ON the outside, they look perfect. Gleaming towers of marble, long sweeping staircases, wide arches and columns that you can’t even put your arms around. Not palaces no, but the houses being built for some of Jeddah’s citizens. What lies behind these impressive facades? Only a few are privileged to know. So you wonder how I came to be among those privileged ones. Let me explain how it all began.
As is the case with every happy young engaged couple, thoughts soon turn to “the nest.” Each one of us has a vision of what our future home should look like. We are naively sure that we will find exactly what we want or die trying. Lurking in the back of our minds are the things we saw in cartoons a long time ago — I’m thinking of one particular one — “House of the Future.”
Now a warning to all couples: Expect your search to last at least three or four months. That is if you are very lucky. Mind you, the house hunt does begin as a bit of a lark: you chat with all the doormen, laugh about the decor of some of the houses and sigh longingly over that five bedroom, three living room, two dining room, a kitchen from a Cordon Bleu Chef’s dream and a huge balcony duplex with a view of the sea which is simply not practical for a young couple just beginning life together. Soon, however, the search becomes less of joy, not as much fun as it was. It has been two months and you have seen every — or so you imagine — possible apartment left in Jeddah. You’ve seen the new ones, the old ones, the five-year-old ones, the ones near the sea, the ones nearest your favorite shopping mall, the ones near your parents and the ones near his parents. You’ve seen the ones that are going for SR20,000, SR30,000, SR40,000 and, even out of curiosity, ones going for over SR100,000. So how is it that you still haven’t found what you are looking for?
One’s too small, one’s too big, one has noisy neighbors, one has the most awful decoration on the ceilings it has ever been my misfortune to see and one just simply won’t do. By the fourth month, apartments whiz past you in your sleep. Both sets of parents say after each outing, “So, have you found anything yet? What are you looking for, a dream house — be reasonable!”
Then one day, we found IT. And as it happens, it is helpful to have a professional on the lookout for apartments that don’t put out signs. From the moment we stepped over the threshold, we knew it was perfect. Everything about it was just what we wanted. Best of all, it had the most breathtaking view of the port and downtown Jeddah. We could find no fault with the apartment — we had to have it. Our parents were relieved that we had finally passed this hurdle and after some negotiation with the landlord, the lease was signed. We were now the happy lessees of an apartment by the sea.
A few months pass. We are happily married and back from a wonderful honeymoon in the Far East. Our first night in the apartment is everything we imagined it could be — Ahh, our own kingdom at last. The next morning, I cheerfully open the curtains and my heart stops. Busily beavering away is a swarm of some 30 men; they had already laid the foundations for an apartment building and were now working on the second floor. I close my eyes and imagine this is some kind of nightmare — I open them again and there they still are, diligently working.
I remembered how, while standing on the balcony and looking down on an empty plot of land in front, we had asked how long it would be before a building was put up there and were told not for another two years at least. Builders need building permits, the plans to be drawn, financing to be got, a consultant to be found, plans to be approved. My husband drew up a list so long my eyes crossed. So okay, we are safe.
Perhaps in an ideal world — a.k.a. “civilized world” — you do need all these things but as it turned out, this particular apartment building was something of an exception — or was it? Over the next six months I had a crash course in engineering. From my privileged position on the third floor I watched every error in the book being made. Looking at it today, you would be astounded by what is hidden behind the marble facade. Remember the saying, “Never judge a book by its cover”!
At last a chance to dazzle someone with all I have learned! OK — thin and weak columns, use of rusted steel, air pockets in the concrete, adding water to the concrete mixture without supervision of an on-site expert, poor overlapping of steel bars, thin and weak supports over windows, doors and AC unit openers, poor plastering, bad painting and finishing, external placing of marble without the use of a waterproof paint underneath, a poor fence system around the property, and exposed pipes and plumbing. Throughout the project, there was complete disregard for the safety of the builders. What it all comes down to is that there was a complete lack of supervision. I expect that within five years the building will be shakier than a house of cards. It made me start wondering about the state of all these buildings appearing all over Jeddah. Could “our” project simply be one in a long line of such buildings? As for us, you may wonder what our plans are. Blocked in on all four sides by buildings — well, all I can say is Happy Hunting!
