Blocking the world out

I made a post about our neighbors in apartment #3 and their sense of entitlement about our SHARED front porch. To eliminate the chance of repeating myself here is the link; blog about porch.

So, my friend Lynn helped me fashion a curtain to put up separating our porch. Our hope was that it would serve many purposes;

a) give them the oh-so-subtle hint that their crap (toys, chairs, tables!, kids, garbage, and cigarette butts) only belongs on their side of the porch.

b) ward off at least some of the cigarette smoke smell that wafts over and in our window.

c) save us and our dog from tripping over their kids or toys (always directly in front of our door) and breaking a leg.

d) and of course, blocking our view of them and their mess!

We were apprehensive and didn't want to get our hopes up. We figured that the more likely scenario would be that the kids would pull it down, smear mud all over it, or use it as a toy and therefore spend even more time in front of our door. Much to our surprise though, it worked! Quite often we get to hear the parents yelling at the kids (I am saying kids plural because somehow there are always multiple kids there even though only 1 lives there) to stay on their side of the curtain. Yay!

But, the best part is that our view changed from this:

to this!:

The color of sanity is a red curtain!