When demolition becomes construction

Here is a sample from the week before last of the finished concrete floor. Just a tease.

The anxiety about finishing the disruptive work in our downstairs neighbor's apartment while she is away escalated this week. After a couple days it became clear that was not going to happen. So i took it upon myself to get things going. The difference between a contractor's job and mine was drilled in this week. While the buzz of power and yelling at workmen is strong, so is the headache.

After a probe in the W/D closet below, that required breaking through a plaster and lathe wall (translation: an inch or two of dust), Romy wanted the entire wall broken down. That happened the next day and Wednesday he chopped a hole in the concrete slab floor. He also core drilled holes in the locations where the pipes were to be moved (above). If you look closely at this shot below, you can see Romy downstairs.
By the end of the week the waste and vent lines were in their new locations. There is a building wide water shut off scheduled for Monday. So, Romy plans on taking advantage of that to reroute the water supply line. The gas line rerouting will require that the entire building's gas supply be shut off, then Romy must go to every unit to restart any pilot lights (44 units). The management is trying to get keys to all units to do this, but until then we wait....
While Romy has been focusing on the new kitchen area, Joseph's men have chalked the wall locations and started framing the bathrooms and closets. Steve is mourning the loss of open space. Hey, it's my job. 
As the diplomatic relations with Katie, in the apartment below us, continue, we learned that she may stay away another week. Great news since Romy is far from finished. Katie has a friend staying at her place who has been very patient (she had absolutely no idea what she signed up for when when she agreed to stay there). In return for all of this mess, we agreed to do some work in Katie's apartment. So, Saturday we found ourselves back at demolition work taking down some of the wall in her place. Trying to do that while someone is living there makes you acutely aware of the extent of dust caused by removing just one piece of sheetrock. Micromanaging this job has left me completely exhausted. I sooo need a vacation!