Monday, August 04, 2008

A Misadventure in Homeowning


The yellow circle above indicates a hole in our front bow window.
A hole that was caused by a rock.
A rock that was thrown by an angry teenager.

Yes, C & A had a misadventure in homeowning.

Good Lord.

Summary:
  1. C & A come home from the gym to find a swarm of rowdy kids fighting in the neighbors front yard. The boys proceed to move into the other yards, the street, C & A's yard... A tries to break up the fight but this only angers the boys -- who threaten A, C and to "break the house" if we call the cops.
  2. One boy is getting severely roughed up, so C calls the cops.
  3. Cops come. Boys run. Cops can't find anything and leave.
  4. A minute after the cops leave, one rock hits the window. Then another. C calls the cops again. Two more rocks hit the window.
  5. Later, when the cops show up we find out that one of our neighbors was heading to his car to grab something when he saw a boy in our drive getting ready to throw a landscaping brick -- either at our house or car. Yeah, real nice. Thanks to the neighbor for stopping that one. Ugh.
Anyway, there are more details to this story, but all in all, at the end of the night, we were left paranoid and with a broken window. Awesome.

Lesson learned: If you see a situation, quietly go inside and call the cops.

Here is a zoomed out pictures of where the window is broken:


After our misadventure, we decided it was time to take some protective measures with our home sweet home. Thanks to A's Dad, we now have motion-sensored lights...

One behind the garage:


And one on our deck:


Up next: time for a fence... we must protect Barry!

We got our first estimate Saturday and will be talking to a couple of other vendors. Anyone have any good fence advice? I was just talking to my sister, who advised that a 6' privacy fence isn't always a good idea, since it makes it so no one can see who is in your yard, if you are not there. I never would have thought of that.

Oh, the drama.

In other news:

We finally hung some of the art/mirrors that I've been collecting. It's not perfect, there are some holes, but it is looking better, me thinks:

View from the front of the front room:


Blue/brown/white bird is from a thrift shop. $8. The blue matte was tan, and the frame was gold. I spray painted them both. The birds on the sides are from my sister, Christine. Another vintage find.

Another view:



Dining room:


"Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining" print matted on Martha Stewart wrapping paper and in a frame from Michael's. Surrounded by vintage metal frames, spray painted silver.

Another view:


Entry way mirror:


Salvation Army. $25 and some change [ for spray paint :) ]

View from front door:

New mirror over buffet:



Another Salvation Army find. $40 (yes, it is spray painted too).

Also, A and I now know how to hang a 100 lb. mirror if anyone needs lessons. It only took us 2 hours and 2 trips to Home Depot to figure out.

More adventures soon...
C + A