May 10th - Weekly Update
Good evening, everyone! Jim is out of town for a few days and asked me to do the news write-up this week.
I hope you all had a wonderful day! Since it was overcast all day, I thought it was a great day for gardening as the hot sun wasn’t beating down on me. I was outside all day, planting new flowers in pots in our front flower bed as well as putting new plants in pots on our lanai. I spend 8-9 hours per day Monday thru Friday inside in front of a computer so I LOVE being outside in the garden on Saturdays!
Lately as I’ve been walking Toby I’ve noticed so many neighbors doing “beautification” projects: cleaning up flower beds, planting new plants, power washing sidewalks and driveways. I don’t know how many of you walk, jog, or bike ride through our community, but have you noticed it’s looking better? I’ve had a few neighbors (and ex-neighbors!) mention to me recently that our Village is looking really nice! I snapped a few photos as Toby and I walked this week.
Our new landscaper, Mint Condition, has been systematically working through the neighborhood to clean up and trim bushes in common areas, homes, and at the front entrance. Don’t worry! If they haven’t been to your house yet, they will be soon. They’ve been removing dead plant debris and putting in new plants to give our common area beds some color. When done, they will mulch these areas. They will soon start outside our gates on Venice Avenue to clean up and add some color there. Our community will soon be a showplace that others are jealous of! A very big THANK YOU to Valerie Correiro and Bev Kerbdle for the time they spent walking the property with Trey (owner of Mint Condition) to share their ideas!
And have you been up to the clubhouse to see our butterfly garden? Roxy and Dwight did an outstanding job on this project! Now that the area is mulched (and has a cute little fence!), it looks terrific!
Another area of “beautification” is paint colors. Our ByLaws suggest painting the exterior of your home every five years. We just had the exterior of our house painted in December. We have always liked our color scheme so we kept it the same. But what if you DON’T like your color scheme? Did you know there are currently THIRTEEN approved color schemes for you to choose from if you’re thinking about painting the exterior of your home? They’re all listed on the last page of our Rules and Regulations. But would you like to be unique and choose something completely different? Then create your own color scheme! Your color scheme needs to include three colors: one for the body of the house, one for the trim, and one for the front door (garage doors will continue to be the same color as the trim). Go check out color schemes in other communities or go to the Venice Sherwin Williams paint store to get some ideas. Pick up sample swatches of your three colors, label your three color swatches B, T, and D, put them into an envelope that contains your name, address, and email then drop them off to me at 11494 Blackfin Street. THANK YOU to the folks who dropped off their ideas for color schemes to me already! If I get enough submissions, you can all vote for your favorite and the three schemes that get the most votes will be added to the existing list of color schemes (and there may be prizes for those who submitted them!)
Deadline for dropping off your sample swatches to me is Saturday, May 31. Let’s add some new colors to our Village!
It was nice seeing some rain fall earlier this evening. I’m hoping for some major downpours tomorrow and Monday to water our landscaping and fill our ponds. Stay dry, all!