Where I live in Florida is a small gated community around 30 properties and whilst you would think that everyone should be close friends and support each other, it wasn’t always the case. In fact after living here for just 2 years I decided to get my garden renovated and thought that I’d call on a neighbor Ron Cadman, who specializes in this. A fellow neighbor had told me that his work wasn’t so great, and advised me against using him. I never wanted to use my neighbor to get some kind of discount or anything like that, I just wanted to offer some support and have a tradesman who lived nearby, and so I decided to render his services. I was so happy with the work and here is why you should always call on a neighbor where possible.
Supporting
Following the great work that Ron did on the garden I was more than happy to tell everyone who I knew about the great job which he had done. Before we knew it Ron had 3 other properties in the community asking for him to complete some work, and 2 more after that. The lady who told me not to use Ron could have caused a great amount of damage to his business and there was no foundations for her wrongful accusation of fraud.
Two Way Street
When Ron did the job for us I have no doubt that he shaved off some prices here and there because I was a neighbor, I didn’t ask for this but I am of course grateful. Around 6 months after the work was completed Ron came over and asked to see my wife who is a tax accountant. As it turned out Ron needed some help with his tax return and Carole was more than happy to give him a hand. We didn’t charge Ron at all for this help but he came over the following week with a very nice bottle of wine to say thank you. We enjoyed the wine with him and this helped ur friendship to blossom.
Community
Since I hired Ron our two families have formed quite a bond and his neighbors and our neighbors now speak a lot more because of the social events which we have both put on. Bringing together the community is not always difficult, it is just about breaking down some barriers which people have put up.
Great Work
Here in the USA homes with beautiful gardens are worth much more and this was part of the motivation for getting the work done. Whether he always delivers at this standard or whether he went the extra mile because I am a neighbor is something which I’m not sure about, but I do know that he has done an amazing job on the garden and it is so nice to have someone so skilled living just around the corner. Thank goodness I didn’t listen to that neighbor!
