Recorded

 Randy has been working on a project for a little over a year now.  We purchased an acre, and Randy has been working at something he's always wanted to do: land development.  Covid has played a part in the drawn-out process, but it has been due to the neighbors too.  It's funny-not-funny how much the neighbors surrounding our lot hate each other.  Randy has had many a conversation with each of them, trying to figure out a way to access the lot without needing to force one of the neighbors to tear down a fence, tree, and possibly dig up the well the now-deceased husband placed years ago directly in the middle of the city's easement.  Anger has met Randy at every turn.

It was getting to the point that Randy was getting discouraged.  We'd already paid a surveyor and engineer for the plot to be laid out, only to find that the neighbor that said we could use his driveway wasn't going to allow it anymore.  When he approached the homeowner with the fence and tree, her sons called Randy, ticked that he'd cause their aged mother so much grief.  I was ready to throw in the towel after a year of people treating him like a jerk when all he was trying to do was be a nice guy.

With extra time on his hands without a home project (and a self-imposed budget year), Randy sat down for days to work on his own ideas.

Not only is this to-scale, but he was also thorough enough to "drive" a to-scale firetruck on the road to make sure they could turn around.  It was during one of these "test drives" that he noticed that the placement for the fire hydrant needed to be moved.  He truly thought of everything.

The houses aren't exactly the ones we've chosen, but he wanted to have an idea of how things would lay out, how things would look with driveways, stone, landscaping, and possible parking issues.  He wasn't trained as an engineer/drafter, but, like most things, he excelled at making it look amazing.

Armed with this layout, Randy wondered if he should just sell the land to a developer.  We got a very interested bite, too.  But when the neighbors heard that Randy was considering selling to someone that wouldn't try to work well with them, that would have the power to make them remove everything without thought as to how they would (remember she's aged and frail), they asked if Randy would meet them at the property to see if they could work something out.  And just like that, they agreed that Randy was a nice guy, that he was doing everything to avoid being a jerk, and they signed the papers to move forward.

He's a ways off, but at least the hardest hurdles have been dealt with.  Who knows how far he'll take this project.  He may develop the land and then sell it, making a nice profit and moving on to something else, or he may take it all the way to have seven homes to rent on Caden Drive.  Either way, I'm back to level ground where this land is concerned.  I hate the thought of that kind of debt, but I love that he's loving the process and journey.  I don't like witnessing that kind of turmoil.  We paid thousands of dollars for an alternative that didn't end up working, and they still treated him like a jerk!  I guess I shouldn't be surprised, seeing as we plan to bring seven new neighbors to people that hate neighbors...