Living in a construction zone

My neighborhood has been overtaken by builders. When I moved in, there were a fair amount of empty lots, and of course I expected people to build on them. I just wasn't expecting it all to happen at once. There are 6 houses going up on my street, 3 of them directly across from my house.  It seems to be contagious, because the people who live behind me have decided to build an addition onto their house, too. 

There's nothing like opening your curtains and suddenly finding yourself face to face with the workmen you had no idea were there. It makes you a lot more diligent about wearing clothes. It's been noisy, dusty, and I've developed a new found appreciation of Norteño.

Perhaps it's better this way. Instead of the neighborhood being disrupted by individual building projects over several years, it's one big building spree and then it will be over. At the rate the houses are going up, I expect them all to be done by July 4th, if not sooner.  Then I will have a bunch of new neighbors! 

In the meantime, I'm concentrating on my backyard, which is looking it's best right now, because the jasmine I planted two years ago is starting to to fill in. 

Pretty, isn't it? The cats remain unimpressed.

There are three of these, giving me the sweetest smelling backyard in the neighborhood. I'm hoping that over time, it will grow thicker, so that you can't even see the fence. Obviously, that's going to take a few more years.

Add a background track of circular saws, earth movers, and pounding hammers, and this is what my neighborhood sounds like.