Cleaning out the garage

The promised reflection will be forthcoming I promise.

Just an update:

One week after signing the contract, we got a call in the afternoon from the wreck-and-haul company asking if they could come out the next morning and take away the old garage. This was much faster than we expected. I thought we would receive the city permit for the demolition and construction first. We had been told 1-1/2 to two weeks for the permits to come, but things were moving along much faster. We hadn't finished clearing out the old stuff from the garage first, so I told them, No, they can't come tomorrow, we need to do it the following week.

The permits arrived the next day -- printouts of web pages. So much for going down to city hall to get the permits. Now I wonder how much the permits actually cost.

So now the wreckers will come tomorrow.

A word on garage rubbish:

-- old paint, garden poisons, chemicals etc., auto fluids etc. were taken to the city's hazardous materials recycling center, at 1150 N Branch St, now open on Tuesdays, Thursdays and the first Saturday of every month. (For more on recycling in Chicago, see the Chicago Recycling Coalition website; FYI, the city is finally moving away from its weak blue bag program to curbside recycle bins.)

-- odd bits of metal left in the alley, it was picked up by one of those guys that cruises the alleys looking for scrap metal within two hours

-- I called the alderman's office (Ray Suarez, 31st ward, his office has been very helpful every time I have called) about someone larger bits of lumber and drywall that I couldn't figure out what to do with -- too large for the trash bins. The city in general won't haul away construction material, but after a second call to a Streets and Sanitation guy associated with the ward. He said he would send someone by to see how much stuff I had, and if it was something the city could haul away. If not, I may need to work something out with the wreck-and-haul company.

-- lots of odds and ends into the city-supplied trash bins.

-- the usual quandary about stuff I haven't used or thought about using for seven years, but of course I might use it some day, like maybe build some kind of structure like a little greenhouse, using the old basement windows -- right -- but I couldn't bring myself to just throw them away. Ditto for some nice porch doors, and the lumber that looked like it might be usable.

Jonathan, from next door, helped out -- he is working off the cost of drum pads I fronted him for his band when they were practicing in the garage next door.

jd