Construction News

husband and i went thru the torn-up back gate and explored the property, camera in hand. we went in via the basement level, up installed steel staircases, painted red, the treads covered with cut plywood, i guess they’re going to put some surface on later. we didn’t much explore the commercial floor but went straight up. it’s one large covered space, poorly patched spacing between the cement planks, rough ceilings, water pipes crossing and disappearing thru holes to the next floor, sprinkler systems. the floor was marked with lines and labels like knee wall and door. we think the balconies will be entered by a side door, with the wall of glass facing out. the lip of the part facing out is over a foot, too high to step over if it were sliding glass doors. i suppose. there was a busted pipe on the third residential floor, from some water riser, several holes sprayed out enough water to make it sound as if it were raining in the still-dirt courtyard. we went up five more floors until we got to the roof. each floor was less finished than the one below. the roof let on to a brilliant view of atlanta, and dizzying views downward. our neighborhood looked so different, the industrial edges looked so massive when we hardly notice how they eat away at the old houses and lots in the neighborhood. it was amazing how close i-20 is, too. it’s at the top of a hill to the south. it was interesting to look north to the railroad that’s on another hilltop, and the factory lofts, which are shorter than the new construction. what a great place to sit and drink a bunch of beers. celebrate the wonderful view. we cold see stone mountain. it was great.
the elevator shaft is made of cinderblock after the first two floors.
i looked down and saw guy crossing his yard coming toward the site. careful, he might call the police if he sees us. i took a picture of him crossing the fence. that solves that problem. he came up to the roof and we shared the sight. he said his house looked really crappy from up there. i was thinking how good ours looked, how homey and lived in, while the rest of the neighbors looked like they were living in abandoned houses. when he came down he went thru our hole in the fence.
i did a lot of work in the yard. cloudy, in the 70s. planted more monkey grass to outline the path, it looks a lot better than i’d have expected. finished screening all the gravel from the dirt i raked up from the wildflower soon to be bed. put the gravel on the path, put the dirt on the meadow area, put some dirt on the pile of composting leaves in the middle of the yard. they’re composting very fast now, uniformly wet. the compost pile isn’t like that yet. still mostly dried leaves. i’m not doing any turning, just adding more stuff as the level of the leaves goes down. took the 5-gallon bucket of household garbage down there, took a large spoon and flung spoonfulls of mostly coffee grounds, vegetable peels and eggshells, all over the pile, then took manure, then azalea fertilizer, then dirt from the ditches in the back. then more leaves.