Thursday, June 11, 2009

Judgement Day

I have gone back and forth on this post, but I have to get it out.

My neighbor is mosaic-ing the front of her house.  In my head I am plotting how I am going to discreetly get a picture of this because one has to see it to really understand how in depth this mosaic is. But on the other hand, maybe my lone description of it will paint a more creative picture in your head and make my writing about it somewhat less judgemental.  This isn't beautiful Moroccan inspired Alhambra mosaic, but more of I took an after hours class at our local technical school, and sorry if I have decreased the value of all the other houses in the neighborhood mosaic.

It all started about a month ago, in fact, the day that I posted "Blue Skies."  I remember quite clearly seeing Ruth, our neighbor, outside tiling the number 23 above her mailbox; I thought very little of it.  She was simply making a decorative house number.  THEN, some decorative tiles were epoxied around the basement windows- 1x1 burgundy tiles, one of them had a sort of sun designed worked into it.  I started to think, perhaps she had taken a class and thought she would dress up the plain, grey cement foundation of her split-level house.  But it didn't stop there.  Oh no.  Next I noticed that she had started to decorate the chimney, and then to the left of her garage, she mosaiced a tree that has branches that go up and over the garage, with specialty tiles that are leaves and tiny, little three-dimensional terra cotta pots, so she can actually plant things in them.  Now there are checkered flags, and big, white and black 3x3 tiles starting to cover the bottom quarter of her house.  

Ruth is originally from Europe and while I am no expert in exterior European house design, I think this might even be odd there.  I am waiting for HGTV to show up and ask us all, "What's with that house?"   

Even as I write it, I know how catty and petty it must sound, but I am obsessed.  So much so that I have changed the course I drive when leaving and returning home, just so I can see the bizarre progression.  

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