyi that the new travel expense policy had lowered the acceptable amounts for dinners. We had been sitting there having a couple of beers, and sort of laughed, since our tab was way higher than the allowable limit. My colleague had paid the previous evening, and now it was my turn. (probably going to turn out to be a rather expensive trip, now). It is not as if I tend to abuse the travel budget, but things add up quickly.

Wednesday morning, we made our way to Aachen, where it was even colder than Düsseldorf. Fortunately, I had planned accodingly, with gloves, scarf, and heavy coat. My colleague was not so fortunate, thinking that rarely would we be outside long enough to require a really heavy coat. Thus, as we stood on the train platform, he took the opportunity to express his displeasure at the temperature.

"Um, it is the last day of January."

In fairness, it has been a pretty mild winter up until now, and, a few days later as I checked out my hotel early Friday morning, the woman asked me if I was properly bundled up, indicating that it was really cold outside. "Winter is finally here," she said.

I was kind of touched, because it is rare that I hear someone say that. In fact, I think only one other person in Germany has ever constantly reminded me to dress appropriately during the colder months.

Indeed, I was wearing multiple layers, and very glad of that fact.

I arrived home late Friday morning, and my heart sank as I entered my flat. The floor was still covered with the butcher paper (to protect my hallway), and my washing machine was still sitting inconveniently in the hallway, as was the door to my bathroom, which had been removed in order to allow the guys to work.

However, I peeked in the bathroom, and saw a freshly laid tile floor and a gleaming shower. It looked to be a pretty good job.

I phoned up my landlord to compare notes. I had briefly spoken with the houseworker on Wednesday, who had indicated that the job would be finished before Friday, and that he would see to my hot water issue.

My landlord was a bit out of touch, as he had also been travelling, but he promised to make somme quick phone calls and then phone me back with the update.

Minutes later, he phoned again to report that the houseworker was on his way to my place, to put the final bits back in order. And he would be bringing the hot water specialist, also.

The guys arrived half an hour later, and together we inspected things. The hot water guy pointed out a few things that needed to be done in order to get my water heater functioning properly again. He'd had the good sense to bring all his gear with him, and busied himself getting my place sorted out. Upon completion, he gave me a detailed explanation on how things were supposed to work, and how I could keep things working better in the future (waterheating-wise).

They put the washing machine back in the bathroom, secured the door, then wished me a very nice weekend, urging me to call them should I experience any further problems with my water heater.

I declined the offer of someone coming in to clean the flat, as dirty as my place was at the moment. I did not want to wait until the following week before someone could come in and tidy up.

After finishing my workday Friday afternoon, I ended up having a few beers instead of jumping right into the project "clean the crap out of my flat." It had been a long cold week, and one more day would not hurt.

Thus, Saturday was all about extensively removing all the dust and dirt that had literally covered my place over the past weeks. I kept the tunes on throughout, and made decent progress. It was a bit tedious, but I felt good to know I was finally getting things respectable again.

By early evening, I had finished the bathroom, the bedroom, and was almost done with the living room, when I took a bit of a break to skype with my parents and grandmother. Two different calls, but it had been several weeks since we had spoken, so we needed to catch up.

Late last night, I finished mopping the kitchen, leaving a very large (and full) garbage sack parked on my balcony: proof of my domestic cleaning success from the past 12 hours.

I took a shower and went to bed in a clean, warm, and cozy flat.

While the temperatures outside remain frightfully chilly, even with the sun shining, the domestic front is back on track.

It has certainly been an educational week, and I have learned a lot.

One step at a time, you know?

keep the faith