Ok. So you may remember from this post a few weeks ago, how excited I was that the neighbor was going to renovate this huge house next door to me, and he gave me carte blanche to dumpster dive. Well... this morning they came to begin demolition. I know because all of a sudden on a glorious, radiantly sunny and bird-song filled morning, I heard the shattering of glass and splintering of wood. I happened to look up to see piece after piece of apartment fixtures flying out the 3rd floor window. And apparently, no one had bothered to actually OPEN that window - they just threw things out without bothering to make room for the explosion. I saw pieces of countertops, carpeting, window screens, odds and ends - appliances left behind. When one of the demo guys (and they were all guys) bumped into the screen door, he grabbed a crowbar and tore it off. A perfectly good screen door that could have fetched a good $25 from someone needing such a door. Now it's twisted metal in the back of some guy's truck, laying under layers of ripped wood and tile. And I have glass where my kids ride their bikes.
Ok. Now you've guessed my little secret. I'm on a rant. A major one. Not only do I have to dodge the flying glass that falls on our shared driveway, I have to watch as these guys tear into the very heart of this house and THROW IT ALL AWAY. Not ok with me. But I feel caught. This is NOT my house. I did NOT hire these guys to demo it. I am NOT paying the bills. But seriously. Couldn't someone have come through beforehand and collected the kitchen cabinets and sinks, the countertops and stoves, the old windows and doors? How incredibly sad to see it all flying out the window, nobody caring one heap of plumber's putty for it at all. Geez. Donate it to a salvage yard at the very least.
How would you have handled this? Would you have told the 'guys' to put aside anything they could salvage? Would you have called the owner? The contractor? Would you sneak in during the night to grab what your arms could carry before the 'guys' come back in the morning? Would you have done nothing as I did?
The whole experience is making me resent the renovation now, whereas before I was looking forward to having a 'new' space next to me. What about all the people who would have come to take what they needed from the house and left the rest for the demo 'guys'? Don't contractors know about this resource? Ugh. If I get the guts to talk with the owner or contractor, I will ask about this manner of demolition, which is probably pretty typical. I will put the response here in a future post.
1 comment:
Oh dear, that's so sad, and so wasteful. Not to mention the noise and dust.
I don't know what I would have done, honestly. I feel like I always have "imaginary" confrontations, but in real life I'm hardly ever that way. I don't know if it really does any good either.
Oh, sometimes it seems like we just can't even make a dent when the cultural mindset is so clueless. Why would this happen? Even on a business/profit model view- why wouldn't they try to sell some items as salvage, strictly to make some money? It's hard to understand.
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