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 KIRCHHOFF

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2011 Klaus Kirchhoff
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4685-0734-8

Chapter 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...