Banging, drilling and sanding from below

I have spoken about remont (home renovation) in Russia before but I feel I have to warn anyone who is thinking of moving to Moscow, beware. We have had "remont" going on above us and below us since we moved in. We live in a 1960s style block. Many of the Russians here in our block don't pay any rent or even have mortgages. Its not unusual for Russians to have inherited their flats from parents or grandparents. This makes it all the more difficult for us to accept it, when we count out the rent in new crisp bank notes, onto the table (that are into the thousands) and watch the landlady put it into her handbag, I can't watch her do it, it makes me feel sick. Some Russians rent out flats to foreigners for crazy prices. Rent from foreigners supports whole families in Moscow or allows the wife of the flat owner that boob job and designer wardrobe that she has always wanted.

We have had drilling, banging and sanding, going on below us, almost every day for four months. It begins at around ten and goes onto seven or eight at night. They have been using an electric sanding machine that sounds bit like a giant cat purring. A few weeks ago, I snapped and went downstairs and walked into the flat and said to the two people I saw "stop stop enough". A disheveled man, who looked as if he had just got out of bed waring carpet slippers, was sanding the floor with a machine that looked as if he had stolen it from the museum of electric hand tools. A gray haired women wearing an old house coat was sitting in the kitchen, casually reading a newspaper. I left them looking rather surprised at the strange foreign man who had just entered their remont world. I suspect it was the worker and the new flat owners mother who was there to supervise.

The flat is going to be the home of a Russian and his girlfriend or "wife" ( I don't know which she is). I met him a few weeks ago and asked him when he would be finished. He speaks some English. He said he did not know, I asked him if he could keep the noise down between midday and two, as my son sleeps at those times, he said "ask the workers" and smiled. He asked me how much our rent was? I stupidly told him and he said "this is good price, you have new windows and you have air-con", as if that justifies it! New windows (UPC standard) and one air con unit, 'wow' big deal. Arrogant ***ck, a stereotype Russian, in money. He wears tweed jackets and dresses in Tommy Hilfiger. He drives a large Volvo. Get the picture?

Today, their was banging so loud from below us, that the whole flat shook. I went downstairs to see what it was and they were putting in a new front door. A sweating bald man was standing on a step ladder, banging, rather than drilling out large chunks of wall from where the old front door used to be. I met my 'Tommy Hilfiger' friend again as I was going back to my flat. I snapped and said to him "you are a very arrogant man why don't you warn your neighbors about this work and think of others?", he replied "the work, it take no more than two months". I walked away shaking with anger, I am not a violent man but felt like punching him. Two things I hate in people, are arrogance and cruelty, he is pure arrogance mixed with renovation cruelty. He may have only understood some of my words, which is all the more frustrating for me. I wish I spoke Russian at times like these.... but then if I did speak Russian, I could end up shot or beaten, so maybe its lucky don't speak Russian!

I don't know what laws are here for disturbing people (are there any laws here?) or how workers price up jobs? Perhaps they do it be a daily basis? Which would explain why they take so long, or maybe they don't have the correct tools for the job? I will never know. I will have a bottle of Vodka to calm down.