Housekeeping

Most Aramco housing was built in the 1970's and 1980's. The general architectural style is kissing cousins with Communist Europe grey concrete, but the sand turns the concrete here brownish red. The salt water forms large cancerous rotting patches on the older buildings.

Salt water? Yes. Water injection is a method used to extract additional reserves as well as increase or maintain pressures in reservoirs. In the bad old days, Aramco, then still an American company, injected clean groundwater into their oil and gas wells. Until they started running out of that clean water.

Our sinks, showers, washing machines, and outside taps run with "raw water," lightly treated ground water. It is potable, but just barely. It is so salty that it will burn chapped lips.

The sweet water spigot is the tall swan-neck affair on the right.

We all have a second spigot in our kitchens that runs with "sweet water" that has been desalinated. That water is used for drinking, cooking, ice trays, washing vegetables.

There are severe fines for cross-tapping the sweet water line into the raw water line, even the threat of losing your job (which means automatic deportation here).

Yeah, it's a pain. Soap, shampoo, laundry detergent don't quite work the way you expect in such super hard water. But everyone on camp has to deal with this so there is little point in complaining.

Back to Aramco housing. The size of house that you are eligible for (total square feet and number of bedrooms) is determined by your marital status, pay grade, and the length of time you've been here, in that order. There are some houses that are detached but most are duplexes or townhouse style. In two years, I will be able to "bid" on available houses that meet the criteria for my status and pay grade. Until then, I live in a place that I was assigned to. Because I am classified as "executive single female" the list of potential competitors for the available housing list is small (not that many single women at my pay grade; most single women work at the hospital and I've found when meeting new people that if they find out I am over here by myself before they find out anything else, they always assume I'm working at the hospital; I do not let them labor under that incorrect assumption for long). From what I've been told, I can easily get into a standalone with a backyard (with grass), patio, garage, on the order of 1000-1100 square feet, after my two year wait period is up. It can't come soon enough.

As a result, I don't plan to do too much to the current place I'm in. Still, I've felt like I've been living in a cheap hotel for the past month. I'm sure I'll feel more settled when my household goods arrive (now projected for late December).

This 1970's-era Motel 6 aura is enhanced by the thoroughly hideous furniture that Aramco supplies. After four months, I start paying rent on all of these lovely items, including stove, fridge, and washer/dryer, which is really a token amount, as is the rent on the apartment. They deduct these items directly from my paycheck.

I did cave quickly on the issue of a couch, though. The one in the apartment was grotty, stained, stinky, and hard as a rock. I got a new leather couch at Ikea my first weekend here.

Before. Eewww.

After. Aaahh.

I am in a townhouse with neighbors on both sides and one directly behind me. They mix up floorplans in the buildings so there are small places next to larger ones. In the "cluster" style of housing, there are 12 units per building. My behind neighbor has a floorplan identical to mine. My next door neighbor has a 700 square foot unit. You get the idea.

Here is my 810-square foot floorplan. It doesn't show my patio, which is perhaps another 100 square feet and L-shaped.

My building is on the left. See the bit sticking out to the right? That's my study with my patio surrounding it.

Looking out my bedroom window across the top of my living room and study.

The other direction out my bedroom window. The building on the other side of the sidewalk is identical to mine with 12 units of the same size and floorplan. I am not entirely sure but it seems that only single women live in my building and only single men live in the building across the way.

I'll have more to say on the housing later but I thought I'd close this post with a couple of photos from our short desert stroll this morning.

Something smells interesting!

Enjoying the view.

I really had to work to keep the dogs from trampling this before I could get the camera set up. These are raindrop spatters in the sand. It does rain here but not in a collected or regional fashion. It was really windy last night so this bit of rain fell sometime very early this morning (I was out there at 6:30 am).