The Neighbourhood Old-Timers : The Point, Already!

O.K., I bored you with background information. But
I had an ulterior motive : when I bitch about my neighbours
in the future, you won't tell me I'm being too hard on
them.

So. . . we moved in. We fixed up the house. We ran out
of money. Anyone out there who has managed to
buy their first house probably knows what I'm
talking about. For every expense you plan, there
are 3 hidden ones.

Anyway, we finally got the outside of the house looking
pretty good. We replaced all the rotted siding and painted
the whole thing. The last thing to paint were the (fake)
window shutters. I took them down; we painted them.
The next day, when they were dry, I got up on the ladder
and screwed the shutters back onto the house. The final
"exterior" touch - for now, anyway. And a long way back
from where this house had been.

And I kid you not : as I was coming down off the ladder,
the guy across the street walked out into his front yard
and put up a "FOR SALE" sign. He smiled and waved at
me.

Within four months, all three houses across from us sold.
Apparently they couldn't sell when the view across from
them was an unkempt property. This one had been
deteriorating for nine years, but most seriously in the
previous year. But no more. On the plus side, they
all sold for substantially more than we paid, dragging
our value up with theirs. Taxes, too, though :(

Our quiet "directly across" neighbours all moved. Who moved in?
Oh, boy . . .