apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Our building is being repainted. For the past month we were being woken up by scraping and loud yelling outside our bedroom window. We had ZERO privacy everywhere we went in our apartment except the bathroom. It is extremely annoying. Good luck and keep your blinds closed!

Just make sure they only work during allowed hours - check local laws.

I'd temporarily add something more private than mini-blinds or lighter curtains. Blinds are not private at all at certain angles (as in, those the workers can easily get to...)

Possibly basic blackout liners for $30-50 or heavy curtains from Target etc. Worth it since the work will be several months. A plus for heavy (fabric weight) curtains is a slight dampening of work noises also.

Put up window vinyl so they can't see in and you can't worry about them. It should be a cheap, temporary solution.

Goodness yes check the laws on work hours. It is not fun at all to be woken up at 7:30am on a Saturday... and a Sunday... and then have workers continue pounding and scraping through lunch... and not finish until after 9pm... When the law where I am is that they can only work from 9-12 and 2-6, and never on weekends when they work full weeks! (You can do work on weekends if you haven't done anything in the week.)

Make sure anything the workers leave when they aren't there (materials, tools etc.) looks as though it's secure. I have three windows in my apartment, two of them were broken when our building's roof was being repaired by materials slipping off the scaff planks. Including my bedroom window, while I was in bed, during a snow storm. Not fun.

Yeah, my main thought was what time are they going to start banging around outside, waking you up? And for a temporary solution to cover windows for privacy - use aluminum foil. Cheap, opage, and you can bend it around the glass/frame and mold it into the nooks & cranies and it will stay in place.

My 15 storey building had to have all the cement balconies redone a couple of years ago. We had scaffolding and construction workers on our side of the building for 14 months. I won't kid you, it was awful. They started at 7:00 AM and in summer they often worked till 6:00 or even 7:00 PM.

Privacy is the issue - there simply isn't any. Try to find out how long they expect the work to take and invest accordingly in blinds or drapes. Vinyl film is a good (and relatively inexpensive) idea but you'll want more than that, especially in the morning when you're trying to get ready for work. I love my 9th floor, south facing apartment for the light and because there are no buildings facing me, I used to have only matchstick blinds which I very seldom lowered. I put up lined drapes. As much as I hated hated keeping them closed, there's really no option from the point of view of keeping your sanity.

For some reason, I had anticipated them completing one floor and then moving onto the next, so I expected to be inconvenienced for only a matter of weeks, but that's not at all how they worked. They seemed to do one step on all the floors, and then go back and do the next step on all the floors, and so on and so on, so they were up and down for the whole 14 months. And every day they were up and down for coffee breaks and lunch breaks and materials. What a relief when I didn't have to hear that winch just about every hour!

I hope the repairs to your building are quicker, but do try to find out how long they're expected to take and whether your particular floor will be inconvenienced only briefly, or for the whole duration. Good luck!

SanDiegoAT - Cool idea. I wish I had thought of that awhile back while workers were coming up and down ladders working on the roof (their ladder was just outside our living room window for a couple days). I had to hope they didn't try to look around the mini-blinds.

You can buy plain white paper by the roll and tape that over your windows. It will let some light in but will insure privacy. It's also inexpensive and easy to do.

Go to an inexpensive upholstery fabric shop, ask for 'blackout' fabric (it's generally used to line curtains to protect the fabric and/or for more privacy), it comes in two versions... 1) pure blackout (which is handy for bedrooms if someone needs to sleep during daylight or to guard against my neighbor's obnoxious motion-activated patio light) and 2) lining only (which will give you the privacy you need but let most of the daylight pass through. At an inexpensive upholstery fabric shop, mine was 48" wide and $4.75 a yard, at a regular chain store nearly double that price. It's very sturdy fabric, I've reused my endlessly, even as a heavy duty lining for lighter weight fabrics (I only need true blackout on that one window).

just get some of those temporary paper shades from home depot. get white, black will make your place a cave. white will let in light but no one can see you.

y'all try living in a place that the landlord is content to neglect


here's a thought: rejoice that some people have work in these very hard times

pretend you live in NY; very exciting

hey: up at 7 on a weekend! more time to do fun stuff... projects... road trips... breakfast at a cafe with yr paper (keep buying papers)

say hi to the workers... it's easier if you have friends working outside your window

Agreed with these two:

* rejoice that some people have work in these very hard times

* say hi to the workers... it's easier if you have friends working outside your window

We've lived in and around renovations, and while it can be tough, remember that the end result will probably be worth it. If you can afford it, take this as an opportunity to get out more- day trips, weekend trips, or just afternoons spent somewhere else!

I'm thinking the frosted vinyl film is a great idea. Complete privacy and as much light as possible.

I like frosted vinyl film. Just leave a tiny blank space at the edges. I failed to do so (the instructions were in the center of the roll, and I only unfurled what I needed for the job, so I didn't see them until it was too late -- so I don't know if they mentioned it.) I tried to exactly match the window glass, and the edges where I trimmed along the window frame have lifted and curled. I'm going to have to replace the vinyl -- it won't go flat again. (The window where I cut it a tiny bit short is fine, though, and the rim of clear glass is too small to see thru at least from a normal distance. You would have to conspicuously spy to see in...)

Guess it would all depend on if any of them were good looking. Could be a great 3 months.

You can get temporary shades at Home Depot or Lowes, they cost around $5-9, a little more for light blocking ones. They are literally a sheet of paper-ish substance, folding accordion style, with two sided tape at one end. You can mount them a number of ways, including to the top of your window frame, inside or outside (you cut them to fit the width). These will give you the additional privacy you seek without totally sacrificing your decor. Save the clips provided - use them to shorten the length or make them invisible (ie, after work hours).

With respect to dust, we made cheesecloth screens that we secured at the top and sides - we just used a double width of cheesecloth which the nanny gave a quick pledge spray when she put it up over the area where the windows opened up to (we had tilt and turns, so it was not that visible). We had to wash this every fourth day or so. We lost use of our air conditioners for that summer, due to the dust creation (rebrickpointing) but having the window opening at the top helped immensely as compared to our neighbors who have double hung windows - they had to repaint their window ledges.

We had scaffolding for 18 months to do Local Law maintenance work in NYC. We are on the second floor, the worst part for us was the constant view of the trash left by workers.

Ear plugs help too. (I have jackhammers tearing up the street outside my window as I write.)

I'm usually on the other side of this situation- the architect inspecting the work- so I don't know what it's like on the inside. However, if they are doing any type of masonry work or sanding, you should consider taping (with painter's tape) any joint/crack in your windows. No, you won't be able to open your windows, but the only other option is to hire a full time cleaner to sweep up the dust.

Do you have a pet? You might want to think about what kind of noise will be made during the day and if your pet will be affected by that, such as barking at the workers every time they pass by your window, or if Fluffy/Fido will want to hang out in a quieter back bedroom with the door closed.

I would also recommend getting good window locks. There are more break-ins when scaffolding is up because people can easily get through windows. It, of course, helps if you keep your curtains closed during the day so people don't know what you have in the daytime. Kinda paranoid, but I know two separate incidents of friends who had stuff stolen with scaffolding-window burglaries.

Keep your other windows closed; dust can blow in.
Take any hanging items off of the front wall, just in case!

I like all of the frosted vinyl ideas, etc., but I taped waxed paper that I use in the kitchen to the bottom half of my window to obscure the view. I have very see-through drapes on them, too, but it is my bedroom and I want to keep some privacy.

Wax paper is totally cheap and lets light in without letting in sight. (Unless you like to spend money on vinyl and fight with the inevitable creases!!)

Good luck:)

Make friends with the workers! Bring them drinks, etc. You never know what wonderful people you may find just hanging outside your window. Also, opening up a dialogue with people gets them on your side and they will be more careful around your place. I wish there was someone outside my building right now washing my 5th floor windows. But that's not worth the trouble of scaffolding. Good luck!