Thursday, May 19, 2011

Neighborhood #3

We have new homos in the 'hood!!!

It's not a real surprise, our enclave is a bastion (is that the right word?) for same-sex couples.  We are right about at the 10% mark.

If you're gay, male and single, you live on the west side in Lakewood.  If you're gay, male and part of a couple you live on the east side in Cleveland Heights.  Those are the laws.

Our neighbors love us.  The collective us.  Or at least they pretend to.  When the one lesbian couple who moved in (and then moved out 10 months later - it's a long story), one of our cutest straight neighbors asked one of the other gay couples: "are you guys taking over?".   

Buddy, we have.

Of course, the gays are how some people stereotype people of color or certain races:  We all look alike.

Marty gets called Blobby.  Blobby gets called Bill.  Denton gets called Blobby. I'm not sure what Bill, Dave, Ken, or Ron get called.

Now we have Tom and Sal.

We met Sal the day the last (known) car came into our yard, when we went out to inspect the property in daylight.  It took us a few more weeks to meet Tom.  Last Saturday, to be specific.

They had an open house and invited us. Dith was here, but she opted not to go.  It was dark and windy night, but I felt we had to being that we'd already met Sal and I do run the email group - and we are gay.  Plus, I really wanted to see the house.  It was not enough to entice Dith to go out in the rain.

Tom and Sal did what I would have loved to do.  Buy the house and renovate it before moving in.  Pure genius.   Also, pure piles of cash.  New roof, all new bathrooms, floors all redone on the 2nd and 3rd floors.  How great!

We weren't flush enough with cash to carry two mortgages and do renovations when we moved in here almost six years ago.  And we didn't know what we needed or wanted to do with the place.  We still don't.   I mean, we have ideas, but............

Our closest gay couple/friends were there too - Bill and Blobby Marty.  We took the house tour together.  Now Bill and Marty have a gorgeous house, but even they were impressed by some of the handiwork.  For Denton and myself - I think we silently came to the realization that we can never have anyone over again.

We don't have this gay gene - this decoration and planning thing going on.  Our house has great bones, but we don't have "stuff" to put in it.  We're not "stuff" collectors.  Few knickknacks and certainly no curio cabinets to put things in.

And it's all very well done, it's not like they're collecting Precious Moments or anything.  Yes, I'm making fun of Precious Moments, so if you have them - sorry in advance.......or I guess, not advance, since I've already made fun of them before apologizing.

The window in the title image is from their house.  I think it's original and I loved it.  We need something like that.  Clearly it won't be original to our house, but it's a nice element.

But we do have plans for the house.  The last few years have been outside projects, mostly landscaping stuff.  This year we are looking at a few interior things and I am determined to get off the dime and make them happen.  We have done nothing internal for 4-5 years.  It's time.

And yes, we will have Tom and Sal over.  I like them.  As you'd imagine, as the "party" wound down, it was the three gay couples sitting around chatting and laughing.  They'll make a fine addition to our conquest of the neighborhood.



Song by:  Arcade Fire

4 comments:

tornwordo said...

How fun. I wish we could make more "family" friends up here.

brian said...

How soon before it becomes a gayborhood?
As a person of color,Lakewood not so much.
If Cleveland Heights only had a Rapid Transit...the housing stock is priceless.

D said...

Do you happen to know Keith Kelly? He lives on Chase St. in Lakewood...

Ur-spo said...

I envy you. I wish we had gay neighbors. we feel like Indians surrounded by Cowboys.