Is It Possible…?
Many of us in Killarney are feeling the effects of new construction continuing all around us. How are we managing? Is it possible to live our usual peaceful lives amid the sounds and inconvenience of huge trucks, endless staple guns and mud?
On our alley out of 32 houses only five original homes are still standing. Almost every neighbour has felt the joy and discomfort of new homes coming to fruition. The new neighbours who have come from well-established neighbourhoods may have never had the pleasure of the construction boom and with that, lots of misunderstandings of what it involves.
We were very lucky, within two hours of owning the property next door our new neighbours came to our door announcing: “we want to be your neighbours”. From that moment we’ve had a great relationship with the builders.
It took a short time for the supervisor to get to know us. We lend them our water hose and our electrical outlets. We were glad to do it because it laid the groundwork for a good relationship.
The process of building a new home in a well-established ‘hood is not simple. Mountains of earth gets taken out and then piled back in; enormous cement trucks, bulldozers, and a myriad of other gigantic trucks arrived with material that will magically be turned into a new house.
Our first task was to get to know the superintendent on the job. Rob turned out to be a gem. He patiently answered every question; when will the old house come down, when will the utilities be installed, when will it be back filled, when will the garage be built, when will the sidewalk be replaced, and on and on. Rob was incredibly patient, that allowed us to share the information with neighbours so that they knew when the alley would be blocked or the front street was unavailable, or the alley was covered in mud.
Rob helped us when we were having a music recital and needed some semblance of quiet even if it meant that in addition to the piano we had ‘construction music’ of staple guns – it worked out, or when we needed access to our side yard when we had an “Open Garden” for the Calgary Horticulture Society.
When we had a fundraiser one evening we even borrowed fencing material from the construction site to hang art for the Artful Garden Party. We helped them get done what they needed to do, and they helped us when we needed it. It couldn’t have been a better match.
We got to know their workers and they got to know who we were. We helped when they needed their water bottles refilled or to use the bathroom before the port-a-potty arrived.
Of course, we had a few misunderstandings – it’s inevitable. It is puzzling why they want to run another fence alongside ours but that’s ok we can make it work. I’m sure we’ll learn later why it was so important.
The only real sticky wicket of the project was our desire to have solar panels on our roof. The new house takes away a lot of our sun. So, we took out one fir tree at the front of the house and made a sculpture out of it and we had another fir tree, my daughter’s grade 3 seedling we planted over 50 years ago, at the back of the house “spiralized” The spiralized tree is so called by taking out every other branch to allow more sun to shine through. We think this will allow sufficient sun to make solar panels work.
It’s not always the case that you have builders that care about the neighbours but establishing a relationship that works towards that goal, is always worth it.
In the end, the real joy is having a new house and new neighbours. And we look forward to that! It is possible!
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