Once Crossed

I’m a nice person. Friendly, helpful, caring – I have those attributes. Once crossed, however, the personality my mother nicknamed “Pepper Pot” takes over and all bets are off.

We are making plans to enhance our outdoor space at home with an expanded patio, a fire feature, and a spa. Talking Rock has certain design restrictions having to do with square footage and height of any improvements, to which we are adhering. Having a spa on our lot on the golf course is subject to approval by Harvard Investments, the developer of our community. At their request it’s been designed so that the portable spa will be in a sunken area with added landscaping to obscure it from view from the golf course. It will have a locking cover that meets industry safety standards.

Spa will be obscured by landscaping on the east (left) edge
of the back of the house, away from the "bad " neighbors.

To bolster our case for developer sign off, we were encouraged to obtain written approval of our plan from our two neighbors. Our good neighbors and friends to the east have already provided a letter. Heck, they may spend as much time on our patio and in our hot tub as we will – and they are welcome. The neighbors to the west; well, that’s another story.

Our bad neighbors (who come here rarely for brief visits) are objecting to our patio expansion on the grounds that it will impinge on their privacy.  To my amazement, they are also objecting to our spa, which they won’t even be able to see from their back patio. They think it’s “inappropriate”. It has been made clear that they feel there is no room for compromise.

Although neighbor approval wasn’t a requirement, now that we’ve asked and gotten a negative response we have an issue with Harvard. OK, neighbors.

Now I am challenged to make a case that overrides our neighbors concerns. The time has come to dust off my corporate executive hat, gather data, apply irrefutable logic, and go toe-to-toe to fight for what we want.

Here’s the plan:

> Complete the detailed design that shows property lines and distance from the neighbors’ homes.

> Take photos showing the sight lines from and to the neighbors, showing that their view is unaffected.

> Provide documentation on the decibel levels of the spa when the jets are in operation, and when it is in standby mode.

> Measure the distance from the neighbors patio to the spa area and calculate the decibel levels of the spa dissipated over that distance.

> Use a sound meter to measure current ambient noise levels in our backyards.

> Compare converted decibel levels to measured common ambient noise. Here that includes birds chirping, wind blowing, casual conversation, and golf carts driving by.

> Put together a presentation with all the data and obtain approval.

Game on.

Sincerely,

Pepper Pot

The Allure of Home Improvement

It was love at first sight three years ago when we toured the home we subsequently purchased in Talking Rock Ranch in Prescott, AZ. The layout, the finishings and fixtures, the view - everything was to our taste, and we could easily visualize living here.

Of course, when you live in a home for a while, you start to think about what you could do to make it even better - more your own. Now we have two projects in mind that we think would be welcome enhancements to our lifestyle.

Yesterday we met with a designer/landscaper/builder who has done a lot of work in our community. We stood on the back patio and discussed our vision for an expanded entertainment space, with more seating, a fire feature, and a hot tub. There are limitations on what we can do, because of Talking Rock design standards, but we believe that we can easily work within those guidelines. We are about to sign a contract and begin the planning and approval process. Hopefully we will be able to enjoy the results during the height of the golf and social season here.

On the interior of the house, we would like to reconfigure the entertainment wall. The space for the TV and audio components needs to be a little larger. The fireplace mantel could be extended across the entire wall. We'd like to add art niches and accent lighting. This project will probably be deferred to 2014, but we wanted to plant the seeds of thought in our contractor's head. He's a creative guy.

Home design project planning has been greatly enhanced in recent years by technology. We were shown lifelike, animated, computer-generated renderings of patio projects with crackling fireplaces, plants waving in the breeze, and actual backdrops of the client's view to add realism. You can even see a daytime versus nighttime view. It's so much easier to imagine the end product of your investment with these models. Amazing stuff.

Sample from Houzz.com

We were also encouraged to create an account on Houzz.com, which describes itself as "A collaborative platform for home remodeling and design, bringing homeowners and home professionals together in a uniquely visual community." After creating an account, we can build a folder of ideas that appeal to us, and share them with our contractor. This will help him get a feeling for our design aesthetic, and may spark ideas for features that will work in our plan.

This is the fun part - the dreaming and design. The reality of digging, dust, noise, invasion of privacy during construction, and writing checks will be the not fun part. But I'm sure the results will be well worth it.