I am building a home in a neighborhood known for its different paint colors. It is supposed to look historical and there are pink and purple Victorians in the neighborhood.

Many months ago, I signed the contract to build a house and picked out all my colors.

There was no house in the neighborhood that color. We picked a sage green siding with cream trim. We also have red brick and brown shakes in the front. We will also have green siding in the front.

We are renting right now and we delayed building because of our lease. We also switched lots to one across the street from the original.

Well, imagine my surprise when I see the house directly across the street from us (our original lot that was not sold UNTIL after we picked our colors) being built and put up the exact same trim and siding as us.

I went to the sales agent in the neighborhood and she assured me the house would look a lot different than ours. She told me it would have a stone front. Then, I see it is only half stone. The other half is even more of the same green at the top and a slightly darker green shake.

The picture is from my soon-to-be backyard looking at the front of the other house.

What can I do? The sales agent bought a house on the next street over. So, we are going to be neighbors. From what I can gather the other house's owners went to the Board to get it approved. Why didn't the Board come to us? By the time I found all this out; everything we could do was locked in. It costs us money to change anything.

The builder is telling me it doesn't look bad. It really grates on me. I can't demand the other people to paint their house. I will do is make enemies with these people.

Also, I am embarrassed since they are further along in building so it looks like WE are the inconsiderate people.

I thought about asking the builder to deduct the cost of repainting our house from the sales price. What do you think we should? I don't have the money to repaint the house now.