Haahahahaa! Karen this is SO funny. I'm bursting into laughter reading these posts again, and remembering writing and reading them at the time. Well done! And my favourite part about Martha Stewart dropping in with her dish towel parachute!!! WAY too funny!

After wanting my own home for many years while married and after my divorce, I bought a small house with a big blank canvas landscape so I could garden my heart out. It was close to a college for my son and the price was in my range. This was 2006 when home prices were sky high so I felt lucky to be able to find a house close to my job. There was a car repair shop next store and I wasn't fond of that but everything else fit my needs. I do a lot of gardening in a cottage style and fixed the place up as best I could with a limited budget. But I've replaced the roof, the front porch, the oil tank and had some electrical work done.The house next door is owned by a couple that have done no maintenance whatsoever. Its a cedar shingle house that has peeling trim paint broken gutters and over the years - outdoor cats who are in my yard more than their own. They poop in my garden and my indoor cat got fleas last summer. Now I have to treat him every month. When he mows the lawn which isn't frequent and has more weeds than grass, he will leave tall tufts near his steps because he can't get his mower close by. The driveway is dirt and the back deck which houses a variety of junk is greyed and rotting is visible from my side. Not to mention that because I don't like being unneighborly and felt bad because they are limited people through no fault of their own, I would talk to them when they would see me outside. It got to a point where every time I was outside in my garden which is every day in summer, he would come over to chew my ear off. I never had peace. I would sneak outside through the back door and work on the back yard so they wouldn't see me. The wife, my son believes, is autistic because she talks about subjects in a loop style. Suddenly one day the neighbor and his car disappeared for several days. It turns out he was arrested for following two young girls in different parts of town! I started doing some research on him and he's been arrested several times for drinking and driving and alcohol related violations! Needless to say, I avoid him like the plague now. I got my hopes up when they foreclosed on their home and were attempting a short sale. But the bank couldn't sell it because the house is in such disrepair. They managed to refinance somehow....and are now staying.

I really didn't want to derail this thread with controversy early on, but since it's already Sunday.... I get it - in today's culture, this would never fly, but taken in the context of its time, I still think it's worthy of a mention in this category.

I started Part II I'm getting ready for company on Sunday, and so I've been a bit preoccupied. Link to Part II