Where My Time Goes....

OK this is not really woodworking, but I just wanted to show a few of the many reasons I don't seem to get as much time in the Dungeon as I would like. Seems there is always something to do with the two buildings the bank and us own, not to mention the Aparto

In the building that the liquor shop is and the Monster-In-Law lives, we rent out six apartments to the city, who provides them as low cost living for people who fall into that category. We get a steady rent from a regular customer (the city) and we never have to look for a new tenant, but, there are some other problems we have to deal with. One is that many of the older tenants who live in the small apartments (three each small one person apartments and three two bedroom apartments) generally are there until they pass or are moved to a care home. Neither is something that is very much fun. We have a fellow living in one apartment now for about 10 years, he is 83 years old, and is having a hard time taking care of himself. He has one very bad leg, and one not so good leg. He walks with a cane and stuggles to do so. The entrance to the building has auto doors and has wide doors to deal with a wheel chair, and ramps where needed as well, but, they do not have any hand holds that someone with bad legs would use.



The key panel to let yourself into the building


The auto door at the entrance that is activated by the key panel


Beside the auto door next to the mail box



The elevator


Nothing to hang onto there at all.

On Friday morning when the Monster-In-Law came down to open the shop around 9:30AM she found the 83 year old tenant on the ground, he had come down to get his morning paper and had lost his balance hand fell. He could not stand up by himself. He is very lucky that he did not hurt himself, that is all hard floor to fall on. The Monster-In-Law tried to pick him up, which only resulted in hurting her back. We got a phone call and I hustled across the street to help out. No joke the old guy was rather heavy, I guess he put on weight. When I got him back on his feet I watched as he struggled to grab anything to help his balance, but there are no hand holds. We got him back to his apartment, he said he was fine, but we called the city to make sure they send a "Helper" out to check on him (I think his dignity was bruised a little). He is a nice guy, no family and has not worked at all for many years, totally dependent on the city.

My wife and I got talking and I said that we should put some hand holds for him on the walls, it would not be a big deal, nor would it be expensive. My lovely wife called the city to talk about this. The very first thing they said was "The city will not pay for this" we told them that the tenant really needed these hand holds. The sucked their teeth three time and said they would get back to us. Later in the day someone else called my wife, the long and the short of it was that they would NOT pay for anything, and if we wanted to install said hand holds out of the goodness of our hearts, they would allow it, only if they were installed by an approved contractor and were official certified hand holds. Well, what does that entail? They sent a fax and the hand holds were about $300 each and the installation was another $100 a piece....... Nice work if you can get it....
We told them that we would install them ourselves, they replied that this was not allowed. Well that just stuck in my wife's craw. Here we were willing to do something to help the tenant that they would not do, and they insisted that we had to follow their official rules.

To make a long story short, I ordered four hand rail things, they cost, including shipping $30 for all four, and I installed them in about an hour for free!!



Hand holds by the key panel



Hand holds by the auto door


Hand hold by the elevator.

I figured out the height to put them by figuring out about where the average older Japanese person would put their hand, I used that as the center point of the hand hold. They are installed using steel screws into the soft lead-like anchors in holes drilled into the walls, or using sheet metal screws for the one by the auto door.

I ordered the stuff on Friday night, the free market made it possible for them to be delivered on Saturday, I spent an hour on Sunday morning installing them.

Today, Monday, a city person came by, they were not pleased, "These are not approved hand holds and who installed them..?" they asked. I put the best shocked look I could on my face and said "These are not hand holds, they are there to protect the key panel from someone banging into it same with the one by the elevator". The city worker then asked about the fourth one by the auto door, I said "That one is just a decoration, I like the look of it".

I very much hope that is the end of the story, we shall see.....

Oh yeah, the Monster-In-Law was not pleased with us spending the $30 on the hand holds....er... protectors.....

Welcome to my world of stuff that keeps me out of the Dungeon.....

Sometimes it's not worth asking for permission. Nice job on the protectors.

I "like the look" of of the protectors too!

Oy Vey.....in my best Yiddish accent. I like your style. Great protectors, let him put that in his pipe and smoke it. You got very broad shoulders Stu. That MIL of yours sure is testing.....would be real funny to find her making use of the "protectors" at some point in time.

You should survey the tenants on their thoughts on the additions see what they have to say.

What i cannot fathom though in what you said is "How come the city has any say in what you do to what is essentially your building" i am sure there is no rational logic that applies here either.

I tip my hat to you for doing something to ease the plight of the aged. Man sometimes one just has to wonder what makes these people tick.

In the good old USA, the gentleman that fell would sue the building owners for millions for not having them there! Good for you, hope it works out without any further trouble for you.

its comforting in an ugly sort of way when I hear someone who owns a investment property in another country having to deal with the same ridiculous city officials/flunkies/wannabes who strangle building owners with taxes, fees and regulations but wont give an inch for anything.

In Japan the saying goes, " It is easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission". It never seems to end does it?

Way to go Stu

Over the years I have found it is often easier to get forgiveness than permission. Nice job Stu!

A Big AT A BOY from me Stu...........yer a good man my friend

Nice job Stu, and a good thing to do too.

Now, I'm a fan of video surveillance in some applications. Wouldn't it be fun to mount a discrete little camera somewhere and catch MIL using these new devices?

Now that comment nearly got me in trouble Peter. I am sitting in a room full of people and got caught laughing like crazy no one understands why.

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Good job on the quake grips