This is a fictional story about a newly-built upscale residential housing development and begins after the developer is turning over the governance of the homeowner association to the owners. They almost all have one thing in common; they are strangers to each other but now attempt to live in harmony under guidelines and rules anchored in what is known as governing documents. Let us Meet the Neighbors Two long time buddies, Karl Wagner and Rudy Gonzales, reunite and are now neighbors. There is Don Barnes who brings his experiences from prior years and volunteers to be active in the Association. Supporting him are people like Lou Tenant, Eileen Dover, Harold Baker, Lon Moore and more who want to maintain the high quality life style in their neighborhood. Yet there are others like Hank Pistola, Jack Cass, Amanda Reckonwith, Boyd Schidt, Mike Rotch, Anita Potty, Lotta Hare and Al Koholic who pursue personal goals and hidden agendas. Bruce Numnutts is trying to change the name of his street because his kids hate the name. Retired Professor Reinhold von Weisenheim lectures young people at local coffee shops to pursue their educational goals, as widower he is being chased by Baroness Brunhilde von Veldhausen. Several sexually dissatisfied housewives are seeking to meet other men and some of them decide to serve on the Board of Directors and Committees. They eventually all wind up becoming lovers of Darrell Bradley, a retired cop who installs home alarm systems. Hans Schneider, a local restaurant and delicatessen owner befriends neighbors and starts a regular Roundtable luncheon sharing fond and funny memories and gossip in the neighborhood to which Darrell Bradley contributes regularly a juicy Stud report. In a humorous way, the reader can enjoy what actually might happen in his or her neighborhood without really knowing about it.
MEET THE NEIGHBORS
LIFE IN A HOME OWNER ASSOCIATIONBy KLAUS KIRCHHOFFAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2011 Klaus Kirchhoff
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4685-0734-8Chapter One
"All I can say is there goes the neighborhood when they let Krauts move in," Rudy Gonzales, a tall, handsome man in his mid-sixties had spoken these words. He walked his little Chihuahua dog as he approached a resident working in his front yard on Vespucci Way, a cul-de-sac in Paradiso, California.
The moment Gonzales said it, Karl Wagner, turned around and could not believe his eyes but smiled and responded, "Well, I`ll be darned, Rudy. What brings you here? Are you visiting friends who told you to walk your pit bull on other streets and crap on people's lawn?" Karl, in his late fifties, not quite six feet tall, had blue eyes and light brown hair.
The two long-time friends had not seen one another for more than a year after the Wagner's had moved out of Los Angeles County and into the newly developed neighborhood called Seafarer Heights Oceanview Terraces in north San Diego County. They briefly embraced while shaking hands and Gonzales responded, "Actually, we are neighbors, sort of. Liz and I bought a house on Cabrillo Street and we've been here now for about three weeks. This all came suddenly, we heard through some friends of ours who knew this development that only a few houses were left for sale and son George had wanted to buy ours for a long time.
We decided rather quickly to do it. He bought our home of over thirty years and here we are. Things happened fast, I still can't believe it myself that we moved. Trust me; we were busy cleaning up the old place and moving everything into this new one. There was so much work for us to do, this is the first time I am taking a walk with little Gigi. We had your address and I wanted to surprise you. Looks like I succeeded." He smiled.
Wagner had listened intently and said, "You most certainly did, come in. I'm sure Ingrid wants to see you and hear the good news about your move." They entered the house and continued their conversation. Karl's wife Ingrid was equally surprised seeing Rudy, ran up to him and gave him a hug and a kiss. She welcomed him into the neighborhood when she heard they had moved. Of course, she wanted to know all about Rudy's wife Liz and asked for their home phone number to call her right away. After some more time of catching up with each other, they decided to get together the following Saturday night to go out for dinner.
When Karl walked out of the house with Rudy, Darrell Bradley, Karl's next door neighbor passed by saying hello. Karl stopped him and introduced Rudy. Bradley, a handsome younger guy, a little over six feet tall with black hair and dark eyes, somewhat rugged looking shook hands with Rudy. They exchanged a few courteous words and Rudy walked home.
It had been agreed the Wagner's would pick up the Gonzales's at about five p.m. Before they entered their house, Karl turned around, looked at the barren land where no landscape improvements had yet been done and he told Rudy, "I love what you did with the front yard. I would not be surprised if you should get an award for your landscaping."
"I might have expected you commenting on that, you are still the same smart aleck I have known for what, thirty years?"
"Oh, come on now, I just couldn't walk by and not say anything. But I am also certain you will get even with me." Rudy laughed and said, "You can count on that, my friend. Come in and let me fix you a drink, is it still Bourbon and a touch of Seven Up?"
"No, I have totally gotten off the hard stuff and I am now fully into red wine, twelve months a year. You met my next door neighbor Darrell Bradley the other day. He is the one who convinced me this is healthier in the long run. I must say, I have really gotten to like it."
"Merlot it is, buddy. It's coming right up. Does Ingrid drink Zinfandel or has she switched to red wine too?"
"No, she still likes a glass of Zinfandel" and Rudy poured the wine for Liz and Karl's wife Ingrid. While Karl got his glass of Merlot, Rudy was still drinking Martini on the rocks. The four then toasted and welcomed each other; finally as neighbors after so many years of their friendship. Rudy said, "Here is to this neighborhood being big enough to take the four of us, welcome to `S.H.O.T.'."
"Welcome to what?" both Liz and Ingrid asked.
"To `SHOT`, short for `Seafarer Heights Oceanview Terraces', it's an acronym. And if I may add, we are very lucky about it."
"Why is that?" was Karl's response.
"Just think if the developer had used `Islandview' instead of `Oceanview`, we would be called `SHIT' for short. How could we explain to our friends we live now at `SHIT`, hmm?"
They knew Rudy's sense of humor and laughed at his joke. He had always been able to come up with things like this.
The women left them and proceeded to walk through the house, to talk about decorations and family; there was a lot of catching up to do.
Rudy and Karl sat down in the living room and the guys raised their glasses in a toast where Rudy proposed, "here's to us and I hope for a great many years to come." They drank to that. Rudy continued "But I have a couple of questions for you, Karl."
"Go ahead," was Karl's answer.
Rudy proceeded, "First of all, how did you manage getting your landscaping approved? I have heard from a neighbor this can take at times a couple of months before the Landscape Architect gives his approval. Is that right? Yours is looking pretty good but I have no idea what I want to put down for groundcover. Do I have a lawn or not? What kind of shrubbery, plants and trees do we like? Liz has not thought about it either and so we don't know what to do. Help me out if you will."
Karl smiled and thought about a response. He finally said, "Remember Frank Sinatra's song, I did it my way?"
"Meaning?" asked a perplexed Rudy. He did not know what to make of Karl's answer.
"When I say I did it my way," Karl answered, "I am telling you that I did not quite follow the rules. By telling you this, it goes without saying you cannot talk about it to anybody, ok?"
"Of course not, go on."
Karl continued, "According to the established procedures as they have been explained to us when we closed escrow, an amount of $600.00 was withheld from each of us for the approval process of the outside landscaping. We are supposed to prepare and present detailed drawings of these improvements to the Landscape Consultant. He is a guy called Jim Lightfoot who works for the Doubletree Landscape Architects. The plans have to be submitted in duplicate to the Management Company and they will forward them. This fellow has about four to six weeks to review and approve, possibly even reject the submittals. He charges $300.00 for this. From what I have heard, he generally approves the plans with minor suggestions or requests more specifics. Once the approval has been granted and returned to you, you have six months to complete the work before you request final inspection from this guy Lightfoot."
Karl took a sip of wine before he said, "I had heard stories from other neighbors what they had done and some of them were quite unhappy with the long response time. While I am still thinking how to go about this, my neighbor Darrell Bradley calls me up; you remember meeting him the other day when you came by?"
Rudy interrupted, "The guy who suggested to you to start drinking red wine?"
"Yes, he is the one. By the way, he is a former Captain of the Los Angeles Police Department and now retired. I think he is only fifty two years old and now he sells and installs home alarm systems. Anyway, he approached me and told me he had found a good landscape contractor. This outfit had done work for homeowners on our street who were quite complimentary about him. Since I had not contacted anybody, I agreed with Darrell to interview this guy. He is a licensed contractor by the name of Ismael Caudillo and he told us he could start the job in about two weeks. He gave us detailed estimates for the work after we explained to him what we wanted. We found his prizes reasonable and agreed to let him do the landscaping.
Caudillo told us - unless we delayed decisions on selecting trees and so on - he could get it all done in six to seven weeks but would not have time again until the spring. This was in July of last year and Darrell and I figured - if approvals should take about two to three months - the work would not start until October and possibly go into the rainy season. Darrell and I talked it over and decided to, I come back to the quote "Do it our way."
"Being?" Rudy could not wait for the answer.
"We agreed to have the landscape improvement work done without prior approval and just take our chances of getting reported. But everything went smooth. Caudillo did a great and prompt job. Upon completion of the works, I prepared plans - As-Built drawings - if you will and then submitted them for approval. We got them approved after about two months. The Architect suggested I put some lawn into my front yard instead of the red apple groundcover. I called him up and explained that Ingrid was allergic to the smell of freshly cut grass. He accepted it as a reason not to change things and we got our approvals. We waited three months before submitting our requests for inspection. Lightfoot came by a week later and found everything just as the plans showed it. He even complimented me on the drawings. Now you know what I meant when I said I did it my way. On top of it, I am expecting a refund from the Management Company shortly of about $225.00 since Lightfoot charged me altogether $375.00 for his work."
"That's quite a story and I am not surprised you managed to beat the system. I am proud of you," Rudy smiled and said, "it gives me something to think about when time comes for us to submit our plans for approval." He continued, "before I forget, I got a letter and assume you did too announcing an upcoming Association meeting in a couple of weeks. They were asking for volunteers to become Board members and also to serve on Association Committees. Are you planning to attend?"
"Oh, yes, I have been to a few of them. They were conducted by the representatives from the developers, SBC Builders, who still control the Board. But I heard from the people in the Sales office they have sold out now and want to turn over the management of the Association to us homeowners during the next meeting. I say let's go together and watch the proceedings. It should be interesting to see who will volunteer."
Rudy wanted to know, "Are you by chance thinking of signing up to be on the Board or on a Committee; after all, we could serve on the Architectural Committee with our backgrounds?"
Karl had a brief answer, "Absolutely not. From what I know there is nothing but infighting and politics when you volunteer for such an assignment. Let's keep quiet about our professional careers, ok?"
They agreed. The wives had in the meantime completed their walk through the house; it was now time to go out to eat. Both couples were happy they had close friends in the new neighborhood and spent a few hours catching up at a local restaurant.
Chapter Two
When paige turner, a resident at Seafarer Heights returned home after taking the kids to school, she sat down at the kitchen table and started to cry. She was unhappy and confused. They had moved into the new house about a year ago. It was beautiful with an incredible view of the Pacific Ocean, she believed to be ever so grateful and happy and yet she was not. Her husband Bill had a great job and good career ahead of him; their three children were their pride and joy. Sylvia was eleven and the twin boys Mark and Gerry were eight.
Paige had just turned thirty seven, a very attractive woman having pretty much all she wanted and could ask for, except for one thing. She was sexually unfulfilled. Bill was no longer the romantic he had been when they met and first got married. For him, making love had become a formality without any foreplay. He liked it as she performed oral sex on him but there was no reciprocity on his part.
When ready for intercourse, he would climax fast and fall asleep right after. Paige wondered at times if she was the reason why Bill had lost a greater interest in sex yet did not know the answer. She had mentioned it on many occasions but he did not want to talk about it; saying instead his job was very stressful and challenging and he apologized. This was not good enough for Paige; she was in the prime of her life and wanted more. For her having to accept that sex was playing a lesser role in her life should not be real.
Paige knew it was wrong but could not help thinking about the possibility of looking at other men to fulfill her sexual needs. This had started where they lived before and she was elected to the Board of Directors. The men were old geezers and she was not at all attracted to anyone of them. She had seen quite a number of good looking guys here and concluded to volunteer and maybe get elected to be a Board member again. She would meet other men this way and could pursue relationships once she became attracted to someone. Her mind was made up, she send a letter to the Management Company to indicate her willingness to serve on the Board.
April Showers was busy supervising the landscape contractor. Her husband had hired this firm to do the outdoor improvements at their home on Hernando Cortes Court. She had selected the plants and trees to be installed and now waited for the workers to finish the drainage, irrigation and concrete work before the actual planting would begin. Flowers were her hobby. With their nine year old daughter in school, her husband a pilot for a major airline company spending at least four days every week away from home, she had to keep busy.
Being just thirty five years of age, she felt happy but there were also times when she missed working. She had been a flight attendant for the same airline before and this is where she met Justin. Those times had been fun. She had been always on the go; meeting interesting men and even dating quite a few of them. She cherished the variety of how they approached sex and the intimacy that came with it.
But her life had changed drastically when she became pregnant with Sophie; she had quit her job and was now nothing more than a full-time housewife whose husband was around less than half the time. April enjoyed being a mother but something was missing. She joined a local gym and struck up friendships with other women and also some men. But that was about it, there was really nobody who she could imagine having closer relations with. As far as their sexual relationship, Justin was a very caring husband yet he appeared to be losing some interest in it. When they first met, they had often gone all night making love. Now it was more like `Slam-Bam, thank you Mam' and she did not like it. At times she suspected Justin fooling around on the side. She knew the business well enough to understand it was easy to do, sex on overnight stays in another city and so on.
Yet she felt ashamed for even contemplating such things, she had to trust Justin. She decided to get involved in the neighborhood association, to volunteer serving on a Committee, preferably the Landscaping one. To her understanding from what she had read, the time for that would come soon since the builder had sold out the development and planned to turn things over to the homeowners.
She hoped to meet other people and by chance maybe even attractive men. She was mentally ready to not be close-minded when someone interested her. Who knew what it might lead to? She balanced being a faithful housewife and her need to be sexually fulfilled and concluded she needed both.
On another street at Seafarer Heights lived a couple with a thirteen year old son who had moved down from Laguna Hills twelve months ago. Kenneth and Heather Ross were married for eighteen years and happy about the move even though it now took him further away from his workplace in Orange County. His daily commute had increased by seventy miles. But he apparently did not mind and never complained. It also meant he left the house very early in the morning and would seldom come home before seven o'clock at night.
With son Ron in school from eight until three-thirty, it forced Heather to be by herself for too many hours daily. She was a gorgeous woman with blond hair, blue eyes, a very tall and slender figure and a friendly smile. She had befriended several neighbors but did not feel strong enough about anybody to develop a closer friendship. The women showed no interest other than raising their kids and the husbands worked all day. Heather became a bit frustrated and did not like it.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from MEET THE NEIGHBORSby KLAUS KIRCHHOFF Copyright © 2011 by Klaus Kirchhoff. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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