Planes, stains and vacuum cleaners

Ever since I moved in, the door to my bathroom was very difficult to shut. It would always take a tremendous shove to make it close completely. Once shut, getting it open again was another matter in itself. On top of these difficulties, the door made the most awful screeching sound as it opened and closed. Luckily, I solved that probelm by adding spacers to the hinges.

But, just recently the door simply decided stop closing altogether. It's a very cheap door, made of compressed cardboard, and very susceptible to changes in humidity. I'd noticed it'd always been more difficult to close it after a shower. And, with all the rain we've been getting recently, it's little wonder that it swelled like a sponge.

With winter approaching, I wanted to close the bathroom door to conserve heat. I knew the only solution would be to cut the door down a bit, but I lacked the neccesary tools. I talked to the school's carpenter last Friday. I told him the situation, and asked him to come to my apartment with a saw and some tools.

He came, assessed the situation, and agreed with me. The door had to be trimmed. I naturally assumed that he'd take the door outside in the courtyard to cut it. But no, he proceeded to unhinge the door, and place it on my kitchen table and cut it right then at there...before I had a chance to say anything or move any of my dishes, jars, etc. By the time he was done, not only was my entire kitchen covered in a layer of dust, but so was everything in my bathroom.

As he gathered up his tools and left, I said "gee, thanks." He said, "you're going to have a girl come clean this up, right?" I just sort of laughed, tongue-in-cheek. If you couldn't already tell, there are certain cultural assumptions about gender roles in Romania. I suppose both of us had our assumptions. You know what they say about assuming...

In any case, I spent about three hours vacuuming, washing, mopping and generally cleaning everything. But the door does work, finally!