Beware of New Neighbors, Shed Edition

 

My neighborhood has been going through some changes lately. Besides the slow but steady addition of two cute little garden shed—on sale! From Costco! —other properties around me are seeing upgrades as well.

Take, for example, the house next door. My new neighbors—I’ll call them Dene and Gloria-- purchased a well-loved but neglected older home and have diligently set about repairing and updating it. They’ve made improvements to the structural integrity of the house. They have updated the bathroom and have plans for a kitchen re-do. They’ve cleared out dead trees and cut back brush. Gloria has plans for new landscaping.

Dene and Gloria themselves are lovely people—friendly, personable. Gloria and I talk plants-- a lot. Dene has brushed-hogged all of the blackberry tangles along the fence line and has generously cleared out mine as well. In early spring, Mark and I had planned to spend one weekend stacking up tree limbs and burning them—with a properly approved burn permit of course. Dene volunteered his tractor to the effort and did in ten minutes what would have taken us two days to accomplish! Our neighborhood is lucky to have them. Or so it would seem.

Dene and Gloria are exactly the kind of neighbor that will kill you. Seriously. You have to get up extra early in the morning to out “good neighbor” them. They have a work ethic that just won’t quit and I swear—keeping up with My Personal Jones is going to be the death of me.

My roof--small. Size doesn't matter,
Pitch matters.

While I’ve been busy this summer, chipping away at building my cute little sheds, they’ve been re-doing an entire house. During the August heat wave, I was forced to spend a week OUTSIDE, every day, priming all the parts and pieces of my shed because the neighbors seemed oblivious to the seriousness of climate change, and insisted on doing a complete new roof. Of course, there was no way I could seek the shelter of my lovely, cool, air-conditioned house with them out there under the blazing sun. I set up an electric fan under the shed of my cherry tree, painted in the small respite it offered, keeping one eye on the nonsense going on next door. Didn’t they realize it was AUGUST??

The Nabes roof...so yes, it's bigger.

Every day I would hope that they would decide to knock off their labors by the afternoon, but I would hope in vain. For at least three of the sweltering days, they worked until dusk. I used ice faster than my ice-maker could make it. 

Thankfully, both the heat wave and the roof build came to an end, and I was able to return once again to the civilized environs of the in-doors.

But I still need you to keep me in your thoughts. Last weekend I recklessly took My Personal Jones’ a plate of cream-cheese ripple brownies. I’m afraid to see what they might do in return... 

Provoking My Personal Jones