Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Once we'd decided we liked the new house just below ours—the one that had sprung up so
quickly and unexpectedly a few months earlier—we were anxious to meet its owners.
But they never seemed to be around.
Ever.
For two years we watched and waited. The one and only time we spotted the owner's
brother (aka Hal, the contractor) working in the yard, we walked down and introduced
ourselves. We asked what shade of yellow he'd used for the exterior of the house (I wanted
to paint one of our downstairs bedrooms the same color). He gave us the information and
that was that.
Then one day, a few months later, I ran into Hal again and he announced that our yard
was tumbling down not-so-slowly into his sister's property. The rickety chain-link fence di-
viding our land had essentially given up the ghost. I was listening, but barely.
“This is kind of serious,” he said, in an understated New England way.
“I'm sure.”
“And it could be expensive.”
“What's not?”
“This could undermine the foundation of your house,” he went on.
That got my attention.
“Did you say
undermine
?”
“Yes.”
“As in, our house could fall down?”
“Eventually.”
Hmm. I thought fast.
“Do you think your sister would be interested in sharing the cost of the wall?”
“Possibly,” he responded. “Let me give you her number.”
Later that morning I filled Michael in on my conversation with Hal.
“I'm not surprised,” he commented. “I've been talking about our erosion problem for
months.”
“You have?”
“Yes, for months. You were probably too busy obsessing about your new armoire to pay
attention.”
He really had a grudge against that armoire.
In any case, we decided to call Hal's sister, Corinne, once we got back to D.C., but she
beat us to the punch by appearing on our doorstep a few days later.
“Your brother didn't tell us you were in Vieques,” I remarked.
“He's very discreet.”
“No kidding.”
As usual, Michael cut right to the chase.
“So what do you think about sharing the cost of a wall?”
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