Thread by @wutdfark

Various observations of the state of the island.

When we found out we were going to be parents we decided to build a small room & attached bathroom. The wife had a small patch of unutilized land & we wanted the extra space for the kid.

Wife is a qualified architect...

...& she pretty much oversaw her existing house about 5 years ago with a team of builders (baas). She sourced materials, did measurements, etc.

She didn't want to give this room to a contractor as they'd charge a higher price on every piece of material. We did call for quotes...

...& the avg cost came to around 1 million. She was like no, we can do it for 700k, we just need a team of competent baas'.
So we found a team who had worked at her cousin's place in Moratuwa. Spoke to them, came to an agreement on cost & started sourcing materials.

That's when the nightmare started in July. Everything was expensive & in some cases unavailable. Also, this was an entirely new experience for me.

We had to look at cement, wood, sand, bricks, iron rods, pipes & gutters, roofing sheets & tiles, wires, lights, junction boxes...

...circuit breakers, bathroom fittings, tiles, kalu gala, paints, water proofing, fans, doors, windows, glass blocks, pergolas, mesh wiring &so much more.

We couldn't use certain things, we couldn't afford certain things & in some cases couldn't find certain things.

We were also tight on money, neither one of us owns a money tree. We'd always look for the most economical alternative (a nice way of saying the cheapest option) but also didn't want to compromise on safety & longevity.

Pointless getting something if you can't at least use it...

...for 10 years. So we did the beat we could. Looked for universal wall sockets but they weren't available anywhere. Several times over the last few months we couldn't find cement. She used a family contact to find a hardware store, I got friendly with the owner & he'd call me...

...whenever he got cement. He'd order 200 bags for a week & get sent only 25 bags. He then has to decide who of his customers he needs to sell to & he sold only 3 to 5 bags per customer to make sure he doesn't lose long standing clients.
Some days I had to travel an hour away...

...to pay a higher price, sort out transport (another cost) to bring 5 bags of cement. No cement means our baas can't do his job. If he can't do it, we don't pay him & then he can't feed his family.
But more importantly, the thing we started was getting delayed & every week...

...the price of items was just going up. In July we were told 2 months & the work would be finished.
It's now December & we still have another week of work to do before it finally ends.

When we started, we made a quote & it came to around 750k with baas' fees.

Last week we sat down to do the budget, looked at all the bills & by the time the room ends, we estimate having spent around 1.5million (we've already spent 900k).
When we started a bag of cement was 850, now it's 1500 & barely available. We bought 15 kalu gala tiles for the..

...bathroom at 375 per tile, last month. Yesterday we needed a few more & now it's 450 per tile & it's no longer available.
My parents in Seeduwa are doing some renovations to their place & required bathroom & wall tiles.
We went to a bunch of places & most don't have stock...

...one place said they had tiles but for every 3 tiles, we had to buy one really ugly tile. They were trying to move unmovable stock &they know ppl are desperate- no thanks.
Finally found one design at Lanka Walltiles. They said if we wanted anything else, orders have to be...

...placed in Feb 2022 & we may get them in March or April.
So folks bought what was there, they have to come in a week to collect it.
While I was there I saw 3/4 sets of customers walk in & all of them were directed to that one design & all of them seemed to be going through...

...what we went through. Buying things they didn't want but had to out of desperation.

I bought my bathroom tiles, sink & toilet from the Rocell factory outlet in Homagama in August. They said all the factories producing tiles in Sri Lanka could only meet 40% of local demand...

...the balance had to be imported but since imports were halted due to the $ fukups, local demand had jumped & supply issues set in. The factory outlet was almost empty on the day I went. Some small construction companies &tile stores sent reps in the morn to buy up whatever...

...they could. It's a really sad state of affairs.
If you're super rich, if money isn't a factor, this may not be too much of a problem for you but even if you have money, you may not be able to buy what you want. You buy whatever the seller has & if he doesn't have anything...

...tough luck.

And every month the value of a rupee just keeps reducing. Eventually we'll get to a point where our currency won't be worth the paper it's printed on.

I'm no economic wizkid but even I know artificially trying to control the $ is going to have severe consequences

Have you noticed recently how your fave eateries no longer offer certain items or their quality has dropped? Various ingredients are no longer available.
How about needing a cab or trishaw? Difficult to get one, even if you stand on the side of the road?

Ppl can't pay their leases, so there go their livelihoods.
Heck, Beard Papa's no longer have matcha anything. They haven't received the ingredient since the September lockdown.
Man, I must sound so whiny, complaining about lakhs here & millions there. Real "first world" problems

If this shit is affecting me so, I can't imagine what ppl in lower income brackets must be going thru.
Everyone wants to climb the ladder of success, no one wants to be/live poor. But in Sri Lanka, the system & politicians have forced the majority of citizens to their knees

Where's this going to end? I don't know.
I came to settle down in this country in 1994 & was told how one day we would be like Singapore.
I'm about to have a kid soon & I wonder if politicians will feed him this same line of bullshit when he's s old as me.
#SriLanka #musings