Thursday, May 1, 2003 | 11:14 a.m.
Dennis and Shirley Nordin say their front yard is a tableau of self-expression. Among the Mardi Gras beads and bright lights are a yo-yo tree, an alligator mounted on the roof and a skeleton riding a bicycle.
To the Nordins, their front yard is a work of art.
To their neighbors it's a piece of work, an eyesore that has hurt property sales and increased neighborhood traffic.
To the city of Las Vegas it's a perplexing problem that pits individuals' First Amendment rights against laws governing public nuisances, and it may force the city to rewrite some of its laws.
The city attorney's office is currently reviewing the case after issuing a memo indicating it would be difficult to force something classified as artwork to be taken down under city nuisance laws.
"The city attorney doesn't think it's worth taking to court under the current ordinance," said David Semenza, manager of neighborhood response, which includes code enforcement. "It's on hold right now, but the city is looking into writing an ordinance that will deal with display of art and limit the amount of exposure you can have with art in a residential neighborhood."
The Nordins say Dennis started decorating the house at 6012 Oceanside Way, near Jones Boulevard and Cheyenne Avenue, after Shirley, his wife and partner of 25 years, was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema from years of smoking. She weighs only 96 pounds and is on oxygen.
She survived breast cancer 10 years ago and started to feel the effects of the pulmonary disease about three years ago. Doctors have told the couple that Shirley could live only a few more weeks, the Nordins said.
"This was his way of acceptance and something to do to keep him close to home for me," Shirley Nordin said. "The neighbors don't like his way of expressing grief, and they can't get me to die fast enough."
Dennis Nordin said it was around Halloween when he started working on his creation. It was a surprise for his wife, who was on her way home from a hospital visit.
As it stands now there is not a part of their home that's not decorated. In the front there are the decorated trees, a variety of knickknacks and even a multi-colored car -- which Nordin says is operable and about to be entered into an art show. It has mannequins inside and a flashy duck as a hood ornament.
The house's roof is home to a skeleton on a bicycle, alien heads and other figurines. On the east side of the home lies a collection of items such as skeletons and mannequin heads that Nordin says are "things we will all see throughout life," though some deem it "dark."
The back yard is filled with flowers and plants and a pet pig named Winnie. This is Shirley Nordin's "heaven," the couple says.
"I discovered an artistic ability and a relief for depression," Dennis Nordin said. "Something told me I really had something here. I had no idea when I started where it would go."
Neither did Esther Berman, who lives down the street from the Nordins.
"It wasn't this bad," said Berman of the early inception. "I never thought it would hold up the sale of my house."
Berman said her house was put up for sale last June but has not sold yet. She blames the Nordins' decorations.
"Not one person wants this house because of what's across the street," Berman said. "I think it's very unfair. He's only worried about his First Amendment rights, but what about my rights?"
City officials first went to the Nordins' home in 2001. In a memo a code enforcement officer wrote it was "just art in my opinion. We would be hard pressed to pursue this issue. His rights to display art as long as it is not pornographic or threatening should be upheld."
As the display expanded to cover most of the house, more complaints brought the city to the property again in January. In March the Nordins were sent a nuisance/litter abatement notice saying they were violating laws as they pertain to visible outside storage and illegally stored materials.
The city also said they were violating the city's nuisance law. The city law forbids "any act or condition which, by reason of its nature, character and/or location, interferes with the reasonable use and enjoyment of adjacent properties; or which has a detrimental effect upon adjacent property values."
The same month, however, the city attorney's office sent a memorandum saying that judging by the way the display is treated by the Nordins, it is "unlikely that any of the items fairly could be considered refuse or waste."
"Whatever impact the items may have on the enjoyment or value of adjacent properties, I don't believe a judge or other decision maker is likely to consider the items refuse or waste or consider them to be a nuisance," the city attorney's memo said.
Berman said she's not sympathetic to the Nordins because she has her own problems -- Berman and her husband can't afford their mortgage anymore and need to sell their home. They live on Social Security, she said.
"We have had it," she said. "This isn't a junkyard. It's a residential neighborhood. We have people driving by at all hours of the day and night just to look at this house."
Dennis Nordin says he doesn't have anything against his neighbors and says other people in the area have been able to sell their homes with no problems.
Nordin also says the additional traffic is a result of the neighbors making a big deal out of the house, not him.
"We don't tell people about the house," he said. "I don't have anything against the neighbors. My assumption is that they are envious. They are obsessed with getting (the stuff) off. They are ruining their own lives rather than living them."
As long as his wife is alive, Nordin says, he will continue to live his life through his art. He says he will fight to keep his yard as he sees fit. He has collected pictures of other homes in the Las Vegas Valley that have sculpted pieces or decorations similar to his.
"I don't know what I'm going to do when she dies," Nordin said. "Rather than take it all down I would rather bulldoze the house. But I don't know if I can do that legally."
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