Purpose of pink house baffles reader

From the gas pumps at the Citgo station on Newberry Road near NW 39th Road, Esther Nordlie eyed the house across the street with curiosity.

It is pink, with a pillared front porch and a tall brick chimney. It has lacy white curtains and a trellis on its east side. It stands about thigh-high.

Nordlie eventually grew curious enough about the miniature pink house to write to Since You Asked to find out why it was built, when, by whom, and why it now sits on Newberry Road.

The house sits in the shadow of Matchmaker Realty, which moved into the building on Newberry Road about two years ago. When they moved in, the Realtors, who are in the business of making properties look their best to sell, bristled when they saw a tangle of unsightly utility pipes in front of the building.

"It was just ugly, basically," said Rosa M. Travis, who owns the business.

They talked about buying fake rocks to hide the pipes, but the plan never materialized.

Then, they noticed a sheet of plywood from a remodeling project had gone missing.

"I said, 'Someone stole our wood,' " said Scott Arvin, a Matchmaker Realtor and Travis' son in law.

Actually, Realtor Maureen Hays had taken the plywood with a resourceful idea in mind that would serve as a way to hide the utility pipes, and about a week later, Hays drove up with the newly constructed tiny pink house in the back of her truck.

The plywood house, which has a hinged roof that lets utility workers look inside, has covered the pipes ever since.

Hays, who has a background in construction, said the house was a natural choice for a real-estate firm. At one point, the tiny house even had a tiny Matchmaker Realty sign in front of it.

Nordlie isn't the first passerby or customer to ask what it's doing there.

"There were some joggers one morning who were walking around it, staring at it, and they eventually lifted the roof to see what was underneath," said Realtor Gia Arvin, Travis' daughter.

Like homeowners sprucing up a house for sale, those at Matchmaker Realty have plans to bring the tiny house back to its just-built state. For starters, Rosa Travis said, it could use a fresh coat of pink paint before they set a new tiny Matchmakers Real Estate sign out front.

But the sign will just be for show, she said. The house is definitely not for sale.

Amy Reinink can be reached at (352) 374-5088 or reinina@gvillesun.com.