How to tell your neighbor he’s trashy

Ya know, without actually saying anything.

0800 Sunday: noise next door.

Once again, I ponder the placement of those huge sliding (plate glass!) doors. Why here instead of further back, where our lemon tree, bushes, and casita (“little house”) would provide much more privacy?

The answer, I suspect, is that a few years ago somebody in the family graduated with a new architecture diploma, around the same time someone else in the family died, leaving behind a small pile of money.

Build Back Because?

Lots of noise the past week at the weekend place next door which was extensively remodeled three years ago:

Today the workers opened the rolling shutters for the huge glass doors positioned so that it’s impossible NOT to see into the house from our upstairs patio, and lo and behold! Apparently they’re tearing up the tile floor–that they installed in new construction three years ago.

This seems to be A Thing. We’ve watched the crappy house in Villa Argentina built, roof replaced (twice, I believe), rebuilt, repainted. Another much fancier house near it was built, facade changed, entire yard dug up for drainage, now sporting new construction which will apparently be a barbacoa. Does anybody plan anything?

In the process of building the new addition next door, I watched the attempts to join the new Isopanel roof to the existing one, then the attempts to seal, and re-seal, the various joints, ending in a mess that only we get to see from our patio (though from below they might notice the paint blistering on the wall).

As they were working on this, I asked the foreman, ¿Se planficó? (Was this planned?). No, he replied, we make it up as we go along.

At the time, I thought he was joking.

Yuck.

Can’t grade the tosca (“dirt” ) roads until they dry out. Meanwhile, a challenge to drive. Or walk. Unless you’re a dog.

Construction continues…

The front of this lot is stockaded. Then they put up a wire fence. Then they started stockading some more where the wire fence is. They’ve torn out the wall between the house and cochera, making clear this is the neighbors’ project. Can’t wait…

…to see what’s next from the design geniuses who placed their ultra-wide glass doors so I can’t not see their entire living room from our patio when they’re there.

Major drain work

New culverts on the Playa Mansa now that tourist season is over. I only knew there was a problem from walking the dog on the beach there once in the past year.

Note the raging surf. Quite amazing to have no waves when the closest landfall looking this direction is over 3,000 kilometers away.

Roofless

Our cochera gets a new maintenance-free roof tomorrow. And it’s earth-friendly, because nothing says “ecology” like a product that’s 99% expanded polystyrene.

:)

Maybe they didn’t forget about installing wiring before plastering.

Maybe they weren’t imitating their great-grandfather, who built his house before the grid reached it, and had to chip out part of the wall to make a run for conduit.

Maybe they just wanted their house to have a big smiley face. Makes as much sense as anything with this crazy built-and-rebuilt no-apparent-design project.

Code, schmode

I saw this on the Faceborg recently and saw this in an Uruguay Expat Group.

Later I was standing near a house on the dog walk where I usually spend about ten minutes, and have hundreds of times, noticing its outdoor wiring for the first time.

Sure, just bring the current into the house through a wire lying on the lawn. Just pass over it with the lawn mower when you need to. No problem!

Professional and less so

Workers here at 7:30 AM, set up secure scaffolding (braced and tied to house) to work on replacing rotted parts of the roof valley. Done and gone by four.

Inspires a little more confidence than what Martín used to paint the house in 2010. Yes, that’s a crappy wood ladder (left with the house) tied to the top of my aluminum ladder.