Monday, July 14, 2003
Ok, I promised the other day and I didn't follow through. It happens. You have to learn to be flexible.
I mentioned last week about visiting a new Japanese home, with all of the amenities that one could expect, including a toilet lid that opens automatically as you enter the house. I have been mulling over the issue after seeing this house and after spending the last few days shopping for and I have decided that the Japanese are far superior to Americans as far as product craftsmanship is concerned. Let's do a little case study: my house versus the new Japanese house.
Item 1: Drywall
This house had mine beat hands down. I know the day laborers are paid to finish the job and I know that using them keeps my house priced reasonably, well supposedly. How come this guy can pay a comparable amount for his house and have immaculate walls and ceilings? <'Johnny Cochran>That does not make sense!<'/Johnny Cochran> All of the corners were perfect. All of the cutouts were smaller than the plate that covered them. Everything was nice and smooth. Am I saying he shouldn't expect any nail-pops? No, but I am sure they will do a fine job fixing it.
Item 2: Light Fixtures
Absolutely wonderful. No upgrading required, great lighting is standard. We got an allowance at a lighting store. They made it very easy to go over budget if you didn't want crappy light fixtures. We had to cut corners, change designs, nix the lighting on the ceiling fan. Why? This guy's new house came with nice lighting. He had one or two that they had hand selected, but all of the other ones were standard. Do we just have low standards?
Item 3: Bathrooms and Kitchen
Ok, everything was immaculate. No shoddy tile work. No second-rate caulking jobs. No construction dust. I guess that one applies to the whole house. The fixtures were spotlessly shiny. I wish we hadn't had to clean drywall putty off of almost every surface when we moved in, especially in the bathrooms for some odd reason.
Item 4: Flooring
This house had wood floors on the first level like we do. Same type of floor, probably a different wood and manufacturer. Hell of an installation job. No bulges where someone accidentally nailed moulding to the floating wood floor. No places at the wall where it didn't quite end under the moulding. No seams where it wasn't quite flush. At least not that I could find. And I was being very nosy or inspective, if that's even a word.
Item 5: Brick work
This house had bricks not only outside, but also inside. Two columns covering structural supports, to dress them up a little. I am sure that I could have taken a level to each and every brick. And the masonry was immaculate. No places where it sort of hangs over the bricks. No places where they scraped too much out or didn't scrape enough.
I could go on and on but this would get very boring and I would get more infuriated than I am now. I feel like I should have kicked my own ass for agreeing to buy my place in the condition it was. Not that it's not a nice place. Don't get me wrong, I love my place. I am just really ticked off that the people building my house didn't put as much effort as obviously went into a comparable home in Japan. It's not like I got such a bargain on my house that the builder should have sacrificed quality craftsmanship. And it's not just my house. It's a lot of my friends and family that have bought new homes recently as well. You shouldn't have to go to The Home Depot during your first week of residency unless it's to buy that fancy paint they couldn't do, or to buy a hammer to hang up your pictures. I shouldn't have had to look for tile sealant, a dust mop, cleaning supplies and sandpaper. The place is brand new! It should have been taken care of. I've heard of cutting costs, but at the sake of sacrificing quality? Personally, I'm a believer in you pay for what you get. I guess I feel like I paid for more than I got in this case. And like I said, I still love the place I have, I just wish the illegal immigrants hadn't been in such a rush to get home and watch Telemundo.
The attention to detail doesn't only apply to homes, either. It's in almost everything I have seen while I have been out and about shopping. From hand-painted pottery to little wooden jewelry cases, for prices comparable to some of the crap in K-Mart, you get a far superior product to any I have seen in the US. That goes for some of the larger furniture items as well. I almost crapped my pants when I saw how cheap this awesome table was in a fancy department store. The thing was solid, too. I crawled underneath it to check out the joints and it was immaculately jointed, glued and bolted. If it would fit in a suitcase, I would be the owner of a new table. Shipping is expensive and I'd probably have to pay import taxes on it, so I think I'll let it go. It was the kind of table that you could further the human race on without having to retighten any parts afterwards.
I'm not trying to be all Mr. Anti-Jingoism. I'm definitely not trying to sell my home country short. My friend Mike accused me of 'coming to the dark side.' His dad describes him as a Nazi. Not a skinhead type, just the kind that would wipe out all of the people with an IQ less than 115 if you put the button in front of him. He's been on the 'dark side' for about 10 years. I don't think I could do it. I still like paying $1 for my McDonalds fries, not the $4-5 it would cost in a world without stupid people. I think a lot of Americans do take pride in their work, and I know quite a few people that do, I am just saying that maybe we should demand more, kind of like the scorned black ladies that demand free dessert because their popcorn shrimp and strawberry lemonade were brought out more than 10 seconds after it was prepared. I told you about taking them hoes to the Cheesecake Factory! Yeah, maybe white people shouldn't quote hip-hop music.
I mentioned last week about visiting a new Japanese home, with all of the amenities that one could expect, including a toilet lid that opens automatically as you enter the house. I have been mulling over the issue after seeing this house and after spending the last few days shopping for and I have decided that the Japanese are far superior to Americans as far as product craftsmanship is concerned. Let's do a little case study: my house versus the new Japanese house.
Item 1: Drywall
This house had mine beat hands down. I know the day laborers are paid to finish the job and I know that using them keeps my house priced reasonably, well supposedly. How come this guy can pay a comparable amount for his house and have immaculate walls and ceilings? <'Johnny Cochran>That does not make sense!<'/Johnny Cochran> All of the corners were perfect. All of the cutouts were smaller than the plate that covered them. Everything was nice and smooth. Am I saying he shouldn't expect any nail-pops? No, but I am sure they will do a fine job fixing it.
Item 2: Light Fixtures
Absolutely wonderful. No upgrading required, great lighting is standard. We got an allowance at a lighting store. They made it very easy to go over budget if you didn't want crappy light fixtures. We had to cut corners, change designs, nix the lighting on the ceiling fan. Why? This guy's new house came with nice lighting. He had one or two that they had hand selected, but all of the other ones were standard. Do we just have low standards?
Item 3: Bathrooms and Kitchen
Ok, everything was immaculate. No shoddy tile work. No second-rate caulking jobs. No construction dust. I guess that one applies to the whole house. The fixtures were spotlessly shiny. I wish we hadn't had to clean drywall putty off of almost every surface when we moved in, especially in the bathrooms for some odd reason.
Item 4: Flooring
This house had wood floors on the first level like we do. Same type of floor, probably a different wood and manufacturer. Hell of an installation job. No bulges where someone accidentally nailed moulding to the floating wood floor. No places at the wall where it didn't quite end under the moulding. No seams where it wasn't quite flush. At least not that I could find. And I was being very nosy or inspective, if that's even a word.
Item 5: Brick work
This house had bricks not only outside, but also inside. Two columns covering structural supports, to dress them up a little. I am sure that I could have taken a level to each and every brick. And the masonry was immaculate. No places where it sort of hangs over the bricks. No places where they scraped too much out or didn't scrape enough.
I could go on and on but this would get very boring and I would get more infuriated than I am now. I feel like I should have kicked my own ass for agreeing to buy my place in the condition it was. Not that it's not a nice place. Don't get me wrong, I love my place. I am just really ticked off that the people building my house didn't put as much effort as obviously went into a comparable home in Japan. It's not like I got such a bargain on my house that the builder should have sacrificed quality craftsmanship. And it's not just my house. It's a lot of my friends and family that have bought new homes recently as well. You shouldn't have to go to The Home Depot during your first week of residency unless it's to buy that fancy paint they couldn't do, or to buy a hammer to hang up your pictures. I shouldn't have had to look for tile sealant, a dust mop, cleaning supplies and sandpaper. The place is brand new! It should have been taken care of. I've heard of cutting costs, but at the sake of sacrificing quality? Personally, I'm a believer in you pay for what you get. I guess I feel like I paid for more than I got in this case. And like I said, I still love the place I have, I just wish the illegal immigrants hadn't been in such a rush to get home and watch Telemundo.
The attention to detail doesn't only apply to homes, either. It's in almost everything I have seen while I have been out and about shopping. From hand-painted pottery to little wooden jewelry cases, for prices comparable to some of the crap in K-Mart, you get a far superior product to any I have seen in the US. That goes for some of the larger furniture items as well. I almost crapped my pants when I saw how cheap this awesome table was in a fancy department store. The thing was solid, too. I crawled underneath it to check out the joints and it was immaculately jointed, glued and bolted. If it would fit in a suitcase, I would be the owner of a new table. Shipping is expensive and I'd probably have to pay import taxes on it, so I think I'll let it go. It was the kind of table that you could further the human race on without having to retighten any parts afterwards.
I'm not trying to be all Mr. Anti-Jingoism. I'm definitely not trying to sell my home country short. My friend Mike accused me of 'coming to the dark side.' His dad describes him as a Nazi. Not a skinhead type, just the kind that would wipe out all of the people with an IQ less than 115 if you put the button in front of him. He's been on the 'dark side' for about 10 years. I don't think I could do it. I still like paying $1 for my McDonalds fries, not the $4-5 it would cost in a world without stupid people. I think a lot of Americans do take pride in their work, and I know quite a few people that do, I am just saying that maybe we should demand more, kind of like the scorned black ladies that demand free dessert because their popcorn shrimp and strawberry lemonade were brought out more than 10 seconds after it was prepared. I told you about taking them hoes to the Cheesecake Factory! Yeah, maybe white people shouldn't quote hip-hop music.
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