I kid you not... I couldn't believe it myself... But this happened. I still don't quite know what to say or do.
When I was looking at buying my house, I ran into the previous homeowners on multiple occasions and they were very nice people. To say I had a pleasant buying experience would be an understatement... The wife asked me over before the closing to run through the house, show me the tricky items (did you know that a GFCI switch in the bathroom could turn off the garage outlets? Who knew!), decide which curtains would stay or go, whether I wanted them to leave hooks in place or have them removed... It was craziness, I tell you. Not that I minded - it would've taken me quite a while to find the little hidden door that turns on my fireplace and never would have known that by flipping my light switches off and on I could end up with motion sensor lights instead of normal on/off floods.
Anyway - I digress. Throughout this introduction process, the previous homeowners were also very kind in introducing me to the neighbors and making sure I had everyone's information, contact info, and general descriptions so I could "feel right at home right away." Every time I saw them, they regaled me with "the neighbors here are so nice" ... "this really has an 'old neighborhood type of feel" ... and "I hope you like to get to know your neighbors!"
I walked into it expecting, sure... We'll wave when we see each other outside, stop and chat when I'm walking the dogs and they're mowing the lawn, and maybe have a neighborhood barbecue or two to just keep tabs.
Boy was I wrong... These neighbors hang out in their driveways on Sundays, stop by every time they see you outside just to see what's going on, offer up power tools/hand tools/frosty beverages/company anytime they see me (or more often Andrew, my resident lawn-boy) working outside, and take pride in making sure you feel right at home stopping by unannounced or asking for help when it is needed.
But this one took the cake: I will admit, my lawn got a little out of hand when Andrew went home for vacation. He was gone for a little under two weeks and we got a lot of rain. I almost mowed the grass, but then I thought ... nah ... he'll be home in two days. Little did I realize that this decision would take a normal afternoon task and turn it into a four day long recovery process to try and get the grass back within the confines of the surrounding concrete.
On Monday while Andrew was struggling with the lawn edger (yes, for those from CO - edger, not trimmer/weed whacker/what have you - this sucker is a lawnmower turn sideways and used to hack the horizontally growing weed-grass that they call lawns down here into submission), one of my neighbors came by and said he had a larger, likely more powerful, gas powered edger that he would be happy to lend us. We gratefully thanked him and he said he'd bring it by if he could get it back up and running. We continued to work until dusk fell and decided sharp blades and dark didn't mix and called it a night. The neighbor hadn't come back so I just assumed he hadn't been able to get it running and we'd gone in before he could come by and let us know.
Yesterday I came home to prep for the next round of lawn attacking... I gathered up my materials and was about to head outside to cut down a dead bush when Andrew walked in and said, "when was Kevin [friendly neighbor with the gas powered edger] here?"
Here? I'm sorry, I just walked in and he definitely hasn't been here... Whatever are you talking about?
"You mean you didn't notice? Dude - go look outside again."
No joke - my neighbor had come by, apparently while I was at work, and edged my ENTIRE FRONT YARD for me! Most would look at that and say, "but Erin ... how much can that be?" I live on a corner lot... And after spending over an hour going along and cleaning up the trimmings from his generous edging job - that is a LOT of edge to go around. He did my entry walkway, my driveway, both sides of the sidewalk along the front and side of the house, and along the street as well! I have no idea how long it must've taken, but I owe that man some cookies or something.
Seriously... these neighbors make owning a house easy. :)
