Keeping up with the Jones’…..

T

 

 

I have to admit, I don’t try to keep up with anyone in town because it would be a losing battle but when it comes to my house, I do get streaks of jealousy and moments where I feel compelled to keep up with the neighbors.  I love decorating and working on my house but even minor adjustments cost money and take time, both of which I am lacking.  All over town, people are redoing and building new houses.  I used to love looking at every new project in town, but now I try not to “look” too much or I will start coveting something I can’t have.  

When we bought this house almost 10 years ago, it was a mess.  It had good bones, but the inside was really rough and the outside was even worse.  Through the years I have reworked the landscaping myself without ever adding or changing any hard scape because of finances.  I love my house, but the front has never been totally “right” in my opinion but it is cute enough to live with.  Well in the last few years, I have really let the yard go because of allergies and lack of time.  Three of my iceberg roses barely even bloomed this year, I have roots popping up and my picket fence looked shabby chic or rather trashy chic.  I was able to ignore how hideous my front yard has looked the past few years because I was so busy with Tiara and all my all neighbors houses looked even worse than mine.  So rude of me, but true.  Misery loves company.

 

Well, last year, the neighbors across the street painted their house.  Then the other neighbors followed suit and painted their house too.  And then last neighbor in my visual field across the street fixed their plants.  And now the neighbors on both sides of us started fixing their properties.  I mean really, just what I don’t need.  My older neighbor’s son moved in and really started cleaning up her house, which was nice because she is such a great person and needs the help.

 

Then the neighbors on the other side who had a hideous yard decided to completely bulldoze everything around their house and start over  They literally removed every bush, tree and spec of cement and redid it all.  This is where my seed of jealousy sprouted.  I wasn’t  jealous at first because I figured they wouldn’t fix their house very cool, since they don’t seem to have much style.  I know that sounds really snotty and rude but my neighbors aren’t the nicest people.  We had a property line dispute about 5 years ago and I was right and they were wrong and now they won’t speak to us.  Oh well.

 

Now that they have finished their house it actually looks really great, and makes my house look rather neglected.   They had this huge hideous tree that hung over onto our property so I planted all these shade plants on my side to accommodate the beast.   Well, they cut it down and now all my plants have started to fry along with grass.  Then they moved the soil level and my picket fence started to look even crazier.   Last week they put up this overhang outside their french doors and that is when Lou and I both decided we couldn’t handle it anymore. Lou is like, ” OK, what should be do first?”  “Paint the fence!”   Lou painted half of the picket fence and then ran out of time so I finished the rest of the section everyone can see from the street, on Friday.  I didn’t have time to paint the inside of the fence facing our house, but now I can at least drive into my driveway without having a panic attack.

 

I then decided if I painted the chipped bench next to my front door and put some new pillows on it, our house would look more loved.  I came home today from picking Trinity up at school and there was Lou with the paint brush, fixing the bench.  Yeah, thanks Louie. 

 

Yesterday our gardener trimmed all the trees that we hadn’t trimmed in 5 years, and that really inspired me even further.  Now my plan is to borrow my mom’s power washer, clean off the house, wash the windows, add a few plants in the total dirt areas, trim off the dead roses and put down some mulch.     The good news is that my house is going to look decent by the end of the weekend but the bad news is that now I am on a roll and I don’t want to stop.  To be honest, if I didn’t have to keep my eye on Tiara all day, I would start painting the outside of the house myself.   I have painted every wall, ceiling, piece of crown molding and all the baseboards on the inside of our house myself.  Why not try my hand with the exterior?  Probably because my hands would shut down on me, since I have the beginnings of arthritis and after painting the fence my hands were super stiff and sore.  Bummer.  I am a huge fan of physical labor and wish I knew how to build stuff. 

Ohh, I just started to get lost in my thoughts, imaging myself painting the house a darker gray and adding a green dutch door so when you opened the front door it would match the interior.  Love it.   I also want to put a chandelier outside the front door.  Why not, I have one in the backyard, why not the front?  Oh, here I go again, seriously I need to calm down.  Once I finish this blog I will go to my organizer and write down every little idea, and start checking them off one by one.  I love lists!  I always have several going at all times.  Yes, I know such a Virgo……. 

 

Off to work!

 

Have a great day!