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Dallas Skyline Oil Cityscape Painting by Laurie Justus Pace

4 ft by 8 ft Oil on Canvas

SOLD Commission

Contact me for work: Laurie


"Do to others as you would have them do to you." Luke 6:31


I have to sit and reflect today on life and how ours will be so dramatically impacted by what our "neighbors" have decided to do. This will be an emotional blog. I know they are all excited about adding on to their home and improving their living space and making it all nice, but they gave ZERO thought to how it impacted us and our everyday life.

I hope you teach your children better and set a firm example of how our actions in life affect other people, and to be considerate of others as you make decisions that change their lives.
Thank you mother and father. I was raised, as was Terry, to discuss things with others if they would be impacted by something I was doing.

We are being impacted DAILY FOREVER. Our lives will never be the same due to their actions.
Three day ago the Dad came over to announce they were adding on to the house and building up over the garage and they would be snipping off tree limbs as they got in the way. We have some HUGE trees here and that made sense. It did not come fully out until the next day that they were taking the entire roof off the house and forever changing what is here now.

The environmental impact of what they are doing will be a loss of sky, light, trees, privacy and the entire reason this modern home had been done this way was to take advantage of nature. That was the design principal behind Frank Lloyd Wright's designs. I will be recording pictures through this blog so you can see what transitions will come to my home with out my having any knowledge of it before they put the wheels in motion.

This first picture is standing in my living room and watching the sunrise through the trees. This will all be gone as they add a second story going straight up. There will be in fact windows looking straight down into our home. It is not like we are a traditional home with a few small windows on the side of the house,... we are a very contemporary home with soaring glass and open spaces on this side. EVERY ROOM of the house has huge 2-2 1/2 story windows. right now the view is full of trees, light, and sky with a tiny bit of their current HIP roof. All harmony with nature, all sky, all light, 75% of our tree canopy and our privacy will be gone in 8 weeks.


This is the tree outside my garden room. You can see the roof of their home in the background. They will be taking this entire roof off the house and changing the roof line. Instead of a quiet hip roof that we only see the woodsy shingles of, we will be staring at flat straight up walls of hardeback board and paint...oh and windows too as they bring the roof straight over to the edge with gables. The tree you see here, they will be cutting all branches that cross over to their property, which will be 2/3rds of the canopy. So none of this green will be here any more and we will only have solid walls to stare at. No light, no sky, no privacy.

If this tree dies, I will request they replace it. There are laws in Dallas about cutting down trees or killing trees. This tree provides so much to our environment and it is protected by law. The plants in my garden room... I have no clue. There will be no more sunlight dancing on the floor coming from those soaring windows every morning.

They have city permits. The subdivision codes are outdated and the committee that would have to approve or disapprove does not exist. In that old existing code, it addresses maintaining the harmony of the area with changes.

This is the room where I read my bible and feel so much peace of God with nature and birds all around the area. This is the room where Terry and I sit and eat sharing the events of the day. This is the room where my Mom spent hours healing last summer.

NO MORE LIGHT, TREES OR SKY
The room will fall silent and dark, this room and our living room.


What would be your reaction? What would you do? We are in prayer. Our hands can only reach to Him to show us what we need to do. Our lives in this home have been changed forever. We are seeking the best lemonade recipe out there...so please send me what you have!

I beg you to think of others before you take actions that affect them.

Laurie

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.”- Galatians 5:13

Comments

Kay Wyne said…
I love the Dallas skyline. Whoever gets to look at this painting is very lucky. All I can say is "Oh mercy."----about your tree situation. I have heard similiar stories, right here in good old LH.
Grammie Jan said…
Laurie and Terry,have you spoken to them, expressing that you fully understand the need and/or want for more space, about the reasons you bought this house that you knew would be and has became your healing home and how their addition will take all of that away forever? At least they would then know that their plans are affecting the quakity of life for their neighbor and perhaps the neighbor behind you as well. This can be very difficult to do and I have never been in such a situation but I would like to think that I could and would make my situation known - who is to say once I acutally walked in those shoes - I hope that I never will.
Your home sounds lovely from your descriptions and photos and I ache for you. I too have been praying aobut this.
Love you,
Jan
I agree with Grammie Jan. You must speak to them immediately and let them know how these plans will impact you and how you feel about it. They may be genuinely surpised to hear it (having apparently not considered the impact on you at all) and change their plans out of consideration for you or a desire to keep a peaceful relationship with you, their neigbhor. This is going to lead to years of resentment if you don't speak up. Resentment alone can take away your peace of mind. If you talk to them about it and they don't respond, then there are other courses of action. I would not take this lying down. Good luck to you!
Thanks you so much for commenting. It has been a struggle. I did speak gently and softly and informative to these neighbors. We have lived here only 2 years and they have been here 3 or 4. This is a neighborhood where Terry and I both grew up and we have families knee deep still living here. It is a wonderful neighborhood that builders come in and bulldoze homes and trees and built mini Mac Mansions. When the neighbors first told us of their plans I did indeed call and visit with them. I even invited them over to see our view of the world from our windows. They basically showed no interest and I asked for an email address and I sent pictures. Still no response.

I have to believe one of two things and now we are totally confused. We love this home. we have lived in 10 homes in the last twenty years and this by far is the absolutely best for my work and our living, other than the cost! It is high in this neighborhood, but we moved here to care for elderly parents that are struggling with health and life right now. So we need to either 1. refocus and make the best of what is to be and find the finer points of living here and thinking out of the box as to getting around a huge house blocking the earth... or 2. sell and move out of the city (we both dislike it and are only here for the parents!) I truly do not want to move yet as I do not feel we are done with what we are called to do here. So the challenge remains the first to refocus and forgive those who are basically destroying our environment of life.


Your words and Jan's words have meant so much to me. When one is slipping and reeling in acknowledgment of something like this, it is hard to stop the first thoughts of panic.
marjorie wilson said…
Laurie I've just visited your blog from Daily Painters and have read and are horrified at the loss of the lovely view through your window. I know just how that feels and how devastated you'll be feeling. Sadly there doesn't seem much you can do if your neighbours wont change there minds. Hope you find some peace of mind eventually. Will be thinking of you.
Marjorie

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