Homes on 8th street in need of repair
ERIC SIMON
DCN Reporter
It’s just before 11 a.m. in the Central Hillside. The sun is barely visible, the wind is blowing briskly and a light snow has begun to fall. The only sounds in the air are the tires scraping moist pavement, a snow hitting the ground and Chuck Dennis’ hammer.
“No one else is crazy enough to be out here,� said Dennis.
Dennis is helping a friend remodel a rental property on North 8th St.
A new window is set just above the front porch that Dennis is prying boards off. Jimmy Sianko is at the other end of the porch putting on new siding. Sianko, 52, has been doing construction for 31 years.
“We’d like to say we work 8 hours a day, but it just depends,� said Sianko. “Now that it’s getting dark earlier we’ve been stopping around 4:30.�
Dennis and Sianko normally start around 9 in the morning, they like to let the neighbors sleep in. Where they’re working has quite a few houses that are in need of some repairs. A couple blocks away a clacking sound is heard as fallen gutters, that look like they’re each clinging for dear life by a single screw, slap the side of a house with each gust of wind.
Dennis said the owners, Wally and Julie, have a few rental houses in the area, and even though work is being done to the house people are still living there.
“We just try to work around ‘em,� said Dennis.
The wind picks up as Sianko asks Dennis to adjust a piece of siding. With November almost halfway through and the weather getting worse by the day you would think that outdoor remodeling like this should be done any day now, but that’s not the case.
“We’ve been out here a couple weeks and we’ll be probably be out here a couple more,� said Dennis.