“We are re-roofing in the spring.
many blocks have already done it.
The entry next to us has.”
This morning with all the rain I hear Tosho running back and forth from the roof to his apartment.
I peek out from my metal door.
“Emergency!” he says.
“Water?” I ask.
“Come See.”
I follow him through the hatch to our roof and we start moving all the rocks to clear the drain.
We then hop down into the crawl space between the last apartment and the roof.
Crawling in the dust over the ventilation ducts and the boiler pipes sloppily wrapped with fiberglass and what looks like saran wrap in attempts to insulate, we come to a PVC pipe that connects to the drain on the top of the roof and runs through the inside of our building where our bathroom pipes run.
The elbow of the PVC pipe is cracked, releasing all the water of the heavy rains coming from our roof into the chute with all the pipes and into all the apartments below.
“I see.”
I joke with Tosho and help him get his tools in order and hold the light in the general direction. He already has the elbow we need on hand and has all his glues and a heat gun in a bucket that we pushed through the crawlspace. We are both wearing masks for the dust but it’s still hard to see.
We call down to the apartment below, which happens to be in renovation, leaving the ceiling completely open allowing Tosho to easily run an extension cord. With a heat gun he starts to loosen the bond of the elbow.
“How long has this PVC been here?”
“I did it 20 years ago, this is the first time I’ve had to repair it.” he says proudly.
Tosho’s apartment is right next to mine. He grew up here. Moved here when he was 11 right as the block was finished. Him and his wife, Sofia, now live there with their 13 year old twin boys. Tosho is the unofficial keeper of the block.
Last time as he rewired two of my outlets for me in my apartment, I asked him how he had learned to be an electrician.
“I’m not. I am but I’m not. I just do everything. I’ve lived here since the beginning, and I’m curious. So after 40 years, I know how everything in the Panelka works. You’ve seen what I do with the apartments.”
anytime I hear him banging I come to see what he is working on.
He completely transforms the panel apartments.
“I do everything, not just the facade, but everything how it has to be. I update it.”
“how many apartments have you done in this block?”
“only 4,
but I have helped everybody with something or another.”
I bet every block wishes they had a Tosho.