In a round-about, ambiguous way the seller made it sound like a private lake was in the deal. But, it wouldn’t be a lake that belonged only to him, the buyer. The seller just made it sound that way; and was apparently very convincing.
…The new owner of the ten acre parcel asked me to design a pair of piers. Each would be fifty feet long, eight feet wide, and end in a twenty-four foot diameter gazebo, a pavilion with a multi-tiered pagoda-style roof topped with an open-air cupola. In addition, the pair of tiered piers would be built on opposing lake shores, one on his side, and one directly across the water. They would point at each other, a balanced scene beautiful to behold.
…The plat map revealed that, along with his ten acres, six other tracts all met along a common property line that split the lake evenly between them. I showed this to him, but his response showed me that he had been fooled by a less than genuine land merchant. To my comment of, “You share the lake with six others,” he responded, “That’s not right. I own the whole lake. The others just get to look at it.” Even when I pressed to point out, that of his two waterside structures, the far tiered pier was actually on someone else’s property, he argued, “That’s not my problem. The lake is mine.”
…I offered to draw one pier in the right spot, but he said it was two or nothing, so I didn’t get the job. But, I prefer to think of it as avoiding a pair or tier-piered pains.
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