Update: There's a painter working on the scaffolding

I arrived home this afternoon to see a man standing in front of my kitchen window gripping a paintbrush in one hand and a little face mask in the other. Boy was I surprised, as my kitchen window is on the second story, and it's pretty unusual to see somebody looking in.

When I recovered from the shock, we waved to each other, and I proceeded to close my windows, because the unpleasant smell of fresh paint had started to permeate my apartment.

The painter seems to be painting the outside of the building. This, my friends, is progress. Because if the painting is underway, the bathroom repair work must be finished. And it must not involve my bathroom. Hooray.