Really loud

I received an email today from the Ruth Ellis Center describing some renovations they are doing. I work on the second floor of the building in the kitchen that is part of the drop-in center. The first floor is administrative offices and had been storage for food, clothing, and sometimes furniture used to help the youth establish places of their own. The renovations are being done to the first floor.

The admin offices have relocated, but will be back. The rest of the area will be turned into a primary health care facility for the youth. It is being done "in consultation with" the major health system in the region. Sounds great! Donations gladly accepted.

A lot of the stuff that had been stored downstairs has been moved up (one cupboard in the kitchen is crammed with toilet paper, but no paper towel). More has been moved to storage pods in the parking lot. The remediation work has started -- that's dealing with the asbestos and lead-based paint (the building is 100 years old, something I didn't know before). Over the summer the rest of the renovations will be done.

Which meant today I could hear various machine tools being used below me. It also meant evacuating the building when the fire alarm went off. That's the first time that has happened since I started working there. The alarm is really loud. The alarm was set off by lots of dust that smoke detectors took to be smoke.