parakkum

The actual adage is "Measure twice, cut once," but I've generalized it to cover this:

The apartment complex I currently live in was sold fairly recently. The new management appears to be attempting to "flip" the place -- that is, do some shoddy work on it to make it seem as if they remodeled, then sell it for more than they bought it for. Unfortunate remodels to date include removing beautiful shrubs and trees, and ripping out all ground-level patio walls. So far, not so good. The situation illustrated here really amused me, however. The area shown used to be completely open, which made access for local garbage pickup a pretty easy issue. Then, they added the fence and the decorative covering -- although not quite as you see it in the picture. The first try at the covering looked awfully low -- it made it inconvenient to even open the containers. I imagine the next garbage crew came by and simply moved on, unwilling to try to empty the garbage without destroying the new wood structure.

The following week saw the contractors unsteadily hoisting the roof of the garbage area up so new, taller beams could be installed.

What gets me, though, is not the height error. It's the fact that there's no way for all three garbage containers to fit in the area and still be accessible. As is more readily apparent in this shot:

...the only way for all three to actually be in the structure, which is exactly three containers wide, would be to slide one container in, and then sideways so it rests immediately behind the wooden beam.

Good luck convincing a time-pressured garbage crew to reverse that process to get that same container out.

As a consequence of this instantly incorrect design, the garbage containers have been left in the screwed up "one sticking out" configuration seen in the pictures, which is much more disorderly and unpleasant than just having three lined up on a flat, grassy area ever was.

So far, I'm not impressed.