Apartment life - major renovation

After writing the original post, I have edited it with what else happened in italic.

There are always things that are good and bad about living in an apartment building, and something that is hard to deal with is when there is a major renovation that needs to be completed. The latest in our building is they are replacing the pipes in the various risers in the building. It is something that doesn’t happen very often so that is good but when it does, it can mean some major impact on how you do things, especially when you work from home.

Here are the steps that are involved in replacing the pipes in our riser and the estimated length of time is between 2 and 3 weeks, so yes lots of noise and dust.

1. Remove all the items from around the sinks and from underneath each of them. For us, we have the kitchen sink, and two bathroom sinks, so lots of stuff that needs to find a new home until the work has been completed.
2. Someone will come into your unit and break the wall in each of these cabinets so that the plumbers can have access to the pipes. This means big open holes that let dust and other things into the unit. Our super recommended that we tape bags over these three openings, so that is what we are doing.
1. the building had to shut off the water for the entire building (Wednesday) to replace a value which was a connection to the city water, and it was scheduled from 8-5 or until work was completed. Well, this didn't go as planned, and we ended up being without water for around 20 hours, which wasn't good.
2.  Friday afternoon (around 12:30 pm) there is a knock on the door, and we are notified that there has been a flood in the main bathroom on the 18th floor, and we are on the 10th floor. We clean up the water on the floor and move the rug from the hall, but again not bad, or at least that is what we thought. Well, the water besides coming out the opening of the cabinet also went through the wall and into the closet behind the bathroom which is our main walk-in closet. This results in the water in the closet and getting stuff wet there, and then it goes into the bedroom and soaks our area rug, which we had to move. This issue was discovered around 11 pm when we were getting ready to go to bed. We had to move all the stuff off the floor in our closet and even a few things in our bedroom. We spent some of the weekend cleaning up and trying to figure out if we had lost anything, but after two days of going through stuff, we think we only lost one paperback book.
   
3. The plumber will come into your unit and work on replacing the pipes and shut off valves
1. This was scheduled for the following Tuesday, and it meant that we would have people coming and going for most of the day, which we sort of figured out. Well the water pipes in our kitchen were connected directly to the main line so that meant that they had to also replace our kitchen facet. This was not something that we knew was going to happen, but at least now the facet shouldn't leak.
   
4. After the plumber is finished, someone else will come in and repair the drywall.
1. This work is over two days, so it has been a challenge to get things done with people coming and going for four days straight.
2. The drywall and painting were supposed to happen on a Thursday and a Friday but they informed us on the Thursday that they might not be able to do the paining on Friday so it would happen on the Monday.
   
5. Finally, be able to put everything back under the sinks and clean up all the dust and stuff that has been left behind.
1. After lots of vacuuming and mopping we were able to start to put things back into the cabinets which is good. One thing that I did notice that the space in the cabinet under the sink in the bathrooms has gotten a little smaller because they put an additional layer of drywall on it.
    

So those are the steps that need to be taken to get the new pipes into all the units and besides that it means that given they are working on the pipes there is no hot or cold water on these lines from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm each day until the work is done. We have normal water on the weekends which is good but ensuring we have water to drink is something that we have to remember.

This is something that each of the risers in the building are going to be dealing with, so that means that there is going to be lots of dust and noise involved. At least once our riser is done, we can get everything put back where it belongs and not have to worry about it again, or at least we hope we don’t. So yes, there can be challenges of living in an apartment building, but when things work it is great, and I don’t mind when there are these repairs because it means that the building management cares, and they want to fix something before it becomes a major issue.

 

 

Renovations at home

I think most people have had to deal with some sort of renovation at home and the amount of work that is involved is major.

For us, we live in an apartment building so a lot of the renovations that happen don’t impact us which is great. Sure we may have to deal with the noise or the dust but those are things that you can deal with especially if we don’t work from home. We work from home so we do deal with those issues sometimes when there are renovations going on around us.

Now this renovation that is happening in our apartment building is going to impact us personally as they are replacing the windows in all the units. Sure it doesn’t sound like it would impact you too much until you look around and see what you have and where things are located. See, for this installation of the windows it means that you have to move everything away from the windows by a minimum of 3 feet. Sure, that doesn’t sound like big distance but in our case one entire wall of each of our rooms is a window so we only have three walls in some cases for the wall units and the other furniture. In my office area (original dining room), husbands office area (2^nd bedroom) and our living room we only have two full walls to put wall units and those items.

I guess you can figure out that there are going to be things right up to the window in most of the rooms considering the actual lack of physical wall space. In my office area the location of my desk is right at the window so that I can enjoy looking out when I am sitting and working. It is also a spot that I enjoy sitting at when I am going a lot of other things as I have good light sitting at my desk or in my second chair beside the desk.

The actual installation of the windows hasn’t happened in our unit yet so we are still in the getting things organized before we have to move things. The actual installation of all the windows and new patio doors takes one day so that means for one day we don’t have our normal working spots so we are going to have to figure out how we will work that day but thank goodness we have a few ideas.

There is some good points about the organizing that we are doing and that is we are finding things that have been tucked away for a while. We have also used this time to actually go through things and quite a few things have found new homes or they have been recycled or thrown out. It feels good seeing how much we have been able to clean up so once the windows are done we will see what the apartment looks like without all the boxes we have been packing up. Yes, with all the moving around of stuff we have decided that until the windows are done we are packing up areas of the apartment so that it is easier to move the stuff.

The windows should be a lot easier for me to open which is something I am looking forward to. The renovation means that we have been able to do some of our spring cleaning but more cleaning will happen once the windows has been installed and we can start to resettle into our unit. Renovations can have a little or a major impact on you and how you deal with it can make a big difference. For us, we have been working on the organizing for a while now so once we get the notice that the windows are going to be installed we hopefully won’t have a lot of stuff to do.

Renovations

Renovations can impact people in so many different ways and some are easier to handle than others. Recently we have been exposed to two different renovations and both of them are impacting us in different ways which is interesting.

Renovation #1 – New windows and siding on our apartment building

This renovation is a three year project that is going to be effecting us both directly and indirectly. See all the units will be getting new windows within the next three years if everything remains on schedule.

The indirect impact on us is when they are working on the outside of the building and attaching new isolation and siding. This involves the pounding onto the side of the building when they are securing the isolation. Our building is a concrete building so yes the pounding does carry through the building so it isn't just when they are near you do you get impacted. Currently we can hear when they are working on the other side of the building, so I wonder what it is going to be like when they are on our side of the building.

The direct impact is going to be when they change all the windows in our unit. Of course this means that we will have to deal with open areas as they replace each of the windows and this may also mean people having to come into our unit to work on the windows as they are installed.

Renovation #2 – Main floor and concourse renovation near our executive office

Renovation #2 impacts us more indirectly than anything but again it does impact us when we are in our executive office. What has been happening over the last little bit is that most of the stores in our lower levels have been closing and relocating for the renovation. Some stores relocated and some stores just closed so it does impact business owners as well. The impact to us is a change in how we actually get into our executive office during the renovation of the concourse level.

This second renovation is suppose to take 6 – 12 months to complete but we will see how long it really takes to do. The other impact to a lot of us is that most of the food type tenants have closed so there aren't as many choices for lunch. Hopefully after all the renovation is said and done we will get some more options for lunch because currently there is one coffee shop and a grocery store as lunch options within our complex. Of course, there are other options outside and within walking distance but it is nice to have something where you don't have to get all bundled up just to go and grab a bit of food.

Renovations in general

The impact of any renovation will really depend on what type of renovation is occurring. Some renovations don't impact people at all while other renovations can have a major impact. The outcome of any renovation is for the better but it is how you handle the actual time that can make a big difference. For us, renovation #1 means that we do more of our work away from the home office when they are doing the pounding. Renovation #2 means that we will either be bringing more lunches or bundling up to grab something from outside of our complex.

Renovations do impact people no matter what so you just have to be prepared for some of the inconveniences for the time being.