The top photo is my neighbor's new paint job, done today. Hopefully you can see the color of the window frames. If not, look at the second photo, my driveway (which needs a good cleaning). It's the exact same color.

No big deal, except that these are the (only) neighbors who spent two years griping about my driveway! I decided a few years ago to paint my driveway. The builders had had to come back and replace some of the concrete near the street and it wasn't the same color as the original driveway so something had to be done. So I cleaned it, prepped it, and stained it terra cotta. No big deal, except I forgot to get permission from the homeowner's assn. Big oops. We received letters telling us to do something about it, so we'd ask what to do ... no one knew and no one ever knew who the management company was that day and who was on the board at that moment (it changes pretty often!). Finally we were told it had to be an earth tone ... which it is ... and the president of the homeowner's assn. had his professionally stained the exact same color. At that point we gave up and decided to do nothing. Still, the neighbor's across the street would go to the board meetings and complain about it ... no one else, just them, and really they complained about a lot of stuff. I won't even mention the notebook the wife carries around to record "aesthetic's" violations around the neighborhood.

So tonight I'm making dinner and look out the window and see this. I think it's hysterical that them, off all people, are using the "wretched" terra cotta color. I think I'll smile every time I go outside and see their color choice. I wonder if they get the irony of it???

In all fairness to them, they have an incredibly beautiful lawn and, from what I can tell, put a lot of time and energy into having a nice home. I can totally see why they don't want people doing whatever they want whenever they want ... and I can see their initial point about our driveway. But no more!!!