Destruction/Construction: Part 1

I’ve always loved sketching construction work on the streets: the men in orange safety jackets, the huge machines, things that get broken down and then made new. So it’s a treat to get to sketch a process like that right at home. What started as a “maybe we need to fix that broken kitchen cabinet” grew into a huge project that I’ll try and document here in sketches.

This is Hari painting the front door before it was put up. Yes, it’s a bright blue, inspired by La Casa Azul.

Day 1. The crew arrives and a couple of hours later there’s nothing where there once was a kitchen. When you live in earthquake country, the houses aren’t made of brick and stone, and it’s amazing how little it takes to take a whole room down. A few hard knocks and a kitchen that stood for 44 years goes down.

Day 2: Pulling out old linoleum floors, putting up door frames.

Day 3: The very blue door goes up.

Day 4: Mr. Ali and his team of electricians come in. Snake-like wires dangle everywhere.

There was a day 5, but I forgot to sketch it. More destruction/construction sketches from the week ahead, coming next week.