New Neighbors

We've got new neighbors. Actually they've been there for a couple of weeks, but now is as good a time to tell you about them as any.

I don't know if we fully explained what are place was like back when we moved in, but I'd venture to guess that the complex is 60-70% empty. You've read about us complaining about the amount of construction that is always going on, from about 07:00 to maybe around 20:30 everyday, including weekends.

When the Chinese complete a building, the main construction crew runs electricity and plumbing to each unit, but that is where their job ends. When the new owner buys the unit, they come in to plain concrete walls and exposed piping and wiring, which they then hire a crew to finish into something livable. As we said before, when we looked at our place it didn't have a kitchen yet.

Until the place is sold the main doorway is wide open and anyone can wander in and look around, we did at our two neighbors on our side of our floor. Once they are purchased the owners put a lock on the door.

Well, our neighbor must've finally decided what he wanted to do and a few weeks ago on a Sunday morning we awoke to terrible pounding. Upon exploring the noise, we see next door several men with sledge hammers breaking down the concrete walls. This noise went on for a couple of days and then nothing. The place was empty again.

Over the last few days there has been work next door again, and a big mess right outside our door as they bring in bricks, concrete, plumbing, and all sorts of items. The other night I took a few pictures of them working...

This is from out balcony, showing all the new walls that they built up after knocking all the original ones out.
This is a view from their front doorway as one of the workers is moving more suppliers in from the elevator. It appears that the workers are a family and everyone helps out, there are at least three men, a woman, and a small child of about 6. We see the child out on the balcony often using a small pot as his toilet, we aren't sure where the rest of them go. But it seems like they are living in the unit while they are working on it, as you hear them at all hours and they've got their clothes hanging out on the balcony to day.

We have heard that most of the construction workers are farmers who come into the cities to make more money, and for the big construction jobs they do live right on the job site in specially built housing, or on makeshift wood beds an small tents.

It will be interesting to see what it is like when it is all finished, and it will also be nice when they are finished to have a little more peace and quiet. It does seem like there has been a flurry of work going on in these building since we moved in, hopefully we get at least a few months near the end where all of this construction is completed.