How Are Your Neighbors?

[Poppy Fields]

Poppy Fields -- sounds like a great little town, especially if you have Trader Joe's!! Enjoy it.

My son lives in Kennett Square and they are within walking distance of all the little shops and restaurants, too.

Our oldest son lives in Kennett Square, too! He and his puppy live on the border of the Brandywine Conservancy, so he and the pup have the run of 500 acres I love the town, too. Great dining, shops, farmers' market, and people. I wonder if our kids know each other.

[Poppy Fields]

Oh man! This thread really caught my eye. I've been living in my place for 3 years now. It's a duplex so I live in half of the basement (separate everything). For the first two years 3 university-aged people lived upstairs. It wasn't too bad, though they had a penchant for being really loud in the bedroom and never left me room to park! This year though, a family of 7 have moved in and the two teenage boys have the other half of the basement. Since the end of August when they moved in the smoke detector has gone off 7 times, the boys swear up a blue streak when they're playing their video games (and sometimes when they're not), the younger kids like to run around, and generally there is no sleeping in to speak of. At least I have a consistent parking spot? I'm trying not to be too annoyed, but my patience is wearing thin. I've spoken to the landlord in passing, but if it doesn't get any better I'll be making my concerns known. I'm just horrible at confrontations.

7 kids? It makes me wonder what the square footage of their residence is, and if there a occupancy laws in your local housing code?

[JavaJo]

While I got lucky in the neighbor department, my best friend didn't fair so well. Her neighbor is a strange one. She spies on them from her kitchen window and her yard looks terrible. She plants things. All kinds of things. She has planted doors (makeshift trellis?), table legs (yes, I said table legs), and a cast iron bed frame. All just sticking out of the ground in odd places...lol. And she paints them all odd colors. She also painstakingly stripped a small tree of all of it's leaves and placed old colored glass bottles on each branch. Just stuck the little branches into the necks and left it there. Eccentric much?

[VelvetRed]

A blooming artist or "re-use" fanatic? Guess it's better than a big pile of trash.

There's a property near here where a very elderly man would hang bleach and other plastic bottles from his fence and trees, with rusted wire. Oh, and beer bottles, too. I never did figure it out, except it was on the roadside, so maybe he was trying to scare animals (or birds?) away.

I like eclectic decor, too, but within reason. It has to look good (but that's subjective, I guess).

Maybe your friend could plant a thick hedge (that would be quicker than pine or other trees). There's a type with red-edged green leaves that grows big in one season. It can grow 6 feet tall, I think. I'd say a privacy fence, but might have to get neighbor's permission (unless it's inside your friend's property line and then neighbor wouldn't be able to legally paint/decorate her side of it, either).

[canuckinchile]

Not my neighbour, but close by: Hubcap crosses with sheet metal Jesus'. And varying hubcap "art" The whirligigs look pretty tame next to these things. The shutters are all painted green except for one window that has yellow ones. My daughter took a picture of it before they took everything down (were trying to sell). I wish I could find it, since it was pretty, erm, spectacular.

[VelvetRed]

There is also a place on the edge of town, on a major undivided highway. It has a big plywood sign in the yard, and he would paint political statements or sometimes obscure questions on it. So obscure that you had no idea what they meant. Plus it's in a speed zone that was too fast to even read it sometimes. I don't know if there were ever any wrecks from people slowing down to read.

What was he thinking? The new owners painted it a solid color and haven't written on it (yet).

[AZChristian]

We live in an "active senior adult community" here in Arizona. Our HOA board members have lots of time on their hands to mail out notes when properties don't meet the HOA standards, so palm trees are all trimmed, all the rock yards are weeded, and no one is permitted to hang weird stuff off the cacti. Half of our neighbors are gone for 6 months out of the year, so it's pretty quiet.

Based on what I've been reading in this thread, I'm feeling very blessed right now!

[VelvetRed]

The "neighbors from Hell" topic came up in a discussion. One woman said "we WERE the neighbors from Hell". It was funny, but I think she was being serious. At least she said it in past tense...

Regarding lawn care and such, I don't get upset about that. Somebody might be disabled, or having a money crunch.

But one neighbor I used to have, actually 2 different ones, were dumping their litter boxes over my property line. The first one wouldn't drive me to get my dog to the vet (so I could hold her), and when I got home hours later, he was picking pecans out of my yard. The second one, would also dump her leftovers and food discards over the fence, too.

Oh, and a 3rd...I was sleeping in one morning after working untl the wee hours, and she picked ALL the ripe peaches off my trees. My vehicle was parked in the usual place, too. My dog was barking so I went outside and caught her. She took the peaches (I should have insisted she turn over all but a bowl of them), and a day or so later, she left ONE PIECE of peach pie in a paper bag in my mailbox!!! Not even a ziploc baggie. When I told a 4th neighbor about it (who was a good neighbor), she said that the 5th neighbors took ALL their peaches, too, almost every year.

These people were all on the same street, and I had been very nice to them, LOL. Can you imagine?

[Gutmutter]

We have covenants in this town which state you must keep your lawn mowed and your property neat. I cannot complain to the Resident Architectural Committee since both neighbors would know who complained.

Anybody got some workable ideas? Thanks.

Good fences make good neighbors. Is that a viable solution? You can enjoy your yard without having to look at theirs, keep the bike off the lawn, and maybe give them a hint.

[canadian_angel]

Yuck! I don't know what the landlord can do. With that many kids, there's going to be noise and movement. Can you afford to move?

I wish! Housing here is ridiculous. We hit a market boom and now everything's at least 40% inflated. So for what I pay and what I could get with it, it would not be worth it at all!

7 kids? It makes me wonder what the square footage of their residence is, and if there a occupancy laws in your local housing code?

There's 5 kids (2 adults). In all honesty, I cannot imagine the family wanting to live here for much longer. However, I do not know when moving out would be a possibility. They moved here from another province and prior to that were from out of country.