Under Construction....

Just as another example of how well the school treats us, they have people in place to customize or update fixtures and so on in the apartments they provide to us. Need a lightbulb changed? Call housing. Have a plumbing problem? Call Housing. Want that electical wire that is sticking out from the wall removed? Call housing. Have a dryer but no way to vent it to the outside? Call Housing. Want that wall painted a different color? Call Housing. Want your entire kitchen or bathroom remodelled? Call housing. Need someone to help hang those pictures you took of the Pyramids? Call housing. Boy when I put it that way we're pretty spoiled here.

Anyway...as I write this there is beaucoup banging going on next door and upstairs where our neighbors are having their kitchens remodelled. A very labor intensive activity since everything is concrete, brick and tile. Work has been ongoing for exactly one week today and so far they have the place ripped up pretty good. Dave, next door, had them knock out a bit of the kitchen wall to open it up more into the dining area and they have taken all the tile up in the kitchen, walls and floor (everything is tiled) leaving pretty much just sand and bricks. Should you be able to see light coming through the bricks from the outside...? Normally they would do this sort of thing over the long vacation breaks so it would be completed before you returned, like a few of our other neighbors had done last summer, but Dave and Julain both were ok with having it done while they were there. They just moved into the back bedrooms.

Nancy and I are thinking of having them come in to do the kitchen after the Christmas break so Mary and Maggie won't have to sleep on a pile of sand while they are visiting. Speaking of piles of sand...to show you how good a sense of humor or neighbors have, here's a shot from Dave's apartment.
Them's the neighbors there in beach attire. The sandpile is in Dave's foyer where apparently he requested a sandbox (he's still a kid at heart!). The former kitchen is through the door in the back. They lug all this sand up here in burlap bags, filled out at the street from another pile of sand. They mix the cement right there and I suppose use the sand as a leveling surface for the tile floors? Explains why the ants like it here...