Maybe a safety issue, not sure?

[Enchantra]

After Mother's Day my folks are having contractors come in to shore up two walls of the basement that have cracked badly due to the hydrostatic pressure on the outside from the swamp out back.  This has involved Mom going down and sorting things and moving much of the contents of the basement away from those two walls.  In this process she moved several storage racks around my area like a wall - which I don't mind.

So my thoughts...

With these contractors coming in, I know I'm going to at least throw a sheet over my studio area for the sake of dust.  I'm wondering what other precautions I should take as a lot of my stones and beads have some value to them.  I am going to try to hide or at least conceal as much of my stuff as I can.

Any suggestions?  Any concerns?

Mom and Dad said the contractors are fully insured and licensed etc, however that doesn't mean I'm going to trust them.  I'm not that naive.  I work for a contractor part-time who installs generators, and we've fired an employee in the past for shady behavior - some of which was disclosed AFTER the guy was fired as customers called in and complained.  So I know not to trust these guys as far as I can throw myself.  If I could not work and still get paid, I'd sit down there all day guarding my stuff myself!   

[Hummingbirdstones]

I would take an inventory and pictures of everything you leave down there.  That way you have a record of what was there, just in case ...

[lithicbeads]

 My son is an engineer in the army and they put on  a guard  to watch the contractors , to protect army property.. For insurance purposes take a picture  of all your stuff uncovered before they arrive at the very least.

[3rdRockFromTheFun]

I always do everything I can to cover things when repair folk come in and provide subterfuge if I'm not going to be here (sheets over everything with a casual looking note pinned in plain that says something offputting like 'Jane, we cleaned the area as well as possible but it still smells like dirty diapers - please use the trash in the future' or 'Dan, unable to disconnect this areas surveillance feed - please leave covered while contractors are here, thanks." or something to that effect. I also do leave a computer in the room on with it's camera on and just feeding the image to the screen (not recording). I've found that most effective of all - when people see their own image on a screen in an area they have no business being they tend to cough and pretend they're stretching then high tail it out of the area. Regardless of this - definitely take pictures.

[Enchantra]

Thanks!   

I know Dad and possibly Mom will be home the two days the contractors will be working on the basement, so at least someone will be here.

I like the idea of the signs saying that you were unable to disconnect security in the area.  That IS going on the sheet over my area.

I will do an inventory of what I have with pictures.

All great ideas folks, thanks!   

[Bentiron]

I hope it all went well and nothing was taken. I have had really bad experiences with contractors in the home without my being there to watch them. Small things would just grow furry little feet and walk off. And if I reported something missing I would need to file a police report and they would NOT investigate, just give me a report number for insurance purposes. No not a good experience at all. I hope yours was better.

[Enchantra]

Well considering this was a year ago this happened, at this point I'm going to say nothing looked amiss.  I kept everything covered while I wasn't home, so to get into anything they would have had to disturb the covering and I would have noticed that.  I found nothing missing.   

My Father was home the entire time the guys were working on things and he would do surprise spot checks on the guys working down there.  He even had some kicked off the work crew because he didn't like their work.  All told only one guy stayed and that was because Dad liked his work.  Dad may be losing it at times mentally but he doesn't put up with bullcrap from other people and he won't put up with contractors dicking around in his home.  He told me he kept a good eye on my area.