Hope Springs Anew

12/31/14 Update: This morning, at least four vans full of guys and their tools arrived at the house next door. The sweet sounds of progress will soon be filling my years!
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Back in May, I posted about a sturdy yellow tulip growing in the yard of the empty house next door to me, which is currently owned by the Greater Syracuse Land Bank.

At that time, I had been mowing the front lawn next door, but the back was too much for my mower. I got connected with the property manager, Ray, who immediately responded to my concerns about the lawn. Since then I've had a handful of conversations with him, all of which have been equally positive.

Several weeks back, folks were at the house doing some work, which included removing some of the windows upstairs and covering the openings with a heavy plastic covering.  While I wasn't completely sure what the intent was, I was happy that some work had started, as my last conversation with the Land Bank was that grant money had been secured and that work would be starting in the spring.

I did talk to Ray around Thanksgiving to let him know that some of the sheeting on the windows had come loose, and at that time he let me know that work would "be starting soon." We wished each other happy holidays, and I figured (especially with the update about the grant in the back of my mind) we'd see some action on the house sometime after the first of the year.

But what to my wondering eyes did appear this morning?  A dumpster!

Yet again, hope springs - and if the work that was done on another Land Bank house up the block is any indication, we're in for a nice transition in my neck of the woods.

I can't wait for them to get started!