Coming Home to Construction

Within a week of coming home our bathroom had sunk more than 2 inches.  The tiles were coming apart from the wall and the walls were coming apart from the floor.  Why?  The building was built in 1890 and the beams were damaged by water (condensation) and the "cement" of the time had nearly deteriorated into large rocks and were falling down on the workers who were remodeling the apartment below us.  Eddie, who is a freelance carpenter traveling the wold said, "a couple more days and you would have had dead Indians below you." 

 

This is a picture of the apartment being worked on below us.  The biggest challenge was that bathroom which in turn revealed the defects in ours.  

This is our bathroom after everything had been pulled out and the old concrete was removed.  

The project will entail replacing the 18 foot beams that run under a portion of my room, the bathroom, and about 4 feet into the living room.  It may include replacing the wall between my room and the bathroom and the flooring in all 3 will need to be replaced.  The estimate was 4 days and has grown to 3-4 weeks.  As with any construction project, that estimate will likely continue to grow. 

In the meantime, luckily, we have access to the apartment (which is now vacant) across the hall. It is a 2 bedroom apartment with functioning kitchen and bathroom.  Yael and I spent most of the day Saturday cleaning and moving the essentials in.  For the time being, we will be using this apartment and heading over to our apartment to get what we need.  I had to move my mattress and computer over due to the existing dust from tearing out the floor and future dust caused by construction.  Yael complained of the dust entering her room, "my boogers are black."  In fact, I have felt rather sick, inhaling all of that dust and the cat has even been affected with a bit of an asthma problem, sneezing, and just plain nasty eyes that are full of snot and largely unable to be fully opened.  

Thus, as the picture shows, she was grateful, as we all are to have a haven to move to until the project is completed.