How We Met Our Neighbors

Our first home was in a new subdivision in my hometown. There were a few existing houses when ours began being built, but for the most part the whole area was under construction.

While our home was in the finishing stages of construction, we would go in it at night to paint, or just see the progress they had made that day. The contractors kept the house locked up at night but they gave us the garage access codes so we were able to get in.

After we moved in, we enjoyed walking through all the new homes around us in their various stages of completion.

Three houses down from ours was an identical floor plan as our home, with the one major exception of theirs having a walkout basement. We had toyed around with the idea of doing the basement, but opted for the single story. We really loved our home, but were curious how the house looked with the basement.

Technically, said home still belonged to the construction company, but they were 99% done so the new neighbors would be moving in any day. We decided to take a peek. We looked through the windows but couldn't see much. We tried the door but it was locked.

It occurred to us that we knew the access codes the construction company used on the new houses.

We tried one.
No luck.
We tried one of their alternates.
No luck.
One more try... score.

Seeing as how we were semi-breaking-into-someones-almost-home, we shut the garage door behind us while we snooped. All was good. We looked around upstairs. We looked around downstairs. We liked our home better.

Gasp. Someone just pulled into the drive... We are so busted.

"Quick, out the back door." The back door (1) doesn't have a deck so it's about a 15 foot drop. (2) Is nailed shut. Seriously, NAILED. SHUT.

This is where panic sets in. Like something out of a movie, we started desperately running in different directions then into each other.

Jim says to me "Let's hide!"

We can actually hear keys jingling at the front door and female voices fast approaching.

"We can't hide, if they see us, that would be worse!"

Key is turning in the door.

"Let's just introduce ourselves like it's no big deal."

In walks a very surprised almost-home-owner and her friend. Did I mention our new neighbor is physically handicapped?

"Hi, I'm Angie and this is my Husband, Jim." (Smile Ang, look innocent) "We live down the street and wanted to peek at your beautiful home before you moved in. Welcome to the neighborhood."
She was very confused about why we were in her almost-home, but I have to say she was pretty nice under the circumstance. We left as quickly as we could.

We lived in that neighborhood for 3 years and could never quite look her in the eye after that. I'm sure word spread to "watch out for that one couple, they break into homes."

When they say you never get a second chance to make a first impression, they mean it. If you screw up the first time, you may have to drive the long way home to avoid seeing your neighbor.