NEIGHBORS HATED THE COLOR OF MY HOUSE AND SECRETLY REPAINTED IT GRAY WHILE I WAS AWAY FOR TWO WEEKS.
THEY THOUGHT THEY’D WON. THEY HAD NO IDEA I’D SPENT THIRTY YEARS AS A PARALEGAL — AND THAT THEIR NAMES WERE ALL OVER THE WORK ORDER.
PART 1
Neighbors hated the color of my house and repainted it while I was away — I was enraged, and I took my revenge.
My name is Eleanor, and my house sits on a corner lot in Cedar Hollow.
Two years ago, a newlywed couple — Blake and Tiffany Vance — moved in next door and immediately started making strange comments about my house’s yellow color.
Soon, they outright demanded I paint it something different.
My house has always been yellow. My late husband and I painted it that color thirty-one years ago, the summer we bought it. I love it, and there’s no rule against it.
They called the police and the city on me, but both told them to back off, since I hadn’t done anything wrong.
They even tried suing me — the suit got tossed, and they had to pay my legal fees — and they attempted to rally our neighbors into forming an HOA to force me to repaint.
Our neighbors told them to get lost, so now they’re alienated by everyone.
Then I had to go out of town for two weeks, to visit my daughter.
When I got back, my house was gray.
I almost drove right past it, because I’m so used to my yellow house.
The neighbor from across the street, a retired man named Walter, came over and showed me photos he’d taken of the painting company setting up and doing the work.
He and another neighbor had called the police, but the painting company had a valid work order and had been paid, so the police couldn’t do anything at the scene.
It seemed everything done to my house was technically legal, and no lasting damage had been done.
But I was enraged.
And I put my revenge plan into action.
What Blake and Tiffany didn’t know was that I’d spent thirty years as a paralegal before I retired.
And the work order they’d signed to paint someone else’s house without permission had their names all over it.
