If you've been tuned to this channel for very long, you know that we have neighbor issues.
Monday nights after a weekend at Steinvic's are always a combination of minor chaos and feeling a mixture of loneliness (miss Steinvic!) and settling in (nice to be in our actual home). I'm totally not complaining! It's all worth it...so very worth it. But all I'm sayin' is that when I get home, I'm busy. And after I'm busy, it's good to unwind. I unpack everything, begin doing our laundry and start putting things away. (I could make life a lot simpler by buying duplicate things to leave there, but I don't wanna. That might send a message to G*d and the Universe that this living in two different cities business is permanent, and it's not!)
So, I did all that and got into comfy clothes, opened the mail, got settled and then decided to work on the paintings I am making for Steinvic's sister. I worked away on that until 8:00 and realized I hadn't eaten. I put a tortilla pizza in the oven (whole wheat tortilla + homemade sauce+ sprinking of lowfat cheese, bake at 375 until crisp) and poured a small glass of wine. I kept working until the pizza was finished and then sat down to enjoy my snack. No sooner had I finished when the pounding began.
It's 9:15 p.m. What. The. Eff???
I could tell it was coming from the Neighbor-From-Hell side and not the Virginia side. I could be quite sure of this because the NFH side was shaking and it sounded like whoever was banging was getting ready to come through the wall.
I peeked outside and saw rolls of carpet. So...it's 9:15 and you're just now starting on this project?
At 9:30, the pounding was almost intolerable. I could hardly hear the TV unless I cranked it.
At 9:45, I went into my planner to retreive the owner's number I'd found online.
At 9:50, I left a message for the owners. "I live at 8253 and I believe you own the property at 8251. There are carpet layers there and they began working at 9:15. It's almost 10:00 and I feel like this is too late to be working. I wonder if you could please call them and ask them to stop. Thanks..."
At 10:05, I called Steinvic and asked him to stay on the phone while I went next door to ask these guys to cool it. (Steinvic later made the brilliant point - "Not sure what I could do from 90 miles away" - but it felt better to have him on the phone in my pocket. Because I'm paranoid like that.)
The guys were very nice. "Hi...how much longer are you all going to be working? It's after 10:00," I asked.
"Oh is it that late? Okay. Sorry. We were told to keep working until someone complained. So, since you're here, we'll stop."
"Thanks, I appreciate it. Sorry to spoil your fun."
And that was it. The pounding stopped. At 10:10, the Homeowner called me back.
"Um, I don't think we own the property at 8251. Are you sure you have the right house number?"
"I'm sure. It's the one that the tenants abandoned a month and a half ago, where you all left the mattress outside for three weeks, and had to replace then repaint the front door. I looked you up on the Internet."
"Oh...ha ha...you're right. Okay. Well, we don't have anyone working there. My husband is doing all the work himself and he's right in the next room. So, I don't know what you mean."
"You've got a house full of men working on the carpets and floors. I just talked to them and asked them to stop because it's after 10:00. They were very nice. "
"Really? I don't know how that could be. (aside) Honey? Do we have someone working on 8251? Carpets? Really? Okay. (back to me.) Well, I'll have to call the carpet contractors tomorrow and see." Uh...didn't she just say her husband was doing all the work personally? Huh...
"At least the contractors are less annoying than the tenants you rented to. I don't even feel like we live in a house at this point...it's like an apartment or a stopover."
"Well, thanks for your call." Click. Yeah, I'm sure she didn't want to hear my thoughts on her slum-lordiness.
I e-mailed the HOA (they must love me) this morning to let them know what happened. I want these people to get fined into acting right or into selling. Seriously. This lady is a ding dong and she is going to learn that if I'm inconvenienced, she will be inconvenienced with a phone call. I'm not going to be inappropriate, of course, but I'm also not going to feel uncomfortable in our house that we've worked so hard for without letting them know what is going on over there!
So that's it. I'm so tough, huh? ;o)
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