Construction Zone

The street we live on is a pretty busy street (it doesn't have stoplights but it has two lanes divided by paint and four way stops). Block by block, there is a major water main project going on. Well, last week it reached our block.

Ahh, what a beautiful scene. Yes, that is a porta-potty on the corner. Haha! My friend was over a few nights ago and dared me to use it! Then she dared me to use it when the workers were present! Haha, maybe I will . . .maybe I will.

At night it is fun to look at the work that has been done during the day. That is one deep hole! This construction is pretty inconvenient because we obviously can't drive on our block during the day. So far, when the workers are gone it has been possible to drive around the barriers to get to our driveways. Sometimes there are huge piles of dirt in front of people's driveways but they are usually moved by the time the work day is done. One positive aspect of this project is that being forced to walk around the block to our cars has lead to talking to and getting to know our neigbors better, which has been fun.

Another positive aspect is that it is very quiet at night. We live on a busy street as well as en emergency route, so it is never completely quiet at night and it is pretty loud during the day. It is hard to talk on the phone on the front step because of the traffic. Now, it is very loud during the day (as I write this there is a machine pulverizing the asphalt in front of my house. I can feel the impact in my living room! However, at night there are no cars driving by or sirens at all hours.

When we saw the machinery moving onto our block Justin realized that he had to hurry up and finish the rock removal stage of his landscaping project or else he would most likely not be able to pull the pickup into the yard to load the rocks. Last week he really worked hard and now all the rock is gone!

With all of this commontion going on, we have realized that the older couple who lives across the street from us seems to have been watching our activities! I met them when we first moved in and they seemed nice enough. When Justin was shoveling rock last week the woman came over to investigate and then told him the plan to plant grass would never work and that she hoped we weren't going to remove a flower bed in the back yard (the home of the lovely peony bushes)! But she also said she would be willing to share her hosta plants if we wanted to supplement the ones that are already there. Then, Justin said he saw the man over in our neigbors driveway checking out our yard! I am paranoid that they are reporting to the old owner what we are doing! I truly don't think she would be offended by anything we do, since we are clearly taking care of the house and yard and are doing all the things you "should" do, like mowing regularly, spraying for weeds, and planting flowers. I think that maybe they are just uneasy since they, along with the previous owner of our house, were the last "original" residents of the neigborhood who have lived here for a long time. I understand why they might be sad. We will just be patient and keep being nice to them.