Leaky Condo Chronicles

same old awful

2008-08-26T08:16:00.001-07:00

I guess I don't have anything new to add. Except that the construction noise woke me up at 8 AM again this morning, like clock work, and that the noise & vibration level is worse than ever before.

Like I said, they're grinding down the floor of the balcony right next door to us. It should get better in a couple of days when they move on to the next floor.

On a related note, my hands and arms have been hurting a lot -- RSI... related to working on the computer for too long. Part of this is due to the leaky condo construction, though, since working on the laptop (like at the library yesterday, since I had to leave the house) makes it much worse. I'm gonna need to see an acupuncturist soon, I think.

UPDATE: I talked to an on-site supervisor, and he says our windows won't be replaced until the new year. That's good news since that means we'll be moved out by then and won't have to live with a gaping hole and workers in the family room for 2 weeks. Bad news is, in about 2 weeks, they'll start tearing off the concrete and brick wall on the relatively "quiet" side of the building (where my office and bedroom are).

Maybe it's not worth staying for the rest of the lease. Even if it's a lot of money we're losing, maybe we should just suck it up and get the hell out. SIGH...

Back to awful

2008-08-25T08:54:00.001-07:00

Buzzing, vibrating, grinding noise jolted me awake at 8 AM. It's really too bad that earplugs can't block out the vibrations -- they're worse than the noise...

I think today is worse than ever before. They're grinding down the concrete of the balcony right next door to us.

Mondays tend to be particularly bad anyway, probably because weekends are so nice and quiet, but I do think it's true -- it can't get any worse than this -- can it? Can it?

I need to run away.

Quiet weekend - is it winter already?

2008-08-25T00:36:00.001-07:00

It was nice and quiet all weekend -- both Saturday and Sunday. Quite a rainy day on Sunday, though... almost like it's... winter already! Could it be the end of summer already?

SHUDDER.

Vibrating & grinding

2008-08-22T09:27:00.001-07:00

I happened to wake up at 7:55 this morning. I stared at the alarm clock and thought, hmmm, so quiet -- no construction yet? Well, at exactly 8:01 AM, the drilling vibrations began. What did they do, look at their watch and wait til 8 AM to start drilling?

The noise & vibration level feels similar to yesterday. I took some photos this morning:

Notice the construction workers on the 12th or 11th floor? THAT's why it's been so loud and super vibrating for the past few days. They're not drilling -- they're grinding down the concrete on the balcony next to us, peeling off the layer like... potatoes.

Earplugs AND music cranked up. Poor dogs.

2008-08-21T15:34:00.001-07:00

Woke up with the drilling noise and vibrations at 8 AM. Pretty much non-stop except for about 20 minutes for lunch around noon.

They must be working closer to our floor today. It's the worst it's been. It's bearable with earplugs, but as soon as I take 'em out, it's thundering, earthquaking noise.

I know it's bad cuz I unconsciously started scouring the web to research earplugs again, wondering if there are alternatives to sticking foam in my ear canals every day.

Out walking the dogs, I could hear the drilling way across the park. The front entrance of the building is a mess of cranes, debris, and hard hats, and it looks like they've blocked off the street for the day.

Can't wait til the quietness of the weekend. I hope they don't work on Saturday. Yes, they do that sometimes.

Not rained out. Even worse than yesterday.

2008-08-20T20:33:00.000-07:00

It feels like they're working right next to us -- are they? Woke up to the noise and vibrations of drilling and pounding at 8:30 AM.

(I know that doesn't sound too early, but considering I was working until 2:30 AM, yes, it would have been nice to sleep til 9:30. Whatever.)

Update 12pm. Aha! Looks like they're installing the platform lift on the front side of the building -- you know, like a vertical crane attached to the building. That's why the drilling has been so bad -- because this is noisier and louder than other kinds of construction. It was pretty bad when they were installing this on another side of the building a couple of months ago. And no wonder about the vibrations -- they're just around the corner from our unit.

I might have to go get a new pair of ear plugs today. There are probably health consequences of wearing these long-term.

Unreasonable landlords and their bratty kids

2008-08-19T21:33:00.000-07:00

At least the drilling and jack hammering didn't start until about 8:30 this morning. The noise today isn't as bad as the vibrations from the drilling. The near-constant buzzing can be felt even with the ear plugs, and it's giving me a headache.

There was lunchtime silence between 11:45 and 12:20.
Relatively quiet from 2:45 to 3:30 with infrequent minor drilling.
More noise until 4:15. Then mostly quiet, except for some weird squeaking and distant pounding...
Loud pounding and drilling resumes at 4:30.
Quiet for the day? 5:12pm. A little pounding here and there, but bearable.

The landlords don't speak English so we communicate with their teenage (or early 20s?) kids. One of the kids, the teenager-looking boy, stopped by yesterday, sat in the building lobby for 5 minutes and had the audacity to suggest that the noise isn't that bad. The nerve! It's one thing for us to live through this, but for these imbeciles to suggest that we're exaggerating? And he shrugged, "it'll be over like in 2 months." Based on what?!?

They're so clueless and infuriating. At first the landlords claimed that the window repair would only take 2 weeks. Yes, even though all the documents say that the "remediation" is at least a 15-month project, our lovely landlords kept insisting that we would be inconvenienced for only 2 weeks. Because 2 weeks is about how long it takes to take current windows out and put new ones in. Forget the fact that scaffolding is being drilled into all sides of the building and all concrete and brick walls are being demolished. There's no reasoning with these people, and I don't know how much of this is due to language barrier, and how much of it is just their unreasonable nature.

Saw a couple of guys hammering something on the 12th or 13th floor balcony area -- 02 Suites. What we noticed this morning from the outside: it looks like the first 2 floors of the 02 suites' windows are being replaced.

It's a little hot and muggy today so it sucks not to be able to open the windows to let in some air.

I hope they get rained out tomorrow.

Life inside the green mesh

2008-08-19T20:32:00.000-07:00

I thought it might be "fun" to document what it's like to live inside the green mesh. We live in a Yaletown condo that turned out to be a leaky condo, and the 16-month-long "remediation," a.k.a. renovation or re-construction, project began in May 2008. It is now mid-August, and we are dying to move out.

When our lease expires in October, we're out of here. But in the meantime, let me share the pain with y'all.

It’s no picnic for the owners, either. Our building has required replacement of all windows, exterior walls and bricks. The cost of repairs was estimated at $29 million, and each of the 237 condo owners had to fork over at least $118,000, with the cost depending on the size of their apartments. The condo was built only 14 years ago.

What it used to be. Quiet, peaceful, scenic view of False Creek from our living room.

Our view now. The loss of view is a huge bummer but not a deal breaker, but the noise… that’s something else.