I’m planning to get some large cedars in my backyard trimmed.  They are currently about 60-70 ft tall and are located at the northern edge of the yard up against the retaining wall and my neighbor’s wood fence.  I’ve been talking to this neighbor, Fabio, for a couple of months, letting him know that his fence is falling down and leaning into the cedars.  I let him know a few weeks ago that I would be getting the cedars trimmed and he promised he would fix the fence before that happened since he would be off work from mid-June to mid-July.  I’m getting the cedars trimmed down to about 10-15 ft high this weekend and let him know this tonight.

He started telling me about his problems with the fence and how he wasn’t sure exactly how to fix it and how he couldn’t afford to hire someone to do the work.  Since we’ve repaired our fence a couple of times, I explained to him how he could do the repairs without too much difficulty and without spending too much money.  Then I offered to help him.  I could tell by the look on his face that there was no way he would ever accept any help from me.  He quickly said no that he could handle it on his own.

This guy is in his late 30’s to early 40’s (I think), is from Columbia (where women don’t do this kind of work), and this is the first house he has ever owned.  He really doesn’t have much of a clue about taking care of his house and it seems he doesn’t have the money to hire someone to do it for him.  I totally understand the money part, which is part of why I’ve learned to do so many home repairs myself.

So I didn’t think it was odd to offer to help…but it seems this would never work for him.  Too bad.  If he only knew.