New Home Continues to Build Character

Friday on my lunch break, I wandered around the Home Depot garden center with a glazed look in my eye. I picked out some heavy duty work gloves, but I wasn't sure what kind of little diggy thing to buy for planting flowers. I don't even know what those diggy things are called. I also needed a big clipper thing for cutting back dead branches. Have you ever been to the Home Depot garden department? It's huge! Completely overwhelming.

I appreciate a nice green space. I love a good stroll in the garden or a romp on the grass. I enjoy seeing trees and flowers and nice landscaping. But I'm an "appreciator," not a "doer." I'm nearly as handy with garden tools as I am with regular tools, which is to say, not very handy.

As a teenager I mowed the lawn for the family home. I hated it. I sneezed and sniffled over row after row of grass, only to have my dad tell me what a terrible job I'd done. I wasn't good at edges, apparently, or something. I never quite got it.

What I did very consciously know was that when I grew up and lived on my own, I would NEVER mow a lawn. I would live in apartments and condominiums where that was done for me. For that matter, I looked forward to the time when I would never again lift a snow shovel in winter.

I've completely succeeded. I haven't mowed a lawn since the 1980s and I've only shoveled snow once in my adulthood, and that was to keep my mother from going out and doing it herself because the snow removal guy was late.

Last week, I gazed out the large picture window in my new living room. The shrubs were looking pretty mangy and the weeds were starting to proliferate between the front door and the patio. I wondered when the lawn and garden service would be out to clean it up. Since my house is legally a condo with "common area" upkeep reportedly provided by the homeowners' association, I just assumed this would be taken care of.

As I looked around at neighboring condos, I noticed that the vegetation in front of some looked very tidy and well groomed.

At what point do you suppose the obvious started to dawn on me?

I excel at denial. Plus, I've been busy dealing with the inside of the house, like deciding where to put towel racks in the bathroom (there are none) and what color to paint the bedroom. After about three days of a little thought percolating in the back of my mind, it finally occurred to me that I might be responsible for my own landscaping.

Rage grappled with panic for control over my response to the situation. Rage pooled around the growing list of frustrations with this place and how some of these "little" details should have been but were not disclosed to me before closing. The panic was simpler: I simply didn't have a clue what to do with those half dead bushes out front. Paving them over seemed the best option.

I sought out a friendly neighbor for clarification. I found her seated amongst her own bushes, clipper in hand, pulled weeds littering the sidewalk. I asked her what I already knew.

Turns out that to save money, this very casual and laid back HOA decided a while back to limit the lawn service and for each person to keep up their own little areas themselves. In addition, the snow removal service was eliminated. Everyone just "pitches in" when it snows.

Newly trimmed bushes - there's me in the window
and Charles inside the front door.

Recourse?

I could kick myself black and blue for not asking the right questions, although who could have known all the questions which should have been asked?

I could consult a lawyer and sue someone, which would cost everyone a lot of money and accomplish very little.

Or I could suck it up and deal with it. Hence my lunch time visit to Home Depot.

Early Saturday morning I was outside with some clippers and my new gloves, snapping off the dead parts of a couple scroungy bushes. With satisfaction, I admired my work. It looked a lot better. At least now I don't have to be embarrassed when the neighbors look my way.

I guess I'd better pick up a snow shovel at some point.