It takes a village

Or at least, a neighborhood!

This morning as Jack and I walked out, I passed a neighbor's house and heard the sound of water rushing in the creek. We're still in a dry spell, so it was odd.

Not this one, but another waterfall - during a March storm. It was more water than this!

Water was rushing down the face of the hillside in front of the house to the driveway, then sheeting down into the culvert for the creek. It was so powerful it had cut a little creekbed in the hillside.

This is a new house, recently built on vacant land. It was on the market, but then tenants moved in. We haven't met them at all.

At first I thought it might be a broken sprinkler head, but then I noticed that water was also gushing from the french drains, too - so I went for a closer look. Water was flowing from beneath the house's foundation!

There was no car in the driveway or the garage. No one answered the bell. I went home, and emailed my neighbors - the folks who live across the street from the house, the family that shares an easement with the house, and our next door neighbors, who live above the house - and also our friend further down the street, who knows everyone. Did they have contact info for the tenant or owner? If not, did they remember the realtor's name from the sign?

Within the next hour, emails came back. One with the realtor's name. One saying she had the tenant's email address - they were out of town but she'd contact him. And one saying, "I turned off the water."

I love my neighborhood!!!