Look! Look! Look!

I can see out my windows! My view is back!!!

I came home yesterday and the plastic construction wrap was gone, but the scaffolding was still there!

Then, I came home today and the scaffolding was gone!

I'll admit it, I got a little misty....

Project Update: Condo Progress!

Since another busy week around the Knitting Knot means little progress on knitting, I thought I'd share some progress on the condo construction!

Construction crews finally installed the insulation in our entry way along with new drywall that's now all patched up! It's nice to finally have insulation again now that spring is coming up. I mean, it's not like I needed it December and January when we were having record low temps.

And the new windows are really nice too! The new skylights will look great once I can look up and see the sky instead of construction workers.

They've also started adding the new exterior siding. It's darker than I'd like, but as long as I don't look out the window and see the mold growing on the side of my condo, I'm quite happy.

And the best news is, they've started taking the scaffolding and plastic wrap down on the other two buildings! Ours is hopefully not far off either. In fact, I used my journalistic interviewing skills to get to the bottom of this matter. The following interview was conducted in my elevator as I headed to the bus stop this morning:

Me: "Hey, how's it going?"

Construction guy who happened to get into the elevator with me: "Good, and you?"

Me: "Good thanks."

CG: "Good."

Me: "So, um, when are you going to be done?"

CG: Laughing. "Uh, well, we're starting to take down the scaffolding on the second building today so yours should start to come down in about two weeks."

Me: Playing it journalisticly cool, "Really? Ohmygosh that's so great! Really? You're not just making that up?"

CG: Now trying to get off the elevator and get to work, "Uh, yeah. Have a nice day."

Whew! What a week!!

It's been a crazy one around here!

The week started off with a fabulous new President! I still had the high of a new leader for many days.

Then, it was a treat beyond words to come home to find new doors with windows where the wall of plywood used to be!!!! They are beautiful new French doors that actually close all the way!! No more winters of stuffing old dish rags in the corners and "sealing" them with duck tape! Of course, we still don't have a view due to the scaffolding and plastic covering, but at least I can see my construction worker friends again!!

And as I wondered how the week could get any better, it did. We got a brand new washing machine!!! After 8 loads of laundry, I'm pretty much caught up! However, the vacuum cleaner still isn't working, but hey, I'm going to focus on the positives for now!

Project Update: Construction Mess

While those of who are lucky enough to hang out with me on a regular basis, are also oh-so-lucky enough to hear me complain about the daily on-goings of the construction work. But they haven't been by to see the mess. So here you all go:

(Here's a partial view of the deck construction. It was the best pic I could get)

Our French Doors have been replaced with plywood and painters tape. Let me tell you, plywood and painters tape doesn't exactly keep out Mother Nature. The weekly construction update says the plywood could be in place for a "few weeks." I'm not so sure about that.


You see, the construction foreman personally called to tell me that our ceiling replacement project would only last "about three weeks." That was more than two months ago. And I swear the ceiling is getting worse. And lower. I don't how that's possible. But in this mess, I wouldn't be surprised.

(The ceiling of the entry way.)

The only upside to this is the amount of organzing and purging of crap that we are doing. Sunday was another day of reogranization, furniture rearranging, several trips to the dumpster and another big ol' trip to Goodwill. Once this construction project is finished, I'm going to be amazed if we have any belongs at all.

The squeaky wheel gets her mail

And so do the other squeaky wheels in my condo. Apparently, I wasn't the only one writing a strongly worded email to the construction people, who then followed it up with a phone call to the Seattle post office.

When I spoke (again) with the postal delivery supervisor today to make sure they knew about the new lights the construction folks installed on Monday, she said they decided to start delivering our mail again, because, "it was piling up in the post office and taking up their space." Gee, I hate to think this ordeal caused them any stress.

Through sleet and snow, but not construction

There was an interesting little letter left for our building from our postal carrier. Apparently, he feels our foyer (where the mailboxes are) is unsafe due to the lack of lighting. The "lack of lighting" is due to the construction. I'll admit, it's darker than normal, but at 3 pm, when the mail is usually delivered, it's fine.


So until this "issue" is resolved, no more pick up or delivery for us. I guess the US Post Office doesn't give a damn that it's the holidays, that some of us have packages that should have been delivered two days ago, or that the Christmas cards we ordered to send out are also sitting somewhere in the postal system abyss.


I've already written a strongly worded letter to our construction people and building management, hopefully it'll get taken care of quickly. Otherwise I'll have to up the "strongliness" of my letters.

Construction Zone Update

The other morning as I was getting ready to leave for work, I noticed a construction worker on the scaffolding waving and trying to get my attention. He was pointing to me, to the very large saw in his hand and to our ceiling. I thought, huh....he's either:

a) trying to tell me he's going to come in and hack me to pieces with his very large saw

or

b) trying to tell me he's going to come in hack my ceiling to pieces with his very large saw

Since they let me leave without any type of trouble I figured it was option b. It was confirmed when I came home and found the ceiling in my entry way was replaced with a "temporary" one made of plywood and plastic. The construction foreman assured me that it "should" hold up from the big storms that were predicted for Seattle.

"Should," now there's a comforting term to hear from a construction worker.