Hidey-Ho Neighbor

Everyone has a funny neighbor story or experience. I've heard some people even have nick names for their neighbors. Since purchasing our home last August, I've always wondered whether the appearance of our neighbor's house and yard would affect the value of ours. How so?

In an effort to protect their identity, I will call them Tim and Jill. Tim and Jill are middle-aged to retired folks who love to decorate their home for every holiday event. They have two storage buildings in their tiny yard that store such festive decorations. One might compare them to the Griswold's but I think it becomes a little more tacky than that at times. The Griswold's are classy and consistent, making sure every light counts. Tim and Jill display a hodge podge of singing Santa Claus', Santa in a helicopter with propellers spinning 24-7, a combination of clear lights and colored lights (one of my pet peves) adorning the eves and gutters, some lights a constant glow while others twinkle in a pattern, and every lighted Christmas shape imaginable; from reindeer to snowmen, from elves to baby Jesus.

We only celebrate Chirstmas once a year right? Well, Tim and Jill celebrate from Halloween night (literally hanging the Chirstmas lights as trick-or-treaters pass by) until well after MLK Day. Tim and Jill even have lovely orange and black Halloween lights that highlight the trim surrounding their screened-in garage / UK sports / billiard room. Yes, you heard me. Tim and Jill have screened in thier lovely two-car garage, leaving the garage door of course, and have turned it into a rec room for all the neighborhood to see. They have just about every fashionable lawn ornament you could imagine which compliments their bright yellow trim on gray siding.

Tim and Jill are sweet folks and we have a wonderful realtionship. I wouldn't trade them for the world. Tim and Jill remind me of home, where the stresses of zoning and strict neighborhood or builiding associations are non-existant. Ahh, brings back sweet visions of trailer parks mixed in with mini mansions. Tim and Jill have a sense of ruralness with a tweek of redneck. I love it! It gives me a sense of home while living here in suburbian hell.

As we settled into our house, we got to know more people in the neighborhood and had more guests at our home. The common topic of discussion was the neighbors of course. "You don't live in the Chirstmas house do you, the one with yellow trim?" or "What happened to thier garage? They've screened it in."

Tim and Jill are great despite their tastes. As I was washing my car Wednseday evening, Tim and Jill were painting thier bright yellow trim. At first I thought they were giving the faded bright yellow a freshening up, but I had a double-take when I realized they were actaully painting it a dark gray. Yea for gray!