Men at Work in Mrs. Yaye's Neighborhood

I am so annoyed. The family that owned our house before us lived in it for 16 years. During that time, they opted to sell off a piece of land on which my neighbors to the left (if you're standing in front of my house) reside. Okay, that happened a long time ago, I don't mind. Here's the rub...

When my husband and I first saw our home it had this huge, wide open side yard (on the right side) which abutted a deep thicket of trees. We loved this. After apartment dwelling for years, it was an amazing dream come true to find so much privacy and space. The sellers assured us that the owner of the tree thicket didn't mind the land being used by owners of this house (after all they had been using it for 16 years!), and that, barring an Act of God, we could count on those trees staying there forever.

We closed on this house in January 2003. By July 2003, the lovely thicket of trees had been sold to a real estate developer. Needless to say, the trees were all slaughtered and a two-story colonial set high on the hill was built. For our dogs as much as a need for privacy, we ended up building a 6-foot fence on the border of our properties. It's one of those situations that you just have to learn to live with, but you still feel a resounding sting about it from time to time.

Well something much worse is now happening just two doors down. A 7-acre plot of virgin woods has been flattened and a developer is currently building 14 homes there. That's a whole new neighborhood being built!

And the wooded area at the back of our property is directly connected to the plot being developed - so we can surely look forward to the better part of 14 more families accessing the woods. The potential for tweenage mayhem in our peaceful little woodland is verging on inevitable.

Just to rub a little salt in the wound, the sign pictured above was plonked down in front of my house today. I am so annoyed!!