So now with my 4 yr old in kindergarten all day, and my 3 yr old in nursery a few mornings a week, I have time to be annoyed by the truly petty things in life. I'm reminded of these things on the daily drive to drop my kids off at school.
First of all, I pass by several houses - we live in a pretty new subdivision (2 yrs) and the surrounding neighbourhoods aren't much older. I know for a fact that the builder of these houses originally paints them fairly neutral colours - yet I'm greeted each day by houses like this:
Who thinks this is a good colour for your garage and front door?
Let me tell you right now - it is not.
These colours are appropriate for tropical fish, children's toys and assorted bubble gum balls. They are not good paint choices for your home. Do these people really dislike their neighbours so much that they would resort to dropping the property value by painting their garage doors such hideous colours?
Before anyone comments that THEY have a lovely hot pink garage door, let me just tell you that even if you think it's pretty - it's not, and chances are your neighbours whisper and laugh behind your back at the moron who painted their garage door that colour. These are not the worst examples either. One of the people in our subdivision have used TWO ugly colours on their garage door. Peach and Teal - I kid you not. I'd take a picture, but quite frankly, it might break my camera, it's that hideous.
Now after dropping my kids off at school, I have to hit the local Tim Hortons to pick up a coffee for my husband - this is a decent thing to do if he's taken it upon himself to watch the baby while I take the older boys to school. The line-up at the drivethrough irritates me though - simply because there's always one yokel who leaves a huge gap between himself and the car in front of him, thus preventing anyone else from advancing into the drivethrough lane and buggering up the parking lot.
I'm positive that this is the same guy who would otherwise be kissing my bumper if I was on the highway - they just can't seem to get the right distance between vehicles in any given situation. I call it vehicular retardation.
In any case these are petty things, I know - but they are daily irritants none the less, and I feel better having shared them with you.
I can now go about my daily grind.
13 comments:
BLECH.. Those are UUUUUGLY! I'm sure some will be cropping up in our neighbourhood soon too :P. Fortunately for us the real estate agents who were selling this development were quick to point out that we could get insulated vinyl doors for only a $200 upgrade (which of course was within the 3K upgrade that came with the house ha ha ha) so many of my neighbours and myself have plain white garage doors that will never need painting.... Course for those who think white vinyl is ugly, this neighbourhood with white vinyl garage doors and white vinyl fences must make them just CRINGE!
Oh well.....Can't please everyone I guess
Hugs
Julie
Wow, those are hideous!
I remember when I was growing up, there was this house down the street from us that was constantly changing paint colours.
Seriously, they painted the entire house hot pink. And the garage door was (again I'm telling no tale here) electric blue! Eeegads that was hideous.
Then about a month later they painted the house again. Light blue (in an electric form. I swear it was like a neon light blue), and the garage was maroon. They couldn't get it right.
The last I heard, those people moved. While I know there were more colors, those are the two that stick out in my brain.
Like a sore thumb.
lol
-Jes
That looks pretty nasty.
Feels pretty good to complain about what bothers you doesn't it?
Have a great weekend!
I guess my bright yellow doors were an eyesore for years before we changed them to a peaceful dark green. We kept the yellow for years because that was what the builder put on our model home so we figured it was the best...'til we went to green and now we love it.
LYM
ARGH! Over here I see whole houses painted purple with green woodwork...WHY?!? When you think of how much it costs to redo the outside of your house why would you choose the most hideous combination? Why pink? NO-ONE likes pink, it has to be solely to make your neighbours mad.
Isn't it great to have time to get mad about other peoples lives? Fabulous!
Ack!! that blue was seriously causing some eye damage here!!
I am in the market for new garage door and shutter colours. Neither of those are on my list.
Care to help me choose :)
~Lisa~
The pink one looks like it has a for sale sign in front of it. ;) I wonder if it will sell that color.
I do enjoy a nice pink t shirt, but not a pink house.
And the blue one looks even worse to me. Yuck.
That blue/purple one looks unreal. Like you have changed the color in photoshop or something. I know you wouldn't do that, Jenn, but it doesn't look real - I couldn't believe somebody would actually choose that color for their house!!
I loved reading your moan.
More, please.
Oh boy, that whole thing just smacked of 'Mr. Happy'!!!
Do those things bother you Jenn?
Me too....
A (APRILSHANE)
ghoolie - No you can't please everyone - however, I would take white ANY day over some of these colour crimes. As a designer, I can tell you that I cringe when I see bad colour choices. No colour choice at all suits me just fine.
Jessica - when people like that move did you know the neighbours all do a little jig as the moving van disappears down the street?
Mr. Happy Yes, it feels great. I now know how cathartic it is. No wonder your name is Mr. Happy. I thank you from the bottom of my annoyed little soul for inspiring me to vent the petty things in life.
marilyn OK, mom, I know you bought that house in 1964, and yellow was perfectly acceptable back then. I will admit that it was easy to give directions to people over the years (just look for the yellow house) and in all honesty, yellow wasn't really that bad with the grey brick and the brown trim.....ok it wasn't great - Thankyou for going green.
The other me Pink is evil. Shame really, as my boys look fabulous in pink, and Duncan would like me to paint his room pink. Really though, that kind of cheekyness should be saved for the inside of the home - nobody wants to look at a pink house. I personally hate pink, and only buy pink things for my boys who love it so......
mamatink I apologise to your retinas - I should have put a warning in first. I suggest a colour that doesn't make your eyes bleed. The "non"colours are usually safe (Black, white, beige, cream) depending on what the rest of your place looks like. And if you are in a semi; please talk to the other half of the semi, so that you can have the same colour, or at least fairly close. Thats another one of my peeves (I'm saving that for future blogs.....)
Julie the pink one IS for sale. Sadly, it's been on the market for quite some time. One can only imagine the colour choices inside. Shame really, as it's so easy to change, yet people's first impressions will decide for them.
Hannah *admission time* the blue one was amplified slightly - The full hideousness just did not translate well in picture form. Trust me - it's horrid in real life, although I may have gone a tad overboard in an effort to get my point across. Please Forgive me.
April I will take that as a compliment :) Nice to know I'm not alone in being annoyed by petty grievances.
Rich and I are just dying while I read your blog to him...the neighbors have just painted their home "smurf" blue to get it "ready to sell"....every time I see it the smurf song comes to mind.
Now at least I know I am not alone in this world full of tacky people.
Hee hee, that's an ugly garage.
My parents' house is salmon pink though, with peach and teal accents in the interior. So I've grown accustomes to the effect. (It was that way when they moved in.)
However, when my out-of-town brother visits, he always valiantly tries to give a subtle hint that maybe, just maybe it's time to PAINT THE HOUSE. :)
Jennifer - Glad to provide some amusement. Smurf blue sounds hideous. It will take a while to sell, and will subtract thousands from their asking price. First impressions should be positive, not reminiscent of an 80's cartoon!
My condolences that you have to look at it until a normal person buys it and repaints it.
Spider girl - We were never subtle with my parents and their bright yellow house. We told them flat out - "It's ugly - paint it a different colour!" and it worked - it's now a lovely forest green. But they waited until we'd all grown up and moved out....I lived in a lemon yellow house for 25+ years!
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