Chicago Duplex Down Rehab

DS Construction finished the gang-way sidewalk yesterday.  Its quite a change of the old one which was tilted toward the neighbors property, and had large gaps between the sidewalk and building.  Finished sidewalk as of this morning, curing! First drop of concrete from Prairie Material . Concrete form, right on property line.  Neighbor fence will be adjacent to concrete on neighbor property. Retaining wall form for 3 steps down, under the bay window.

I knew the right time to replace the gangway sidewalk would be during the construction of a new house next door.  After some sleuthing, I found out that DS Construction is contracted demolition and concrete contractor.  I talked with their boss a few months ago, and he agreed to replace our sidewalk as part of the work he was already doing here.  When the crew finally showed up, they seemed unaware and ambivalent about the idea.  They said "if Stan said yes, then its yes".  No contract.  I called the general contractor, and they said its common for subs to just have verbal agreements because they work with them so often.  Anyway, it was easy to convince them that now was absolutely the best time to pull out the old, collapsed sidewalk.  I used a steel iron to knock out around the drain at the bottom of the stairs myself, because they took out the entire sidewalk (all 125 feet) in a couple hours using the digger.  Its turning out to be a win-w...