Construction News

i just reread something from august, where the ramp was given a month to completion. it’s almost december now, and it’s still dirt and gravel. can’t see it changing until they’ve got the steel up, because where are they going to put the steel beams before lifting them to the building?

another beautiful day, in the upper 70s. light clouds way up. built compost pile to the top of the fence, put on more fertilizer, watered. started lining up the rest of the bags at the end of the dog pen. filled some holes in pen with gravel, put dirt back in place for mockoranges. moved 2 big stones up to cover the pits for the mockoranges (which i then promptly forgot where they were). built up the compost heap in the yard with a plastic bag of leaves from early in the season. put the loose sticks back in the back with the ligustrum, which is evergreen, so i think i’ll keep it back there. thinking of moving the magnolia, have to move the tea olive, maybe that would go in the middle instead of another mockorange. tried strip composting where i want to put a bunch of azaleas and dogwoods next year, which means putting down a layer of paper leaf bags, then dumping lots of leaves on top of them. evidently the paper will help the composting. we’ll see.

a guy in the basement cutting up cinderblock. a forklift putting pallets of cinderblock up in the retail floor. 2 guys on the retail floor building a wall in the southeast corner facing the mexican restaurant. the crane putting up more steel in the early part of the day, but they didn’t get very far. they bolted the beams together, 2 guys at a time. there was drilling with a torch, and bolting, and air guns tightening the bolts. so were they welding the bolts in? or were they welding holes, because it looked to my bad eyes like a circle of flame erupted from the other side of the beam where the guy was doing something and the guy sitting on the beam backed way away while he did it. 2 guys stood around below the ladder, maybe supervising. one of them a big black guy, looked like he was in charge. the boston guy, maybe he’s a contrracto with lots of subs, like the vertical guys, and the horizontal guys, and the bolting and welding guys, and the crane operator. on the floor below, someone was pushing a broom, loosening all the cement they’ve been sealing the cracks with. the cement truck was here, and the crane for the pyramid thing, and they were lifting it up to the 2d residential floor.

finished bringing in planks and balconies for the 2nd residential floor. cool in the shade, warm in the sun. sunny most of the day, but whispy clouds. probably up to 70.

sitting out back looking at the immenseness. built up the compost pile with leaves and bags all afternoon, cruising thru the neighborhood collecting 10 bags at a time in the back of the truck. our yard is full of bags, front and back, and husband built another bin with a roll of fence wire and a gate. dug the holes for where i want the mockoranges – 8′ wide, 10′ high, dry shade. and where i want the big oak tree at the back. it was getting dark, clear blue sky, cold air but warm ambience, pink horizon, red trees, leaves on the ground, everywhere, it was the only color left.  will they build over the stoplights at the end of bissey and cyde, so that we can’t see it from the bedroom anymore? will the noise of the busses not come thru until they hit the mexican restaurant? i want to draw a map. cemetery and pet sematery and fairy circle inside cabbatetown. old industrial corridor. formerly grand boulevard on the next ridge over from peachtree now junction with i-20.