The Beehive

Our newly rented house is a bee-hive of activity:  tile layers, electricians, door/window fixers, painters, plumbers, air-conditioner installers, furniture builder... each expert comes with several "gophers" and apprentices and each does his work and leaves his mess for someone else to clean up (namely me!!!)  Everyone has his skill that he's honed over time (or is still honing!).   Over the past week we've had numerous meetings with each of these men to:

1. Tell them what we want done.
2. Get an estimate of the cost of materials and labor.
3. We make a counter-offer for the labor cost and discuss it until both parties are happy.
4. They go buy the materials and come back with a group of men and boys who do the work under their supervision.
5. They chip a few more holes in the cement walls and patch up a few old ones and paint over them and all is as good as new.

Let me introduce the work force:

 Cutting the floor tiles.  

The plumber chipped a few holes in the cement wall and cemented in a shower curtain rod made of 1/2" galvanized pipe.  It tilts up a bit in the center;  I think he is counting on the weight of the shower curtain to make it level!

                                            The cement was mixed as needed in the hallway.

                                   The electrician put in a few more outlets as well as neon lights.

With walls within a couple feet of the windows, light is at a premium so the walls are being painted white to lighten the rooms up a bit.  The painting crew also fills in all the holes created by everyone else!  He is using oil-based paint thinned with a powerful thinner and the smell is over-powering!   

Slim, this pic is for you.  Our heating/air conditioning man and his cute little truck.  It was FULL of supplies and a ladder on the top when he arrived.

                  We hope to move in by the end of the week, if the paint smell isn't too strong...