The News From Poughkeepsie – Day 10
If you own a home in the US (I have no idea about non-US, sorry), it’s likely your neighborhood has a homeowner’s association. While it’s there to make sure that Harry the town drunk doesn’t let his house rot away and become an eyesore, it is annoying to spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on something and be told you still can’t do whatever you want with it. For example, we have to get permission to change the color of our house. We can’t have a clothes line. We need permission to cut down any tree larger than 6 inches in diameter.
But there’s nothing in the rules that says we can’t build a moat. Installing a drawbridge should be fine, as long as we make sure it’s the same color as our house, or white. (God, who would want a blue drawbridge? Ick.) We’re welcome to install a dungeon under our house, including an intricate system of underground tunnels. We can even skin animals on our property (this has happened in our neighborhood, by the way. One of the more surreal experiences of my life.)
The next time you look at the rules concerning where you live, look closely. What isn’t in the rules?
The News From Poughkeepsie is a daily blog post featuring an idea for you to take and do with what you will. Read more about it here. This post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license. You can take this idea, change it, make something new, and even make money off of it. All I ask is if you create something – anything! – that this post inspired you to make, please link back here.
Category: Writing
[...] Go to the author’s original blog: The News From Poughkeepsie – Day 10 [...]
If moats are outlawed, only outlaws will have moats.
And what if the homeowner’s association is suddenly taken over by space aliens, or vampires, or the Bavarian Illuminati?
[...] Mighty Mur Lafferty recently wondered aloud what things might not be specifically prohibited by deed restrictions. Her post focused [...]
“And what if the homeowner’s association is suddenly taken over by space aliens, or vampires, or the Bavarian Illuminati?”
You mean they’re not?
[...] http://murverse.com/2008/05/01/the-news-from-poughkeepsie-day-10/ Rules and Regulations [...]