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Up To No Good?
Feb. 23rd, 2007 10:22 pmThere's an apartment complex through which one must drive to get to my house from the nearest freeway. And which borders my back yard.
One day, the south side was fenced off with temporary chain link fencing and no-trespassing signs. No one could get in or out. What had happened to everyone who used to live there? Was the place condemned? If so, was it just going to stay like that as it slowly disintegrated in the rain over the next century or so?
It turns out they chased everyone out of that half so they could renovate it. The before picture is of a bunch of two-story buildings with a brick first story, a second story shingled as if it were a roof, and fake shutters flanking the windows. The actual roof is flat.
The after picture has a sloping roof, clapboard siding on the second floor, and brand new windows. While the second-floor walls were gone, they went ahead and added another thickness of studs and filled the interior spaces with insulation. With the new thick walls, and all that space under the new roof to capture the rising summer heat, I sort of want to move in there myself!
I wondered if the residents were allowed to move into the other side while their side was being worked on. Or maybe just the best residents. The answer is no. Now the north side is fenced off, too, and the south side still isn't finished.
I decided to start taking pictures of this one building from the same spot each time. I'm a real sucker for before-and-after pictures. And each in-between picture is both a before and an after picture, so it's doubly exciting.
This morning I was caught. A guy in a hardhat came over and asked me how I was doing right after I clicked the picture. I said that it was cool watching all the changes as they were happening. I especially liked the thick layer of insulation.
He said that the new place is going to be much better than it was. He used to be a repairman at the old place, so he should know.
I said it will be nice to have the sloping roofs which should be easier to maintain. With flat roofs, you never know where the leak is.
He said they actually never had any trouble with leaking roofs. But the old look was so dated. And with all the improvements they should be able to attract a better type of resident.
Well, the important thing is that I am not in jail for, um, trespassing, or looking suspiciously like I was planning my next theft of valuable copper wire or whatever.
One day, the south side was fenced off with temporary chain link fencing and no-trespassing signs. No one could get in or out. What had happened to everyone who used to live there? Was the place condemned? If so, was it just going to stay like that as it slowly disintegrated in the rain over the next century or so?
It turns out they chased everyone out of that half so they could renovate it. The before picture is of a bunch of two-story buildings with a brick first story, a second story shingled as if it were a roof, and fake shutters flanking the windows. The actual roof is flat.
The after picture has a sloping roof, clapboard siding on the second floor, and brand new windows. While the second-floor walls were gone, they went ahead and added another thickness of studs and filled the interior spaces with insulation. With the new thick walls, and all that space under the new roof to capture the rising summer heat, I sort of want to move in there myself!
I wondered if the residents were allowed to move into the other side while their side was being worked on. Or maybe just the best residents. The answer is no. Now the north side is fenced off, too, and the south side still isn't finished.
I decided to start taking pictures of this one building from the same spot each time. I'm a real sucker for before-and-after pictures. And each in-between picture is both a before and an after picture, so it's doubly exciting.
This morning I was caught. A guy in a hardhat came over and asked me how I was doing right after I clicked the picture. I said that it was cool watching all the changes as they were happening. I especially liked the thick layer of insulation.
He said that the new place is going to be much better than it was. He used to be a repairman at the old place, so he should know.
I said it will be nice to have the sloping roofs which should be easier to maintain. With flat roofs, you never know where the leak is.
He said they actually never had any trouble with leaking roofs. But the old look was so dated. And with all the improvements they should be able to attract a better type of resident.
Well, the important thing is that I am not in jail for, um, trespassing, or looking suspiciously like I was planning my next theft of valuable copper wire or whatever.