Friday, June 07, 2013

CONDO CONSTRUCTION

I've been a negligent blogger, I know. There are several things I should blog about - my work trip to Ireland, our weekend camping, what our "new" apartment looks like.

But ... well, I'm lazy.

Not too lazy, apparently, to go on a full bore rant on Twitter, however. Side note: it's really hard to rant in 140 character increments.

You see, we found out about a month ago that the condo complex we live in is going through litigation and that there's a lot of shoddy construction. Given that we can hear our upstairs neighbors walking around like Frankenstein (their names are Mary & Shelley, so I think this moniker is especially apropos) or vacuuming at 7 a.m. (yes, repeatedly), and that we have a giant crack in the wall by our sliding glass doors to the patio, this is not all that surprising. [Wow, that was a long sentence with a lot of parentheticals.]

What we also learned last month is that a work crew would be here the month of May to fix several of the issues, including repairing the stucco, the chimneys, and other structural areas. They started late as most construction crews are wont to do. Today they put the scaffolding up outside our chimney. Those pipes are loud going up! And now they're banging into the wall, which is shaking the apartment, which is driving me nuts. But the thing that I take most issue with is the constant yelling by the crew to one another. We told them I work from home. They don't seem to care. And of course today is a very busy day in which I'm on calls for the majority of the day. I've taken to using my iPhone with both of my ear buds in. I'm worried that I might have to resort to taking calls from the master bathroom - the room furthest in the house from the construction.

Today I also have the joy of having work men IN our apartment to fix some major cracks in the wall. They came by while I was in Ireland to assess the space. We were told there was one major crack by our sliding glass door to the balcony. Alan had seen it before then whereas I had not. When they came by to do the assessment is when Alan told them that I work from home and that they'd need to coordinate with me. When the foreman called last week, we confirmed today for a 20-30 minute appointment to "just throw some spackle on." I thought that sounded optimistic given the nature of the crack, but I didn't think too much of it.

They arrived this morning at the scheduled time and it took the worker 30 minutes to prep the area, including putting down paper (that's good, right?). After working for 15 minutes he asked me what he was supposed to do beyond that repair. Um, I don't know ... shouldn't you? He told me that his paper said something about a balcony door. I don't know sir - ask your boss. He couldn't get ahold of his boss. Then he left for 15 minutes. He came back and told me that he was going to lunch and would come back at 1 p.m. to finish up. Um, no. I have a call at 1 p.m. Your boss knows that I work from home and I gave him the window when you guys could come in and disrupt my day. For something that I was told would take 20-30 minutes, there was NO reason whatsoever why you would need to be here two hours after that period.

Then, the guy asks me again about a balcony door. I call Alan. He has no idea what the guy is talking about as at the assessment they told Alan there was one thing - the crack in the wall. The guy disappears again for 15 minutes. He and his boss come back and they want to look in the bedroom for our balcony door. Um, you mean the office? The office I'm currently sitting in trying to do work in? Yeah, that room. Apparently the door there needs to be sealed. The door is blocked by my treadmill in the room and our grill on the balcony. I'm not moving it. Best of luck to you. So now I've got two guys grunting behind me as they move our giant treadmill and ficus tree out of the way so that they can put down a line of silicone caulking.

At this rate I'm glad we told them NOT to paint the drywall they fixed and that we'd just do it ourselves. They'd be here until sunset. At least I can use this situation to try and convince Alan to paint the living/dining room a color other than the flesh tone beige it currently is (think tan Barbie).

Egads! As I'm typing this the upstairs neighbor is vacuuming - again. They vacuumed this morning at 7:15 a.m. Who are these people?! Calgon, take me away!

Edited to add: I really hope they stick to their three-week construction window. I love this apartment and this neighborhood, but I'd be really disappointed if we rented a place that winds up being a major construction zone without us having been informed. We wanted to rent a beautiful, huge loft in Jack London Square but didn't when we showed up and it was covered in scaffolding and the master bedroom window was blocked by a construction tarp. We were told that the project was going to take months and that they weren't anywhere near done. We knew we couldn't live like that, especially given the fact that I'm a telecommuter. It'd be too ironic if we end up in the same situation in an apartment that's smaller and more expensive.

2 comments:

  1. jennylou5:31 PM

    I hope they aren't bothering you too much!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Two days were pretty terrible, but otherwise it's fine. I just wish they'd come take down the damn scaffolding since they said they are done and it being up is like an invite for a burglar.

    ReplyDelete

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