Construction In The Neighborhood

It's officially spring and the construction in the neighborhood has definitely started. We noticed a couple weeks ago when out on our walks there were a couple lots that had sold signs. Then we saw a digger sitting on one of the lots, and then nothing. It sat there and sat there. Finally yesterday all the sudden there were a ton of construction trucks going up and down the road. By the end of today, there are four lots that have been dug and ready for new houses to go up. When we started building our house four years ago we were under the impression that by now our phase would be complete. Well, then the housing market took a dump and you know how it is in Michigan. So needless to say our phase of the neighborhood isn't finished. It's been a slow winter for construction around here with not a one house going up. Now it looks like we'll be getting four new neighbors (well more than four depending on how many in each house, but you know what I mean). The construction is spread out a little, all on different streets, however three of the four are in the back of our phase so that means the trucks are going by our house. That also means it's making for early wake up times for my little one's with the noisy trucks passing by. Ugh!

The street we live on is the only way to get in and out of a majority of our phase. So that means it's the only way for the constructions trucks to get in and out. I think I told you that over the winter the plows really messed up our street, especially in front of our house and also a little further down. We had asphalt in our yard and I wasn't happy. I called and complained and because our phase isn't finished they won't put the final top coat on the road so that's why it's so messed up. They did tell me however that they would put a work order in to fix the road this spring and patch the huge holes. Well, I'm thinking that now that this construction has started that probably won't be happening for a long while. Another Ugh!

The fourth house that is being built is in the front of the neighborhood. It's the only vacant lot in our phase that is before our house when coming into the neighborhood. All the other vacant lots for sale are past our house. As we've watched houses go up after ours, we are always anxious to see what color the house is going to be. There's supposed to be a three house rule as far as colors. Take our house for example- it's red so the house across the street, behind us, or next to us within three houses there can't be another house our same color. However we've quickly seen that rule change over the last couple years. I think it's because of the dump in the market and basically the builder just wants the neighborhood completed now so it doesn't matter what the color. A majority of the houses in our phase, are brown, beige, gray & white. There's like four different shades of brown, but still it's brown. While I don't have anything against a brown house or a white house, I just don't get why someone would want to have the same color house (especially when it's the same exact model) as the one across the street from them or next door to them. But people still do it and sorry, but I just think it's blah and boring. So when we see the siding go up on the new builds, it's usually "Oh another brown house, or oh another brown house." Shocker... or NOT! We have seen a couple pops of color with a blue or a sage green house go up so that's been nice. If you remember though we are the ONLY red house in the neighborhood. We kind of like it like that. It's easy to tell people where we live... "It's the red house!" So now that these new houses go up will wait and see what the colors will be. My guess is two browns, a gray, and a white. I'll be very surprised if we see a pop of color, but I'm all for it if there is. However, with this one house going up that's before ours we are keeping our fingers crossed it's not red. We know there's a good chance that it won't be since the red is an upgrade and many don't choose to do the upgrade siding. Hopefully those people that chose that lot feel the same as most. We don't mind sharing the "red house" name as long as it's past our house so we can at least still say, the first red house when giving directions. I'll keep you posted, but if it ends up being a red house, there's going to be a big UGH coming from this house!