by Been meaning to write this up for a month and here it is finally…
My housing co-op is having a bathroom renovation done in all the apartments, and actual work on the bathroom of the first apartment began a month ago on Monday. They start on 3 new apartments every week (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday). My bathroom started on July 1t, and my bathroom/sauna/toilet has been out of commission since then and will be for another 2 weeks! Washing machine too because it’s in the bathroom. Each bathroom is out of commission for 4 weeks if things go as planned, but if there are any surprise findings such as the humidity measurement shows humidity in the (concrete? whatever is underneath all the tiles etc.) then that might and will prolong the renovation. So far I haven’t heard that there’s been any surprises like that. I did hear that apparently the company doing the repairs has to fix some walls on the apartment side even though they haven’t caused anything to them, because they are made of surface material (the one on top of the concrete) that cracks easily. We have heavy busses going by a few meters away every 7-10 minutes, so a lot of walls have cracked more or less. I heard this “the company has to fix the walls” on Tuesday, but nothing since. The plan as I heard then was to fix it all so that the wall and the bathroom are finished at the same time.
My housing co-op is doing this as an co-op project rather than individual home owner projects that may or may not get done. There’s 5 buildings and all were built in 1997-1998. Just over half of the apartments have the original bathrooms still, with the others’ owners have renovated since 1998 but even of those, the renovations are getting to be 10 years old and a few apartments the co-op had renovated because of water damage from the leaking ceiling (error made during the building so the apartment owners didn’t have to pay the renovation). The original bathrooms are about at the end of life, so the we co-op owners decided to renovate all to get some discounts and ensure no bathroom water mishaps because things start to leak etc. simply because of age.
My building is the first one worked on, and Mondays-Tuesdays-Wednesdays of every week are rather awful as the noise is awful as bathrooms are dismantled with the help of drilling machines! The first week I’d been leaving every morning as soon as they started the drilling, and coming back after 3pm because they’re supposed to end their work day at 3.30pm. But on the third day I gave in and bought Peltor earmuffs – just basic cheap ones that cost just under 30 euros and don’t have any extra features such as radio, blutooth or microphone. Just simple earmuffs to make the noise less. I’ve used them so much and they actually work pretty well! They make even the worst drilling sound, the one that goes straight into my bones and nervous system, so much more muffled that i can stay at home. They cut out most of other sounds almost entirely. It’s such a huge relief that I don’t have to spend full days away, it was too hard and felt ill every day after coming back home and my head was so bad.
The renovation has been going on for 4 weeks now, 2 of which in my own bathroom, and I think I might actually have gotten used to the noise a little! I can’t believe it fully, but my headache isn’t nearly as bad anymore as it was the first week. It’s almost normal! We have a toilet and a shower each for both men and women, so no need to live somewhere else for the duration if you can deal with noise. I was rather nervous about not having immediate access to my toilet because of my Crohn’s but so far so good, no problems on that front. I do have to pee too often, like 10-16 times a day and I went to see a doctor about it yesterday. No UTI according to the labs (I’ve had UTI twice in 2014 and 2020 before so I thought it would be that now too!). More like I might accidentally have trained my bladder to empty too often while I was having sudden uncontrolled diarrhea due to Crohn’s Disease for over 10 years. The doctor also thought the stress of the bathroom renovation and having to use the outside toilet with Crohn’s Disease and chronic but mostly now controlled diarrhea might have contributed to this pee problem. Also I’m either in or very close to menopause and currently my periods are coming too often (like every 10-12 days after the previous ending) and all that means my hormones are haywire and that can have effect on the bladder and need to pee. I’ve got an appointment with a University Hospital gynecologist on the 22nd and the doctor said to tell them about the pee problem as well. Last night and today seems to be a little better pee-wise, though, fingers crossed it keeps heading on that track back to normal!
I also have an appointment with a University Hospital neurologist coming up in October, recommended by AKSE that I attended in April and May, to consult on what if anything further can be done for my headaches and migraines. AKSE also recommended physiotherapy and psychophysical physiotherapy and are coming up in the fall. I’ll be making an application to KELA for the AKSE recommended medical rehabilitation in after the weekend – they should have my GP’s medical certificate about her recommending me for it as well by then.
So lots of important things, and one huge thing going on, right now! My renovated bathroom should be finished and back into my use on July 26th! Can’t wait. It’s a hard time the whole renovation because of my migraine and even harder the 4 weeks my own bathroom is out of commission – what I get a great new bathroom at the end of the ordeal! And the dismantling of the last bathroom in my building will start on July 24, so after that it should be relatively quiet until mid-August when the building will be entirely finished if things go as planned!
Exciting things!
