Neighborhood Rift Over Green House

While I'm very sorry for the grief it's bringing to my online acquaintance Beth, I am fascinated by her ongoing saga of the petty, pissy, and insane machinations of her homeowners' association. The saga starts here, and Beth is updating as she contacts the neighbors who signed the petition.  She and her husband sprung for a paint job, and were promptly presented with a petition from neighbors. 

We, the residents of . . .  are firmly requesting immediate action to be taken to have the occupants change the exterior color of their home.

We ALL feel this pistachio looking green color:
1.reduces the value of our homes
2.renders the ability to sell our home more difficult
3.extreamly [sic] diminishes the beauty of this neighborhood AND is a sever [sic] eye sore.

We look forward to your response and appropriate action in the next few days.

It's such an alien existence to me.  There's no way I'd survive in a community like that.

Comments

[Rebecca Hedreen]

Here's a humorous version of the homeowners' association problem...
http://www.kevinandkell.com/2005/kk0904.html (and the next few days, too.)

[Beth]

Matthew--lol. We are large enough to do the thong wearing ourselves, but alas, we don't have that much courage. And thanks, Nanette, for the compliments. Someday I'd like to see an electric blue house. Right now, I'd be thrilled to see an electric blue house on my block. It would give the neighbors something new to think about. :)

[Matthew]

I would get really fat friends or hire really fat people to wear thongs and have a barbecue on my front lawn every weekend.

HOA people are frequently petty dictators.

[nanette]

Back in the early/mid 1980s in my hometown (down in the south 'burbs of Chicago), there was an electric blue house. It was NEON electric blue, and it faced the highway that runs past our town. It was pretty hideous, but nobody harassed the owners about repainting it. Even when an annoying morning radio show host made fun of it on his show, nobody griped. It was the only notoriety my town ever got because it's such a little nothing flyspeck of a place.

When they moved out, however, a bunch of people from the neighborhood (including my parents) got together and painted it a more "normal" color. I think they painted it olive green or something. They all figured that the place would just lie vacant because few people would want to buy an electric blue house, and that a vacant house was much more of a liability than an electric blue house.

I wish I had a picture of that place. It really was spectacular.

That said, there's a big difference between the pistachio green of Beth's house (which I really find pretty, and I love the red doors) and an electric blue house. I think her house looks very Floridian and quite nice. I certainly prefer it to boring beige or tan.