An Inspector Calls...and says the yard looks nice

My neighbor called the city inspector on us.

She gave him a laundry list of things she does not like about how we tend our property, including the clothesline in the backyard and the fact that we trimmed our hedges.

I was not aware that trimming hedges on one's own property is against Virginia Beach City Code. Neither was the Inspector.


Flashback to how it all began:

Now the hedges in question were originally planted on the neighbors' property, but that was twelve years ago. The folks we bought the house from in January were quite obviously not big on yard work, and the hedges had overtaken about six feet of the backyard. We've been trying t omake up for all kinds of former neglect one weekend at a time, and we recently worked around to trimming back teh hedges, uncovering a chunk of the backyard, and getting rid of that lovely swampy smell by making it possible for sunlight to reach the ground.

Neighbor lady rushed out of the house while I was trimming (well, hacking) and made ladylike shrieks of dismay. She also informed me, in case I hadn't noticed, that the hedge was not going to be as thick if I trimmed it.  I thanked her for pointing that out, and said it was a trade Hubbykins and I were willing to make in order to get six feet of usable yard back.  I also pointed out that, should she wish the hedge to be thicker, she could let it overgrow her yard.

After she had gone back in I uncovered a piece of their fence that was about four feet inside our property line. Hmmm.  Hubbykins nicely took the survey next door and explained that the fence post was not on their property, and did they wish to remove it or should he?

Neighbors denied the fencepost was not on their property and shut the door in Hubbykins' face. Being a legal-minded sort, he left the survey in their mailbox and cut the post down himself.



So today neighbor lady decided to make us pay. She even skulked immediately on the other side of the hedges in dispute while I loudly showed Hubbykins the Inspector's report.  He thought everything looked very nice, thank you, and apologized for bothering us. However, the report informed us, he is duty-bound to follow up on all complaints, no matter how "spurious, petty and ridiculous" they end up being.

I almost feel sorry for her. It was such a brilliantly passive-aggressive little plot, and it fell so flat in the end. When one has so little to occupy one's mind as she apparently has, that must be a real let-down.

heh heh heh...now I must go hang laundry on my certified legal clothesline...