ibeachalot's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This isn't Hell, but it's the same zip code! Can things get any worse today? I had just typed up a HUGE entry describing how incredibly pissed off I am right now, and AOL booted me offline. No problem, though! I had been saving as I went along! That is... until Griffin came along and started banging on the keys again. He deleted everything I had saved. Jameson is sick. I�m sick. Evan was impossible this morning and Griffin is bound and determined to fuck up everything in this house he can find to fuck up. My neighbors suck. They suck big, hairy, sweaty donkey dick. Evan�s bus driver never shows up the same time any given day. I had to take him to school again yesterday, because she showed up almost twenty minutes late. She was driving up as I was leaving the neighborhood. "Neighborhood... " Don�t get me started on my "neighborhood". Even Mister Rogers would blow a gasket if he had to live here. I�m really in a bad mood. I just want to go back to bed and forget the world today. We met with the real estate agent from Assist2Sell last night. She loved our house. She thinks it�ll sell quickly. After all, what�s not to love? When we built this place, we added lots of upgrades. We�ve made many more upgrades since living here. If I may toot my own horn, we have the nicest house in the neighborhood. Too bad it�s this neighborhood. She said the curb appeal of the subdivision isn�t good. Upon entering our street, you�re immediately face to face with houses whose owners don�t give a rat�s hairy white ass about maintaining their homes. The trouble with these homes and the contractor who built them, is that they�re starter homes. People with bad credit or with very little to offer as a down payment were approved to build a reasonably nice home. As a result, we have people who came straight from broken down trailers out in Bum Fuck Egypt to live here. They scraped together the $3,500 down payment by cashing in their Marlboro points or selling their commemorative "Legends of Bass Fishing" plates. I know this makes me sound horribly snobby, but I�m trying to paint a picture of the typical client that builds with Premium "Don�t let the name fool you" Homes. Don�t get me wrong - we were one of those people, too. We had shitty credit and next to no money for a down. We came here because no one else in their right mind would approve us for a mortgage. But during our stint as homeowners, we took the means necessary to keep a nice, quality home. No one else here seems to do us that courtesy. Realizing that this was our most valuable asset and biggest, if not only, investment, we wanted to insure that it increased in value. Why does no one else here realize that? Is it laziness? Inconsideration? Or just plain stupidity? In our neighborhood we have the following: ~ car trailers parked in driveways ~ car batteries living on driveways ~ weeds a foot tall ~ yards that are either cut too short or not cut at all ~ grass clippings that are never swept ~ lawns that are never trimmed ~ dead or no landscaping ~ trash alongside garages ~ garages so filled with clutter that the door doesn�t close over the debris ~ broken planters and lawn "art" ~ non-operable vehicles parked in driveways or in the street ~ broken shutters ~ broken windows ~ toys, trash and other unidentifiable objects littering the yard ~ broken or unsightly mailboxes These are just a few of the many infractions against the convenants to the subdivision. Convenants that have never once been enforced. People are allowed to keep their properties any way they choose and there are no ramifications, nor consequences. You may be thinking... if people own their home, they have a right to keep it as they see fit. Wrong. Dead wrong. I will likely receive hate mail over this, but I stand by my opinion. When you purchase a home, you�re not only agreeing to make the payments. You�re also entering into another agreement. You have a responsibility to your property, to yourself and to your neighbors. If you don't give a good Goddamn about your own investment, at least be considerate of mine. If you can�t afford a lawn mower or other vital lawn care implements, you have no business owning a home. If you can�t take the time to keep debris and litter from your property, you have no business owning a home. How much effort does it take to bend over and pick up a newspaper from your driveway? Or return your trash cans to the garage after the refuse has been collected? How about picking those weeds growing a foot tall in your driveway? All it takes is bending, grabbing and giving a little tug. Pretend it�s a pull tab on a beer can... Why am I so bitter about this you ask? I�ll tell you. Because of the aforementioned violations that occur in my neighborhood, my home has diminished value. If my home were in a subdivision 200 feet from this one, it would be worth $30 -$35,000 more than its current value. But because it sits surrounded by people only care about whether there�s enough beer in the fridge and when deer hunting season begins... I can�t get what I need for my home. The Realtor was honest with us. She told us we would likely not get the asking price we were hoping to get. We aren�t far off. The figure she gave us is only about $6,000 lower than our "bottom line". What bothers me most is that it�s all due to something beyond our control. If it was because of something we did or didn�t do to our property, I would accept what she said and fix whatever was wrong. But it�s all the doing of a bunch of white trash, mullet-wearing, blue eyeshadowed rednecks who don�t, even when combined, have the cerebral matter of a flea. We plan to send a certified notification to the homeowners association informing them of this Realtor�s findings. Unless they can enforce the covenants and force these people to clean up their properties, we�ll sue them, and each violating homeowner individually for diminished value. If I see any of my wonderful fellow residents today, I�m liable to run them down with my car. Although, it would likely take weeks for anyone to clean the debris from street. 11:06 a.m. - 2003-06-20 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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