Also, my dad started to finish the balcony on the first floor, planning a decent brick addition. During his lifetime, he occasionally completed something, but he had little strength, and it was only after his passing and moving with his husband and children to his apartment, our family took up the idea of rebuilding the balcony again. The old structure was already literally falling apart, so it was decided to tear down Dad’s attempts and build anew. For this case, the husband hired a builder to help with the calculations, and with the construction itself. We worked on weekends, slowly but surely building out and finishing the balcony in time for winter.
While the balcony stood as a brick misunderstanding while it was being built, none of the neighbors cared, my father had gotten a building permit in his day. Once the balcony was finished, I talked my husband into covering it with beige siding, which still more or less matched the brick color of our house. We were delighted, so were the neighbors in our driveway.
But our peace of mind and happiness did not last long – not even a week after the completion of construction, as someone drew graffiti on the balcony. It was so the grief and trouble, and still women neighbors attacked, they say, it spoils the view of the whole house, we need to do something urgently.
Barely peeled paint, just exhaled, and a week later again the same thing – the unknown words and symbols on our balcony. And again, the neighbors are swearing that we have their balcony to shame them.
This time the siding was badly damaged, we had to paint over it. But my husband moved the car from the parking lot to our windows so the DVR could film who was defacing our property and why. The quality was lousy, but it didn’t hurt to see that it wasn’t a gang of teenagers but four adults who were not only painting, but also breaking our siding in the evening while we went to the store.
I suspect it’s the neighbors who have a grudge against us. I mean, why would kids do something like that? In the same place to get caught? And jealous neighbors are quite capable of such things. They can’t build anything for themselves, so they ruin it for others.
My husband says it would be good to catch them red-handed, by the ear to the police, but after we removed the siding, leaving the brick, everything kind of stopped. Now the balcony is rather unsightly, the neighbors don’t complain. While my husband is rushing to order new siding, I’m thinking, “Do we really need it?” – Like a bad relationship with the neighbors. If they were annoyed by the siding, maybe just leave the brick and not run into trouble?
