glamorous life of a Library Director

I have never owned a home. When I lived at the Farm in New England—what feels like a million years ago, and as many miles away--we were wardens of sorts over our cabins and houses. Problems resulted in written “tickets” to the Maintenance Team, who then resolved the problem. The same can be said of all the apartments and house I’ve rented; a call to the landlord usually resolved the issue (I fortunately always had good landlords, for the most part). ChicagoBoy, the homeowner (I guess that makes me a co-homeowner in a couple months?), is a handyman and a Landlord himself, so much more adept at handling problems. And yet it’s me who is stuck with the mounting challenges of a new building.

I’ve gotten good at reading warranties—only one problem has still been under warranty—and getting recommendations for service people. I’m learning the jargon of these people, getting better at home to explain the problems. I’ve dug in.

In my first 3 months at the New Library I’ve had, and am still working on getting all of these problems fixed:

• Leaking roof (may be caused by roof windows)
• Leaking windows
• Bad door seal, leaking
• Outside in-ground lights full of water and not working
• Electrical issues with exterior light programmer
• Inability to use light switches for a week, due to the fact that the electrician screwed something up when trying to fix the light programmer
• Dead water softener

I'm tired and crabby most nights, going home weary of dealing with so many problems all at once, but I guess I can chalk all of this up to learning...

So, what are you mastering at work lately?