waiting and watching

The asphalt was taken up; a huge hole was dug, then filled in. The water truck seems to run 24/7 in a sometimes futile attempt to stop the gale-force winds from redistributing all the sand on my street to the street due west. Heavy-duty equipment has become part of our daily lives as the sewer pipe installation continues in the neighborhood.

Today, I'm waiting and watching to see what happens. There is an expensive brick wall around the perimeter of my front yard. The construction crew put an orange arrow from the street to the wall, then from the wall inside my yard to a spot just shy of the landscape circle. A huge bucket wielded by an obviously bored bucket operator gouged a huge piece of real estate on the street side of the wall and turned it into yet another ditch. Just prior to breaking for lunch, he stopped -- and now is back for the part of the arrow inside the brick wall.

I paid to have the wall installed, and it was not cheap; however, it was done correctly, with a nice deep cement footing anchoring it in place and rebar reinforcement. It's not something I want to see gouged with the big bucket, so I walked out to talk to the man supervising the equipment. He said he'll do his best, but another worker told me, "No problem, we'll dig under the wall. It won't be damaged."

I'm waiting and watching because I'm not sure I believe any person who assures me that it's "no problem." I've already been told that we have to pay whatever it costs to hook up to the sewers from the house, and that we have to do that during a specific time frame. We also have to hire and pay for a crew to fill in the septic tank, although I've never had an issue with mine and don't see why it can't just be left as it is. And, we have to pay through an added assessment to our property taxes for the total cost per household for this project, which means my payment will go even higher next year (my housepayment has increased by $400/year over the course of the past 10 years due to increased taxes and fees and assessments over which I have absolutely no control). I wish I had the money to just pay all these costs, but that's not my reality. Or the reality of anyone else in the same boat.

I'll let you know what happens.

UPDATE: my wall is still in one piece and the big machines have moved down the street, so guess everything is okay. My next-door neighbor was not so lucky: the crew broke her water main and she's again without water! Last week, it was the landlord who hadn't paid the water bill, then the water company charging a reconnect fee that the landlord wouldn't pay. She's had a rough couple of weeks, but she keeps on keeping on.