Who are the people in your neighborhood?

We live in an old neighborhood with a range of houses, both in style and price. Little post-war ranchers like ours, old brick houses from early in the last century, newer stone houses. I love the variety and much prefer it to living in a cookie-cutter suburb. But this house made me gasp when I saw it. We were on our way to meet up with two other couples right after it had been painted. It was the topic of conversation when we got to the brew pub: "My God, did you see that aqua house? What were they thinking?" and "It's too bright even for Jamaica!" and "Whoever owns that place HAS to be colorblind!" On the one hand, they have the right to paint their house whatever color they want. But I had to feel badly for the folks across the street trying to sell their house. Good look with that now.

My theory is the owners got stoned one day, found the paint on the clearance shelf, and just went nuts. Why else would they slap paint onto parts of the window frame and even the glass of the windows? And the benches are a weird mix of sage green, aqua and some dark green, applied apparently at random. There's also a bright blue bench on the other side of the house.

My favorite thing is that they've chosen to accent with bright yellow, including a Hotei statue (what some people call a Laughing Buddha), guarding the steps alongside a tiny American flag. I'll give the home's owners this - it's eye-catching. No one is going to miss this house. Except, of course, my color-blind husband. It looks normal to him.