Flashback

While we were working with the architect and builder we had the lot surveyed and staked out. We needed to have this done in order to know where the house sat on the property. Most towns have setback requirements where your house has to be so many feet away from property lines and streets. We needed to know where ours were.

We drove by our house the night that the surveyor had been out. As part of the process, the surveyor put stakes in the ground with small strips of orange surveyor tape nailed to the tops. We were surprised when we found that first bound was right next to the neighbor’s driveway. Fully three feet closer than where we thought our line went. But the other property line was even more of a surprise. Along the back of the property was a stand about 50 feet long of over grown forsythias which we thought was our property line. When we drove by, we saw that the property stake was easily ten feet behind the bushes. In the middle of the neighbor’s side yard. Our jaws dropped. We thought oh crap, we’re going to upset our neighbor’s before we even move in. Not believing what we saw, we drove around the block, and yup, the stake was still in the same spot. We drove off thinking this will not be good. Our neighbor’s yard is not where they thought it was. And there stood those stakes with the little orange flags standing their ground like some medieval army ready to go to war.

Great. Our neighbors are going to hate us. And we haven’t even moved in. Wait until they find out we’re going to be digging it all up.