When Chad and I moved in to our new house, we knew we were going to need to replace the fence. It was so old it was rotting - you could see right through to the neighbors. So when we got our tax refund back, we called our trusty landscaper, bought some fence panels, and scheduled the work.
Fine. Done. End of story.
Until I got an email at work from Paige, our landscaper. It said only this, "Ellen, please call your neighbors" - and included a phone number.
Oh, $#&!^. I thought. That is the last thing I want to deal with. Some pesky neighbors sticking their nose in the business of what we are doing on our property. I braced for the worst. And then I had Chad call them. (Yes, I'm spineless that way.)
Turns out our neighbors have a dog, and we're all lucky they were paying attention when they sent Fido out in the middle of the day to go to the bathroom and they had no back fence. (Oops. Ok, should have given them a heads' up about this little project.)
But here's why they were really calling. These neighbors, who we have never met because they live on another street, said they agreed the fence needed to be replaced. And - no questions asked - they wanted to contribute toward the cost. (What?!?!) Chad told them the fence was on our property and we had intended to pay for it ourselves, but they insisted. Fine, he said: if they wanted to chip in a little we would welcome it but it was not required. They asked us to call them back when we got the final bill.
So Chad called today to give them an update on the cost. Because 1/2 of our fence covers their backyard, they reasoned, they would pay us for 1/4 of the cost. In other words, $350 right back into my pocket.
As Robert Frost would say, "Good fences make good neighbors." And in this case, our neighbors are very good indeed.
1 comment:
Wow that is something! Do that on the farm between properties but never heard of it in town. What a blessing to have ended up w/ neighbors like them. Take good care of them.
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