Tag Archives: construction mess

State of the House Repairs since the Quake, June 17, 2023

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Before
After quake
After quake
Teardown before repair
Repairs in progress
Cracks in inner walls

These are pictures of the entry arch before and after the earthquake as well as one of the cracks inside the house.

Click on photos to enlarge.

To answer Derrick’s question about the earthquake: This was an earthquake in October of last year whose epicenter was on the coast but it caused big jerks here. I was in the car and thought it was a really strong wind buffeting the car back and forth. Then I saw the telephone poles swaying and people streaming from the stores into the street. There was one quake of just a minute or two followed by another. There wasn’t any damage here that I could see, except when I got home I noticed cracks in my house and entry arch that over the months have gotten wider and wider until at last my door to the street wouldn’t latch at all as the cracks above it had widened so much. Cracks in my house appeared from front to back door in my entry hall which is really the juncture of the two wings of my L shaped house and when my friend Agustin inspected the house he determined that the two wings of the house had never really been joined by metal joists but just by concrete, so these are being installed and hopefully all of the cracks will be sealed and won’t reappear. In addition, the sorts of cracks shown in the last photo opened up from front to back of house in the hall as well as in rooms adjoining the center hall. Lots of work left to do after the main repairs are finished.

Door in the Making

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Click on Photo to enlarge.

I had to stop the car and back up to get this one. Loved everything that was going on.

 

For Norm’s Sunday Doors

Construction Cycle

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(What’s going on here? Click on first photo to enlarge pics and read captions.)

Before. Giant bathtub I never use will come out in lieu of a new shower and bench. Tub side will be cut down to just above the floor for easy entry. A small wall like the one on the right but a bit higher will go beside the chest on the left to guard from shower spray.
Bench for taking a rest during the rigorous task of showering.
New mini wall in lieu of a shower curtain.

 

Cycle

What comes before needed construction
is a good deal of destruction.
Thus at any given time,
there may seem no reason nor rhyme
to account for what is going on.
Yet, when all the rubble’s gone
and the building then commences—
houses, bridges, rooms or fences—
mass destruction seems no sin
when we tear down to build again.
Yet still, destruction never behooves us
unless what’s built tends to improve us.

 

The prompt word today was “Construct.“

Chaos R Us

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Lately I’ve had the feeling that my entire life is chaotic, but nothing this year has been the equal of having my whole life uprooted and moved to obscure corners and cupboards while they tile all of the floors in my house in one fell swoop. Nine men descended en masse a few days ago, took off all my doors (13 in all) and started turning my entire property into a workshop. Bags of adhesive form a wall between my street gate and front door. The pathways are paved my empty cardboard tile boxes. Men cut tile in my back yard, creating clouds of porcelain dust. Young men carry metal containers full of mixed adhesive and stacks of heavy porcelain tiles. Old men measure, spread adhesive and lay the tiles. Other men arrive to cut off the doors. Meanwhile, I am living in one small room and attached bathroom piled with assorted art objects, clothes and bathroom supplies, trying to find my way to the kitchen through the construction process. Not to mention keeping the dogs contained with every part of the house and yard being used. Here are some of the posts I’ve done over the past few days:

Elicit

The Tile Layers

Hide and Go Seek: Thursday Doors, Nov 24, 2016

It couldn’t be more appropriate to my life that the daily prompt word is “Chaotic“