Out of the Clear Blue Sky

Virtually anywhere you go in the United States of America, guaranteed, you’ll see one in every neighborhood: The house that sticks out like a raisin in a glass of milk.

Sometimes it’s the nicest house on the block. Sometimes it’s the one in disrepair. But always, it’s the one that makes you wonder, “What’s their story?”

In Bed-Stuy, if you live anywhere near Dekalb Avenue, between Franklin and Classon Avenues, I’m sure you’ve seen one very outspoken and special frame house that pre-dates even the brownstones.

The first and most obvious contrast of the house at 477 Dekalb is that it sits directly across from the Lafayette Gardens housing developments-- a true Goliath to its David. The second surprise is the house’s color – an interesting blend of sky- and baby-blue.

The house sits up high and away from the sidewalk. And where there would normally be a large garden is a massive cemented pasture lined with scores of potted artificial flowers.

To call the house an oddity would actually cheapen its effect. Because, more than anything, it’s a breath of fresh air. In fact, I double-dare anyone to walk by and manage to not smile.

Yesterday, I finally caught the house’s owner, Anne Maldonado, standing outside, in her cemented garden, tending to her artificial flowers. And yesterday, I finally got up the nerve to inquire about her story…

It turns out that ten years ago, Ms. Maldonado and her faithful tenant Anthony Dimaggio, went through a years-long nightmare of dealing with rat infestation. Ms. Maldonado said, when she purchased the house 15 years ago, one of the reasons she bought it was because of its beautiful garden.

But soon after she moved in, she learned she was sharing her home (and her garden) with a whole family of rats that ran all day long between her house and the open trash dumpsters in Lafayette Gardens. The rats were burrowing through her garden into the floorboards of her home.

She tried filling the holes with poison, traps, everything.  But nothing seemed to work. Finally, she decided to just cement up her front yard to stop the invasion.

It worked. The rats were gone! But so was her beloved garden.

So, to brighten up the look of her newly cemented pasture, she decided to paint the house a sunny blue and surround it with a variety of artificial flowers.

Today, Ms. Maldonado enjoys keeping the outside of her house sunny and treats her artificial flowers with as much attention and care as she would her live ones.

“All the time when people walk past the house, they do a double-take,” said Maldonado coyly. “Then when they see me outside, they always compliment me and say that they always wondered about this house and that they like all of my pretty flowers…

“I’m just happy I can make people smile.”

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