The refurbishment of the unit just one floor above my apartment has finally finished last Friday, after a long span of seven months!  The work was "approved" by the managing committes of the residents, and it was "only" allowed to work during the daytime of weekdays, no weekends and holidays.  It seems reasonable to most of the residents, but not for my wife and I: retirees at home. 

You must be unable to imagine how had we endured such long hard days.  The deafening and screeching noise out of electrical drills, screwdrivers, saws, and other tools just drove us crazy every week day.  The janitor told me the ower of the unit spent at least TWD four million to tear down all the old furniture and fixures and replace them with brand new ones.  I do not understand but if I were him like having extra money of that much, I would have sold my apartment and move to a little bit classier area.  Why bother my neighbors and bring them so much inconvenience and ear-spliting sound?  It is definitely not a civic norm that people should conform to in modern society. 

Well, we cannot prohibit the residents from refurbishing their houses, can we?  However, we do have the right of maintaining our living quality.  How can we get an equilibrium between the pursuit of better indoor decoration and not  disturbing the tranquility in neighborhood?  It is hard to come by such a situation, but we have to coerce ourselves to do so.  I am not sure, but try to use movable and disposable partitions, cabinets, beds, and so on as many as we can, and the lesser the fixtures the better.  Use shower instead of bathtub  in the first place.  Remember, the majority of people of Taiwan are living in (high-rise) apartments, not like those Americans or Canadians in single houses.  We also demand a better quality of life.