In a message dated 8/20/99 9:53:12 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> So what they bought was a house with multiple layers of interest and
>  complexity, which they are power-sanding out in favor of a uniform finish.

Christopher,

And will they live in it too? Or is this to be a show house? Can we expect to
see same decorated in Architectural Digest next spring? I'm always in wonder
of static houses and the static lives they seem to represent. Will they
someday believe their townhouse is extra special better than all the other
houses on the block due to the expense of their erasure?

My memory of JFK Jr. was that, way prior to his marriage or passing the bar
exam, I had to walk through his apartment to find an exterior water leak...
the guy was a slob -- as with many of us commoners.

Irony? Hhmmm... yesterday interviewed for tradesman profile in *Avenue*. I
was asked if I am at the top and I had to stop to figure out what I may be at
the top of. Receptionist in office earlier in day had asked if I have
something special that I do (snickering from the bachelor estimators in the
background) -- she meant like a special trade task on the jobsites. Does Ken
handle a trowel different than Fred? Well, Ken does not even know where to
find a trowel. This something special task is difficult as often I'm not sure
what I'm doing on the jobsite. I sort of walk around and wait for a reason to
say something.

On another note... in the unHamptons I'm getting irritated at 5:45 AM because
the guy up the street is automatically watering his lawn. I'm worried such a
fixation on a weedless green lawn will ruin the neighborhood. Enough people
running around on the *committee* with us getting a summons for excessive
chickens (one and counting). I fantasize busting off a sprinkler head one
morning by driving over it. Probably get a flat. Though the racoons are a
nuisance knocking over everyones garbage cans, I think they got the right
idea. I'm convinced the idea of a green lawn in the unHamptons is not
historic. We started out with a green lawn. It has taken me ten years of
cultivated neglect to develop an organic patina.

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