Don't Fence Me In. . .

As we watched the painters starting the second week of our three-day fence painting project, one of my favorite neighbors asked, 'Will you ever live here full time?'

'This probably isn't the best time to ask that question,' I responded.

Not this year!

This is a story about a fence. Our fence. In America.

And it is about life in Greece and America. . .life in two very different worlds. 

American world

 

We are expats, living most of the year in Greece and a bit of the year in America. 

Agios Nikolaos

In many ways our two worlds, Agios Nikolaos in Greece's Mani Peninsula and Manson, on the shores of Lake Chelan in central Washington State, are similar. Both are popular tourist destinations. So popular that many who've visited now want longer stays, and as a result both areas are experiencing a housing construction boom that is covering once lush agricultural areas with mega-mansion sized homes.  

Manson 

In each of our world's a small village serves as the centerpiece.  Both tiny towns have short main streets lined with mom-and-pop shops. Each place is populated with many kind, wonderful people who welcome us back each time we travel between the two.

In Greece 

We live at the edge of our olive grove. Our place is reached by traveling a narrow, paved track road. 

The road home in Greece

Life in this world is an independent one. We plant gardens, tend olive groves and go about daily life pretty much as we choose. 

Sometimes we don't see our neighbors for days on end. Some are part-timers, others of us travel, so we do keep an eye out for each other in 'the hood'. When something seems amiss while the owner is away, we let them know.  And, if necessary, do a stop gap fix until they can return and address it.

Jackals are the menace in Greece

The neighborhood menaces are wild boar and jackal that roam the hillsides; the latter terrorizing small animals and in the case of the boars, destroying gardens and groves.

We've often compared our present-day Greek life to the one we lived in mid-century America when 'being neighborly' meant caring for and looking out after each other.

In America

Our home sits among 100+ others in a uniformly trimmed, gated community.  A gated community where security is high - a selling point for a long-distance owner such as us. Our neighbors are a mix of Americans, some retired, some still working. 

Road home in America

 

Here independent thought and preferences give way to the rules of the Homeowners Association, or HOA. A five-member board, elected from among the neighbors, is tasked with making and enforcing rules governing life within the development. 

My yard with approved plants

Such rules and regulations range from how long your garage door can be open to what you plant in your front yard and the time outdoor Christmas lights must be turned off each night as well as the length of time holiday decorations can be displayed.

Aside from an occasional cougar passing through we had thought this neighborhood was free of menaces. That was until this year when we became the target of the real neighborhood menace: the roaming 'concerned neighbor'. 

Gladys Kravitz a concerned neighbor from 'Bewitched'

Roaming the roads with camera in hand, the 'concerned neighbor' looks for violations of homeowner rules and reports those to the board. It seems the individual is a real-life Gladys Kravitz, the iconic nosy neighbor introduced to the world in American television's 'Bewitched'. 

Only here Gladys and her actions aren't funny. They can result in real damage to the homeowner because the HOA receives her reports and notifies the targeted homeowner of said infraction. A second report results in a fine.  Fines get increasingly substantial and could result in having a lien on your property.  

Don't Fence Me In . . .

For the past six years our annual sojourns back to Manson have been a pleasant mix of small home improvement projects and socializing with longtime friends and family. This year we returned with a 'to do' list that included a major fence re-staining project. 

Tom Sawyer and his fence

Made up of cedar slats and stretching 200 feet it encloses our lawn and flower gardens. Its solid stain was in need of touch up.

We'd secured a painter months ago -- while still in Greece -- and had the three-day project set to launch two days after our arrival.

Fence staining now in its third week - 

It would have gone according to plan had it not been for 'Gladys' and the HOA board.  

 

HOA Hell-abaloo*

*Hullabaloo means a commotion or fuss, and when combined with homeowner hell, it becomes 'hell-abaloo'. It is how I describe this visit to America.

Our three-day project became a three-week project. We've put stain on and taken stain off at the direction of the HOA.  (We were replacing the original solid stain but that isn't allowed! No siree! Only translucent stain can be used no matter the original color put on by the builder.) The price of the project has doubled.  

The painters - with help from us - finally got the fence finished within days of our return to Greece.

Beware - the coiled garden hose!

But this tumble into HOA Hellabaloo, has opened our eyes to the world of the American HOA. 

While we've become wiser, we've learned we aren't alone in this haphazard world of rule enforcement. Others living in (or who've moved out of) HOA's have shared horror stories galore. Among their horror stories:  

* In Arizona a friend who'd had three flowerpots in her front yard for six years was notified that one had to go. 

* Two people have been fined by different HOA's for leaving a garden hose visible in the front yard.  

* In a nearby development, homeowners had to cut down decade old trees planted long before the development was built, when a neighbor deemed them too high.  

* One resident had to repaint a new home being constructed in an HOA development after its board determined it a not an acceptable color.  

* Others have been cited for the bushes they plant - some for simply moving existing bushes into new locations in the flower bed.

The American Experience

Overall, this initiation into the HOA world has overshadowed all activities planned for our time in America. Any outing for anything other than 'the fence' was considered a mental health break - lunch with friends, a coffee, a trip to a nearby winery, a get-together with neighbors all provided short and much needed breaks from HOA life.  

Our painter hung in there

On the bright side our painter stayed with us. I might have walked off this job on its third day.  I hugged him goodbye when the project was completed.  He and his son are among the good guys. 

Shadow my 'therapy cat'

The folks at the hardware store recognize us on sight. They call us the HOA People. They have bent over backward to help us through the project. And they have a 16-year-old store cat, Shadow, who became my 'therapy cat'.

And we've gotten to know our immediate neighbors much better, and all are kind, caring people.  They have rallied and offered words of cheer and shared in our frustrations. Several offered to help sand and stain as they watched the project go into week three and the dollar signs mount. 

Perhaps the best thing is that we found 'neighborly' still exists here as well -- at least among those that we are lucky enough to have living near us. We now have a cadre of friends watching our place - Gladys has been outnumbered by the good guys. 

It has been an expat learning experience for us. Usually those of us choosing to live in a new culture have to focus on adapting to their new world.  As we've learned this month, the old world might require more adaption skills than does the new one.  

A foot in two worlds isn't as simple as it sounds. 

The Stone House on the Hill

It has definitely been a journey! Next time I write I am hoping to do so from The Stone House on the Hill in Greece!  Thanks for being with us as another chapter of expat life has unfolded.  Safe travels to you and yours~