The House of Many Colours

When Sheryl, her daughter, and the sleazy drunk guy were evicted from the building above a year and a half ago so that the owners could renovate it, we never expected the changes to come.

First the house was painted a dark cherry red, which I didn't photograph immediately, not knowing that this paint job would only last all of of three days. (This photoshopped picture gives a rough idea of how it looked).

Then both sides were repainted a sort of wild salmon color (on the left) with the pale sage green below. For some reason, Magnifico kept saying it looked like McDonald's. Today, however, two weeks later, it is in the process of being repainted again. This time a dark greyish brown (on the right).

The door has been replaced, once thus far, with this unusual door surfaced with old tin.

The owner, or someone in charge, is clearly of many minds about what colour he or she likes best. And seems to not really know how they feel about the colour until the entire building has been painted. These many changes in such a short period of time remind me of when I was a waitress in Amsterdam many years ago at a French restaurant called Katy Blue. It was named after an amalgamation of the chef/owner's ex-girlfriend and the movie 'Betty Blue' whose main character is a mentally unstable woman. This in itself was not a fortuitous beginning. The owner was a petite dapper French man in his mid-thirties who smoked a lot of pot. He'd taken over the space when it was a successful French restaurant under a different owner. Although he'd inherited the old restaurant's clientele, they soon began to dine elsewhere when he made some major changes to the decor and menu. He was then convinced that all he needed to do was change the decor and menu again. And again. In the month or two I worked there he changed the decor, our uniforms and the menu five times. Only the doomed name stayed the same. He eventually had to let go of the entire staff save for one line cook. I wonder if this building is off to as great a start as my old place of employment.

Funnily enough we ran into Sheryl and her daughter by the subway station a month or so ago. They ended up moving only a couple of blocks away. Sheryl was in an ecstatic mood as her daughter had beaten out several other aspiring singers and was scheduled to sing live at the Apollo. Unfortunately, sleazy drunk guy is also still in the neighbourhood. Apparently he has tried to grab and fondle Little Joe's best friend while she and her mom were out running errands, more than once. When we started bad mouthing him to Sheryl she rolled her eyes and said, "Well he's family, so what can I say." And then she told us he was (currently? or had been?) upstate somewhere at a mental institution.

As for the tenants to come, we've recently seen a Hasidic Jewish man and a young woman with a shorn head, piercings and tattoos standing on the sidewalk staring up at the fresh coat of wild salmon and discussing the house. But I think they're likely the owners, not new tenants, as the interior of the house isn't finished yet. Their seemingly odd association might account however for the continuing changes of the building's exterior. I can't wait to see what comes next.