Things are very busy at the townhouse condo being constructed half a block away from my house.  They've advertised July occupancy, the exterior is not yet finished (and I suspect they haven't figured out yet how to do a couple of the tricky bits), and there's a mad flurry of activity to try to complete in a couple of weeks what should have been done over a couple of months.  Nearby parking lots and streets are full of cars and vans from the workers and suppliers.

The exterior is a sort of concrete siding — light-grey slabs about 1' x 2' and an inch thick.  At first glance, the building looks somewhat like it's been built of cinder blocks, i.e., rather ugly.  The "tiles" are attached to metal tracks which sit on top of the plastic vapour barrier on a couple of inches of rigid fibreglass insulation, attached to the galvanized hollow-metal framework of the building.

The rows of "tiles" have a bit of overlap, row-by-row, like regular siding.  But horizontally... the tiles in each row don't overlap, for much of the area of the walls; there are gaps between the tiles, perhaps ¼" or 5 mm wide. The metal track is visible at a distance through the gap.  I expect that closer examination would allow one to see the vapour barrier film.

I would expect that the gaps should be filled in with mortar, or at least with caulking.  I see no indication that anything like that is intended; the scaffolding used to put the tiles up has been taken away.  Insects, and possibly even tiny animals, will be able to get in easily.  Rain will be able to get in.  This will lead to corrosion, eventually, not to mention freeze/thaw damage.

For the sake of the apartment owners, I hope I'm wrong, and that the builders will finish things up properly.  But their pattern so far doesn't make me optimistic.

The oafish minions who reshingled my roof last autumn replaced the flashing around the chimney.  To do so, they pulled out the old flashing which was embedded in the mortar between the chimney bricks, and applied new flashing which is "surface-mounted", i.e. held in place with caulking.  The new flashing covers a smaller area than the old.  This left old and slightly-crumbly mortar, with cracks and gaps, exposed.

I could have hired someone to repoint the mortar.  My previous experience with getting someone to do masonry repair was not positive (as with most of the repair work I've paid people to do around here).  And considering my lack of employment, I decided that I could deal with it myself, save my money, and probably do as good a job.  My previous work with concrete and mortar went pretty well, though that was at ground level rather than way up high.  I have leftover concrete and mortar mix from that project.

I am not an acrophile.  I'm not acrophobic, either, but I don't enjoy being up tall ladders, crawling around on roofs, etc.  But I can do it when I have to.  I started by climbing up carefully and tying a rope to the chimney, to provide support and safety for later when I'd be bringing up tools and materials.

Of note:

• An electric drill with a masonry bit can be used to remove old mortar, in place of the traditional hammer and chisel.  It's probably more appropriate for small jobs like what I was doing, but it's a one-handed tool which doesn't require whacking away at brickwork while one is on a surface with less-than-ideal footing.
• A garden hose with a spray nozzle can be used in place of the traditional spray bottle to wash out bits of old mortar and to dampen brick surfaces, and doesn't need to be refilled.  Hauling it up the roof is a bit tricky.  Water running down the roof surface will make it more slippery, especially if the water is runoff from fresh mortar, which is alkaline.
• Even when one has the proper tools (thanks, ragnhildr !) and even though fresh mortar is somewhat caustic, it's sometimes faster and easier to take a handful of mortar and slap/rub it into place, then rinse off the surface, than to carefully work the mortar into the gaps and cracks it needs to be in.  Skin in contact with fresh mortar should be washed off with plenty of fresh water ASAP, of course, per the usual protocols for handling caustics.  Brief soaking in vinegar can also be used to help neutralize the caustic, but lots of fresh water should do the job.
• The oafish minions also didn't caulk the flashing properly; there are some gaps.  I'll need to back up there in a few days, after the mortar has set, to finish the job.  I left the rope tied to the chimney.

Really truly, don't hire companies whose names are misspelled.  "Millennium" has two 'l's, two 'n's.

This afternoon, I took yet another call from an ADT salesthing.  As they always do, he started with a lie: "I'm not calling to sell you anything."  (This, of course, was in response to my usual greeting when a stranger calls, asks for me by name, and stumbles when trying to say it, or otherwise appears to be a salescritter: "What are you selling?")

He started into the usual spiel about how they want to give me a free alarm system, all I would have to do is sign a contract with them to monitor it. (And, of course, I can't take the "free" alarm system if I don't sign with them, and they'd take it back when the contract ended.)

So why, exactly, would I want to entrust the security of my home to a company whose official policy — I've checked — is to have their representatives lie from the get-go?

I just had an idiot from SpringMasters ring my doorbell, trying to sell me something.

No, damn it, they can't read.

<*facepalm*>

The creatures who work for Weed Man are presumptively Epsilon-Minus Semi-Morons.  Or they wouldn't work at spraying toxic chemicals all over the place.

They are demonstrably illiterate.  Or they wouldn't have sprayed their crap all over my lawns last autumn, because they would have read the street sign right by my driveway, and would have gone looking for the correct street a block and a half away.  Several of my friends and colleagues have had similar problems with them: stubborn attempts to spray where they are not merely unwanted but abhorred.

So how do I keep these damn kids off my lawn?

Also, the creatures who work for Springmaster are the worst infestation of street spammers this city has seen in years.  Possibly ever.  I don't want them around either.