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12:13 p.m. - 2002-05-19
The Dead Bat House
Simon sent me email a day or so ago that said: "I vote for the dead bat house!"

We are starting, very cautiously, to vote for it, too.

At first we were inclined to write it off. It's within a few blocks of the railroad, it has a view of the interstate (though it isn't right in the backyard), and we weren't sure of the neighborhood, because there are projects a few streets away. Bruce said he absolutely didn't want to live near a railroad. And when I went back to look at it again on Friday I noticed that not only is there a dead bat under the eaves of the porch, but there's a dead bird wedged under the eaves of the back shed.

So we tried to put the bat house out of our heads.

It kept coming back into our heads. We just couldn't quite walk away. It's just so....intriguing. We finally decided that we'd just check it out a little further, you know, just a little flirtation. Not seriously you understand.

When we drove around the houses on that street looked beautifully kept up, the surrounding streets looked good, too, and we noticed a number of people who had funky bumperstickers like "Love Your Mother" with a picture of the earth, and "Gore 2000" and "Celebrate Diversity" (this on a car parked in front of a house with a rainbow windsock and a porch full of unusual plants in old McCoy pots - I want to meet those people!).

We started asking all our friends about it.

Miss Beth was skeptical. "I think it's near a liquor store!" she said, her face marked with concern. "Oooooh, Ruthie, there might be people playing loud music in the parking lot!"

Miss Cheryl was hopeful. "Man, I know that house! It's the haint blue house!*** That could be the coolest house! I don't know anything about the neighborhood, but I love that house!"

Yesterday morning we couldn't stand it any longer and caved in. We went over to see what the neighborhood was like on a Saturday. As we were driving down the street we noticed some neighbors talking, a man working in his outrageous garden, some kids on bikes. Bruce didn't want to stop (for such a big guy he can be awfully shy) but I forced him to pull over so I could buttonhole the neighbors. I was braced for a chilly or at least weird reception, but instead Gail, the woman I approached, instantly started beaming.

"Do we like this neighborhood? We LOVE this neighborhood!! I want to be here for the rest of my life!! I used to live around the corner for years, and when we decided to buy a house this was the only place I wanted to look!"

As though this were not enough of a testimony, another neighbor, a small man named Steve has wandered over.

"Yeah!" he beams, really excited. "I'm here for 30 years!! Until I retire!! Oh, it's a great neighborhood!!"

What about the projects, the railroad, the liquor store?

"What liquor store?" asks Gail. "I think you friend is confused."

"You get used to the railroad." says Steve. "It's not close enough that it sounds like it's coming through your house, and it doesn't come through that often. We don't really notice it."

"The only crime we've had is someone broke into my car a few years ago, but otherwise there's been no crime, no house breaks. It's really quiet. The housing project is for the elderly so they don't bother us. There's a canal in between them and us anyway, so people can't just idly wander through."

They then proceed to show us the other two houses on the street that might be coming up for sale soon, and Steve tells Bruce all about the other neighbors while Gail tells me a little more about the bat house. It was evidently a rental house for years with uncaring absentee owners. She said when she first moved into the neighborhood, years ago, it was beautiful. She really wants it to be beautiful again.

And then they tell us the most interesting part.

Evidently there is a movement to get historic district status for Grove street, the street the bat house is on. There has been some preliminary work done and it appears there are enough "historic" (bear in mind "historic" in the South means older than 1920) houses on the street that it could qualify. If this went through, the value of the houses would jump and it would be considered a very desirable neighborhood.

It also means I couldn't paint the house purple, so anything weird we want to do to the exterior of the house would have to be done before this zoning went into effect. We probably have a year or so before it would happen.

I can't get over it. They were two of the nicest people I had ever met, and they were really enthusiastic about the street. It really made me want to live there.

Bruce and I spent the afternoon in Nashville, at the Frist museum, and the whole time we were looking at Postmodern paintings, and Faberge eggs and some really killer Indian miniature paintings we kept talking about what this would all entail. It's overwhelming! The house is not a rehab, it's not a restoration, it's a full scale resurrection. It would mean dealing with contractors and FHA rehab mortgages and living here at Wells Ave for probably six months while they redid the exterior and put in new electricity and a new roof and probably new plumbing and probably new everything else....

Overwhelming! I'm going to call David tomorrow, and see if we can look at the inside.

***Haint Blue is a colour you won't find on the Munsell Colour Scale. It's a Southern term for a sort of cerulean/cobaltish sort of blue which is supposed to repel "Haints" (spirits). It's a Voudoun thing, and they are very serious about it, which is why you see lots of houses down here with blue bottles in all the windows. People pay high prices in junk stores here for old Milk of Magnesia bottles. There's also lots of haint blue porch furniture.


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