My mouth is filled with porcelain crowns all in a row, nice and pearly white but not the white of Chiclets. I know of the “Ruby Crowned Kinglet,” a species rarely seen, but I once spotted the little bird at a feeder in my Brookfield home. I also know that Queen Elizabeth wears a crown for Royal doings, but until this week I had never heard the word “crown” used to describe an element that tops-off a condo building. Like the one I live in for instance.
The “crown” word came through in our monthly board minutes, sent to us electronically by our building manager. Our crown seems to be in dire need of sanding, priming and repainting. The cost is estimated to be $96,000 plus. It is after all, a crown and deserves special treatment. The alternative to having it maintained properly (and maintained regularly) is to have it removed. The board is looking into that possibility.
Or we could just watch the silvery paint on the crown flake and fall downward. I’ve seen bits of it on my balcony. It’s been flaking for many years, so this is nothing new. The board has heard about it before, but unless you dwell on the upper floors, well, who notices? Or cares? I mean, it isn’t as if the ground level residents are affected by it. When I noticed the silvery paint, I thought the buff colored stuff was put there by birds roosting on the elements. Eventually I determined that no, it was the buff colored primer being revealed. The birds are guiltless.
Actually our “crown” isn’t shaped like a crown (say like Queen E’s). It is more akin to outriggers on a majestic boat (the building set on the shore of Lake Michigan). It adds a note of authority to the top of our entire dwelling. It isn’t that I don’t like the look of it, it’s that I don’t like the look of it with large swaths of peeling paint. And wouldn’t something like this be under warranty? It was reported early on, or so I seem to recall.
But I’m thinking that because it is up where the gulls scream and dip, who really cares if it ah, needs TLC?
Every building has at least one major problem. I’m just saying.
