Chip, Chip, Bang, Bang

Chip, chip, BANG, BANG...... that is the noise we hear in our neighborhood. It is the noise of renovations on several houses around us.

The worse part of renovations is the knocking out of reinforced concrete support beams. The destruction of the brick walls is loud too but they come down a lot quicker. Then after that is done and the new structures are in place, you have more chipping as they chip out channels for the electric wiring or for cabinets. The sounds carry through, over and around the structures next door to everyone in the neighborhood because the houses are built of brick and the houses are built wall to wall.

A place across the street is just finishing up. We think it is a 2 or 3 unit apartment building and someone has already moved into the top floor. It looks really nice.....a big improvement over what was there. Two houses down they are renovating a house and it looks like they are doing another good job. We don't know who is doing that house. Down the street on the other side, another really nice renovation is almost complete. We have seen an architect down there but we don't know who the owner is. Before the renovation it was a basically a shed that covered 1/2 of the lot with a tarp over the rest of the lot and we have no idea how the family lived in it especially when it was raining or cold.

Last year two of our Mexican neighbors added another floor to their houses and another Mexican family build a house on a vacant lot across the street from us. Another couple of houses on the street were renovated for gringos. All over Colonia San Antonio, there are these kinds of changes happening.

But the renovation that is making the most noise for us right now is the one of our next door neighbors. Carlos had told us that he wanted to add two more rooms on his house and when we saw him working at a new place, he told us it was a second job because he had to get enough money to build on to his house. The chipping and banging during the day is kind of background noise now but Carlos has been working on his house when he comes in from working at the two jobs.....about 10:30 at night. This is taking some adjustment on our part but you know what, we would never complain to him. He has endured all of our construction projects since we bought our house and now the man is working so hard at two jobs plus doing what he can on the renovation. We are just going to have to learn to sleep through the noise.