Tall fences make great neighbors

If good fences make good neighbors, then these builders need to erect a fence high enough to blot out the sun.

Royal Oak has an ordinance stating when construction work on a house can commence. The ordinance says work can start at 7 a.m. weekdays, 8 a.m. Saturdays and 10 a.m. Sundays.

On Mother’s Day, work started on this oversize house, which is two doors west of our home, at 7:10 a.m. That was the time the electric saw cranked up and it stayed that way until 8:35 a.m.  After that, the workers took off in a car and didn't return for the rest of the day

Which leads me to the whodunit part of the program. I’m not going to go ask the construction workers about this because I don’t want a drill bit up my nose. (This is where women have it all over men. If I go tell them to quiet down, it’s open season on me. If, as Suzy did, goes and tells them to quiet down, they aren't

 going to lay a glove on her).

Anyway, take a good look at the picture. You don’t see a generator. This picture was taken while the workers were still there. You can see them on the roof.

 So what was the electric saw connected to?

Our neighbors immediately west of us had the answer. They came home one day and found that, without their permission “someone” had plugged into the utility outlet on their garage. After unplugging the cord, they taped the outlet to register their displeasure.

Then, Monday morning, the landlord of the house came over at the behest of his tenants who thought their troubles were over after taping the outlet. It seems they had called the landlord because the air conditioning wasn't working.

On closer examination of the outside air conditioning unit, the landlord found that “someone” had plugged into the air unit and when they were through, had failed to reassemble the unit correctly.

Nice, eh? After another round of complaining, a generator finally appeared on the site.

From time to time, a few of our neighbors, including us, gather on the sidewalk and grumble about this new construction. We think it’s way too big for the lot and isn't going to fit in with the rest of our homes, design wise. Oh – I think it’s safe to assume that our house and our neighbors’ houses were purchased for under $200,000.

The new house is going to be put on the market for more than $500,000.

I hope the eventual owners of this new house have a $200,000 attitude, to match the neighborhood. No one is looking forward to the potential of having someone move in with a $500,000 attitude.

Then again, that’s what fences are for.