Getting To Know Neighbors

We'd met everyone in our immediate "neighborhood", such as it is. Neighborhoods here generally coalesced into water districts, so ours consisted of the 12 homes in our water district. We were the last house on the southern edge, there was another house just north of us within screaming distance through the trees (in summer we couldn't see it when the trees were leafed out) and across a country lane to the north were the other 10 houses. We in the unique position of not being within visual range of anyone else on our almost 3 acres of land. The rest of the houses were close together on long, narrow 50 foot wide lots at the top of the bluff overlooking the sound. On a warm summer day when everyone had their windows open in any of those houses--for in the Northwest central air for homes was almost non-existent--one could easily hear conversations taking place in the house next door. So I particularly appreciated our setting of complete privacy.

For 17 years we had been living in a homogenous neighborhood where everyone was in pretty much the same income bracket and had many of the same interests, i.e., golf: borrrrring! Here, thankfully, everyone was different, including their socioeconomic status, and I began to enjoy getting to know the differences.

There were retired couples, one of whom had lived here, it seemed, forever and who'd owned and operated a tiny grocery store on the island; another couple whom I suspected were on the fringe of the original hippie movement, with a modest house and modest jobs, who grew their own food, bartered for services, and eschewed television; those who held hourly wage labor jobs, a teacher, a salesman, a nurse, in other words, a perfect slice of American life!

Crises Over, We're Done!

STILL some work to be done on the inside, but the outside is finished, except for the shutters. Doesn't the chimney look much better set back on the roof? Grass stays green here in the Northwest, so on January 1 when we moved in it still looked pretty much like this, sans junkpile.

Our first night in the house was a thrill even though we had to spend quite some time moving enough boxes out of the way so we had a path to the bed and bathroom. I'd found the sheets and comforter so at least we had a proper bed. We looked out through the French doors in our bedroom, saw across the water the lights of a neighboring island, looked at each other and giggled. We'd done it. Well, Sarah had done it, but it was done. It was OURS!

Change Order Over A Phallic Symbol

We thought this looked like...well, YOU know!


This looked much better...don't you think?

Like most people who build houses we went wildly over our budget with change orders. I'll admit I was the one responsible most of the time, but not everyone has the ability to look at blueprints and see things that, after all, won't work.

The first one resulted from some computer software designed to help with furniture arrangement. Once I input the dimensions of our bedroom and our king sized bed I could see the room was going to be too small. Luckily I discovered this before the foundation went in so it wasn't a big deal. We just added an extra two feet to the south wall.

Next, when we arrived on one of our weekly visits after the house was being framed I saw two blank walls that definitely needed windows, one in the kitchen and one in my office. That wasn't too bad. All they had to do was cut through the plywood and studs and frame a window. Still, it was extra.

A near catastrophe was the deck. The carpenter happened to be there working on the Sunday we visited, and immediately both of us could see the edge of the deck was too close to the French doors off the family room. If someone were to have just a little too much wine when he/she stepped out onto the deck, well, it wasn't like falling into the sound or anything that drastic, but it wouldn't have been funny. So we told the carpenter how we wanted it changed and brought down Sarah's wrath.

She called, and in no uncertain terms without raising her voice, she told me she was person we'd hired to build our house and that any changes we wanted to make would have to go to her first. She was right, of course, but I felt silly being scolded like a child and insisted "well, we were there, Sarah, and we just didn't want him going any further until the mistake was corrected." She didn't buy it and I learned my lesson.

The really major catastrophe was the chimney in David's den at the front of the house. We drove up the day they had cut through the roof and installed the exhaust from the propane fireplace. We both gasped and said in unison, "Oh, no!" The chimney looked for all the world like a phallic symbol. We called Sarah and she took matters into her own hands and had it moved back where it became less prominent. It didn't matter that no one else saw it that way.

I Rat On A Rat Fink

I have to admit that I'm a stickler for knowing the rules and following them, for it's the best way to avoid conflict with people. For some, it might go against the grain to live by that philosophy, but I loathe conflict and I readily admit it. Still, if I'm accused of something I'm not guilty of, I'll go on the attack with righteous indignation!

That's the way I felt when Sarah told me one of my neighbors had called the health department to complain about the well being too close to our drain field. We'd followed the rules. Instead of merely calling for information--to ask if what we were doing had been approved--the person, whoever he was (and I knew it had to be a man) had simply reported it as a violation of fact. I wasn't about to eat that insult without responding to it, and since I didn't know who it was I figured the best way to "out" the person was at the next meeting of our association.

I usually went to these meetings alone (except for the first one when we explained our situation) for they were held on Saturdays, David's day to play golf. And besides, David wasn't inclined to go to meetings at all, much less ones he had to drive an hour and a half to get to. So I sat quietly throughout, as newcomers usually do who have little knowledge of the subjects.

When the time came, toward the end of the meeting, after all business had been completed, I waited for a second's silence and then piped up, "I just want everyone to know that we are aware that someone here called the Health Department and complained about our well being too close to the drainfield, and I just want to say two things." Everyone got kind of wide-eyed and looked at each other in shock. Someone had said the unexpected! How to deal with that! "First," I went on, "the Health Department approved the location of the well, and second, I want everyone to know we are good citizens and good neighbors and don't intend doing anything illegal." I said it evenly and not belligerently, as though merely dishing out information.

I can't even remember what happened next, only that the guilty person was never revealed that day. (However, as time went on and the workmen reported a certain man came around every day to inspect what they were doing, I eventually was able to deduce who it was.) I'd been so intent on saying my piece that my concentration was on just getting it out and leaving.

After the meeting ended I chatted briefly with a few people, just to show there were no hard feelings, but I never told David what I'd said because I'd never told him what Sarah had told me. He'd have blown his top!