Construction

Guess what?! There is construction going on at my house. A constant banging, but with never the same beat is emanating from my back area. My kitchen, shower and 1/3 of my storage space has been rendered completely useless. In fact I've had to move things from my kitchen out into the other spaces of my house just so that they could dig a foot deep trench directly through the middle of everything. All in the name of running water, which is going to be turned on by the mayors office at some point this year. If this was anything less than the amazing power of running water I would have kicked all the workers out of my house a long time ago.
This construction project keeps growing too boot. When my landlord originally showed me that I was getting a shower and toilet in my shower area I said to him “My shower is too small already there is no way that both a shower and toilet will fit as it is I can't shut my door when it's me and bucket.”
He smiles and says “Of course it will fit Melissa, don't worry about it.”
He went to inspect my back area and also said “Ok you were right there is no absolute way a toilet and shower are going to fit in that closet, I mean shower.”
But they begin digging the trench anyway. Tracking dirt to all corners of my house and basically making my kitchen and back area look like a war zone. This took 2 days of pick axes and steady work. Then he comes up to me one day and is like “Melissa, I have solved the problem of putting in a toilet and shower into your bath area!”
I'm pretty doubtful. “How?”
He gets this big grin on his face and says “We're going to expand your shower into your back area!”
This has effectively made it impossible for me to now collect rain water as it's right in the middle of where all the water is collected and spouts off my roof. It is also going to be interesting putting my big ginormous bucket back there to hold water while the mayor twiddles his thumbs waiting to turn the water on. More guys with pick axes enter my house along with pipe layers. The next day my landlord comes to me and says “I hired an electrician because in that little place next door that you've always been wondering what goes there, I'm putting in a store that will sell things like toilet paper, tomato paste, and probably some West African moonshine. It needs an electric counter so he's going to need to get into your house to do that.”
In comes an electrician and his 3 apprentices. My back area is not big, by any standards not more 3 people can fit back there with any comfort at any given moment. But now there is a trench, pipe layers, pick ax guys, electrician, his apprentices, my landlord and my landlords grandson who is playing messenger. I keep my cool, but with each blow of the pick axes to the cement I cringe and little. Also when they all leave at like 5pm, they don't take lunch breaks, I take a look at the progress and it never seems to be any better, only worse.
I've been contemplating going to the workstation in Natitingou and hang out there for a few days until this all is finished.
The next day I notice they have hung my door frame to my shower again only this time in it's new home and they are now mixing concrete. This is a good sign. I look back when they are all done and they have concreted my door frame into place, progress. Later when they finally hang the door, I can't actually shut it because the floor slopes toward the drain behind the door (of course) and the door only moves about 2 inches from it's original position. I shake my fist at the sky for dramatic effect when I discover this.
The next day I forget to tell my landlord about my door and he comes in and says “We're putting in roofing today, but the electrician and his boys are done and out.”
Loose 3, gain 4. I'm not sure if this is progress. But a plus I've found out they're putting in this roofing that's clear so that light will shine into my bathroom! That's pretty exciting. But that means then that they're going to have to bang on my metal roof with hammers, now that the pick ax guys are done in my house they are working there way outside. So I not only have banging happening on my tin roof, but I also have pick ax guys working on the concrete on the opposite side of my wall. They give me an hour to sleep and close my door in the middle of the day, thanks guys. Then they come back and work bang bang on the tin roof, bang bang on the concrete outside. I finally locate my IPod charger and charge that baby up so I can at least listen to some music and hopefully drown out the banging. I notice they are bringing in buckets of wet cement. This is a good sign. When they are done for the day I go an inspect progress. My kitchen floor is cemented! I can finally get back in there and clean! I wait a day before I move my table back so that I know the cement is ready.
Just before I get into my kitchen my landlords son comes to me and says “Hey we want to fix something in your kitchen, we're going to need to move things around.”
“Does this have anything at all to do with the rest of the crap going on in my house right now?”
“No your screen is broken on your window slits, we want to fix it.”
“Can this wait until tomorrow so that I can set my kitchen up again?”
“Yes.”
“Let's do that.”
“OK”
I go back to writing this post and then I see him go out the door with my plate of trash I haven't been able to get to because they moved crap around in my kitchen. He takes it outside and dumps it. I curse something along the lines of “goddamnsonofabitch” and run after him. “What are you doing?”
“Oh I found this garbage so I thought I'd be nice and throw it away for you.”
“Um... thanks. But I thought we agreed that you weren't going to touch my kitchen today.”
“Oh yea, it's not a big deal, we can get in there.”
“Don't touch my kitchen.”
“It won't take long.”
“Don't touch my kitchen, fix my bathroom door first. Fix my roof first, cement the trench in my back area first. DO ANYTHING FIRST before you get your hands on my kitchen AGAIN!”
I was pretty close to telling them all to get out of my house while screaming and pulling my hair out. Instead I come back and write my post, while listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They are all good guys just doing their jobs after all. Although it must be nice at least they get to go home at the end of the day, shower, and eat homemade cooking glad they're not sitting in their houses unable to shower in comfort (I've been showering and the water has been going into their trench, their fault not mine they're had days to fix that.) or cook (today my kitchen will be back to where it was, sort of)!

Update: I wrote this blog this morning and now I'm in Nati for some R&R while my house is finished. I was at my limit glad I have a workstation.