Beauty in the eye of the beholder
Some days, I just don’t even want to answer the door. The dog always gives me away, though. She stares out the window, barks her special variety of welcome and makes sure that a perfect stranger would never mistake our house as abandoned. Time to teach her the art of stealth.
Seriously, today was the scheduled visit of the municipal evaluator. How else can a city council generate more revenue for a megalomaniacal mayor? Check every house for improvements, and bill accordingly. I tricked them this time around. My home improvement plan is currently in a state of deep hibernation. Nothing new here, folks. The young man with the cool laptop had to see for himself. Methinks his real name might have been Thomas the Doubter.
We went upstairs and downstairs and all around the hearth, so that he could check little boxes on his tablet PC. Deck: check. Pool: check. Bathrooms: check. He asked the mandatory questions about changes to floors, and windows, and the roof shingles. Had our basement suddenly changed status (from disorganized storage area to something seen in one of those home improvement fantasy programs)? No new money here.
And then as quickly as he’d arrived, he was gone. My guess is that our evaluation will remain stable, which is good for our bottom line. All the planned improvements should escape the watchful eye of the tax police for another few years.
Seriously, the city magically increased the paper value of city homes by 35% just a couple of years ago, and the feared tax hike didn’t follow because it was unfounded by a real visit. Now we don’t have that excuse any more.
