Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Painting and pumpkin hassles


Have I told you we’re looking at acreage? We’re slightly jaded regarding the neighborhood CC&R police, and “The Beasts” need a bigger yard. This is a terrific time to buy, meaning it’s also a tough time to sell. We go back and forth regarding our options, and I daydream about drinking coffee on my quiet front porch, overlooking the valley.

Two recent events solidified our feelings about moving. Just before Halloween, someone threw a giant pumpkin at my husband’s work car. It smashed in the windshield, bending the frame between windshield and driver's side door. $1500 dollars worth of damage, caused by a neighborhood youth, but we can’t prove it.

The second event involved our house color. We discovered peeling paint across the front—it faces south, bearing the brunt of storms. It’s against the CC&Rs to have peeling paint—repairs were required. Being responsible, intelligent neighborhoodians, we decided repainting the entire front was aesthetically more pleasing than shiny, new patched areas.

A few days into the repainting process, a knock sounded on our front door. Lo and behold, it was the CC&R police, wondering why we were repainting without Board permission.

“We’re patching, not repainting,” my husband replied, explaining our reasoning.

“You still need permission from the board, there are some colors we don’t want reused.”

“We’re patching, not repainting,” my husband repeated, “we’re only touching up the front.”

“You still need permission to use that color.” The man repeated stubbornly.

The board member left, hubby and I stared at each other in shock. Our house is beige—had it gone rogue? Was it possible our beige rocked the neighborhood, standing out like mint green amongst the other shades of beige?

Technically, we weren’t changing our house and therefore not violating the CC&Rs. An issue didn’t exist—the fact that the board was making one, reinforced our desire to leave a neighborhood with far too many rules.

However, to keep neighborhood peace, my husband took a paint sample to the architectural board member, reassuring her we were indeed repainting our house the same color it’s been for the past eight years. He made me stay home—I was ready to blow off the peace issue and touch up the board members’ houses with our rogue beige.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You didn't tell me over the phone that someone smashed the windshield of Dad's car, and with a pumpkin no less! Gee, what'll people think of next! I can't believe the board is so busy hunting down "rogue beige" paint colors instead of cracking down on neighborhood crime. That shows you where their priorities are. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad time to move...

Tournesol said...

Wow. That's terrible about the pumpkin! We live in a pretty nice area, and last year someone threw a beer bottle at our front window where I had my Halloween display. Doused the display in beer and broke the window. Thank goodness we weren't home, glass went everywhere. Sounds like moving would be great! I hope it works out for you.

Anonymous said...

I laughed at yet another CC&R story yet there not as funny as they use 2 be...ie it might be time 2 to consider acting on plan B!
4 C's M.