Today, I looked at one of the smaller neighborhoods located along Liberty Road, in this case with it’s entrance at Gerardi Road.  This appears to be an amalgamation of houses built by several different builders (some of my favorites were located along Kingsbury and were very forward-facing, with nice porches).

There were really two especially noticeable things to me here.  First, people within the neighborhood are willing to adopt creative solutions from their neighbors.  I saw two houses with garages converted into Florida rooms.  The idea of garage-as-living-space is not new–I’ve found it’s very common.  But these rooms took things a step further with the degree of furnishing and the addition of a sun screen curtain.  Residents here also have found a solution to unsightly manhole covers (another common sight in Lexington), by decorating them with large potted plants.   But something else is evident here: this neighborhood has a serious concrete problem.  For a neighborhood built in the late 90’s, the sidewalks and driveways are in generally terrible shape, though it varies quite a bit from house to house.  I’m guessing, but I think the culprit may be salt for melting ice (and which I’ve also seen used on snow in lieu of shoveling).  But perhaps the concrete is to blame as well, as even some concrete slabs appear to be deteriorating.

The good: unique solutions, and a willingness to imitate neighbors.

The bad: concrete.