We’ve all heard about the nightmare stories of out of control homeowner’s associations, so I was expecting the worst when we bought our house. A few years ago, someone drove by our house when I was living at home and they said we didn’t have enough grass, so Dad either needed to lay down sod (to die a quick death) or install a sprinkler system. We hadn’t had grass in the 10 years previous in the front yard because of the acid in the oak leaves.

I was ready for my own nightmare in preparing for approval for screening in our porch opening. I hemmed and hawed for weeks until our contractor was ready to come over, and I still wasn’t ready. I got on the ball yesterday and filled out the form, described the screening, gave them the insurance and contractor license #, and took a photo of our neighbor’s screen and our open porch, saying, “we want it to look like that.” I scanned our form, attached the photos from my iPhone, and e-mailed it last night from campus, knowing that they said approval takes a minimum of two weeks.

Whaddya know? Approved. I guess e-mail approvals are faster, especially when you use photos. I’m brilliant, I know, but who knew it would be that smooth? You can’t question a photo – materials, placement, and general appearance are all right there.

She said that I didn’t include the $500 deposit, but when I asked her to read the previous e-mail in the thread and see that we were already told that the deposit wasn’t necessary, she said that would be fine.