Sunday, July 15, 2007

Stupid neighbor wars.

I've completely figured out why the older you get, the more you want to move to the country.

While maybe its nice to have a slower pace. I'm guessing the main reason is, you just want more space between you and your neighbors.

It's really stupid what causes neighbors to get all territorial. For instance.. I just want to be able to park my cars on the street in front of my house. I have just enough room on my property to do so. If its trash day - like today. I'd really like to be able to put my cans out so the trash truck can access them easily.

My neighbor however, who almost always has 5 cars - feels our house is an extension of their property. So, they park in front of our house about 70% of the time. When they could actually fit all their cars on their side of the street.

I'm not sure who isn't aware neighbors get all crotchety about this kind of thing.

Even when I have a million contractors at my house, I'll walk over and ask if the neighbor minds if we park in front of their house for a few hours. Just to let them know we aren't making a habit of using their space. Its just a nice thing to do.

Sometimes I think I'm the only one who makes an effort not to piss off the neighbors.

Well... maybe that is a little bit too extreme. The neighbor with the dog has been making a very nice effort to not piss us off lately. Which I really appreciate. Even thought I still would have liked him to have made the effort before I got annoyed in the first place.

It doesn't even take that much extra effort to prevent a neighbor problem before it happens. Most of the time they feel happy you considered their feelings.

Stay tuned for the other reasons this neighbor is driving me nuts.

9 comments:

  1. While we were moving, we pulled into our street one morning to find that one of our neighbors had parked IN OUR DRIVEWAY!!!!!! Then when Sarge went to ask him to move his car, he acted all put out and then took 10 minutes (I kid you not) to come out and move his car.
    This is the same guy I found out later played his music so loud one night that the other neighbors called the police. He then proceded to ignore their knocking and jacking up the music more. This of course pissed the cops off so much that they drew their sidearms and threatened to kick down the door. This was on Christmas Eve.

    I don't understand why people who are living in such close proximity to other people cant be considerate.

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  2. My neighbors are all old and retired, so they get pissed over the stupidest shit: newspaper left on the doorstep all day (even though I'm at work when it gets delivered), the porch light bulb has been burnt out for a few days, bicycle not to be stored on the balcony, etc.

    Stupid.

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  3. We are having similar problems next door. The landlord has started to rent the duplex next door to university students the last two years. Each student has a car so that makes five (one guy is living there with his girlfriend-not on the lease). There looks to be more square footage in their cars than in the apartment! HA! One time they parked the boyfriend's car in front of our house and left it there for a month and a half (broken down we found out later) while he was in Mexico. So, we finally started calling the police when their cars were in front of our house over 48 hours (our city rule.) I keep one of ours up front and when a guest wants to come over, I move that car to let the guest park there and then move it back quickly when they leave. It is crazy! It is a rural town--not downtown Manhattan. So, today...they called the police on our car in front of our house. I never even thought to call on their vehicles that are OFTEN not moved for a week in front of their duplex. That is really mean. The one formally broken down car is now further down the street and hasn't moved for two weeks again. I mentioned that to the p;police when they talked to me about ours. I can't wait until these little brats graduate. They are obviously are pretty spoiled. As it stands now, I do not invite clubs over and my band practices elsewhere because it is too hard to lug instruments from far away. Ideas/ I guess I should de-escalate by letting them park wherever but something inside me is not happy be so dissed. I asked nicely for one parking space for quests in front of my own home.

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  4. Inconsiderate neighbors SUCK! My neighbor has his stereo located outside on his porch which he turns his music on with loads of bass. The bass is in direct fire to my living room and kitchen area. Every weekend at 10 am it goes on! What can I do?

    The car thing would drive me NUTS too.

    Good Luck everyone, hope your neighbor issues are ironed out soon.

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  5. If your neighbor has the dreaded barking dog, there are things you can do:

    1: Build a bunker in your basement to use as a bedroom. For extra credit you can sleep in an Altered States tank.

    2: Get a camera with microphone and record it as evidence.

    3: Once you get the evidence you make DVD copies so the police can see it, any judges, and of course the neighbor with suitable warning. Post an excerpt to Youtube.

    4: Sue him for the cost of the bunker and tank!

    The fun question is WHY the neighbor with the dog isn't annoyed. Easy. It's like the pilot of a 747 taking off at 3 AM over a neighborhood. He's never bothered by his plane's noise!

    5: If all else fails, now that you have the bunker, get yourself a bigger, louder dog and take advantage of the bunker providing "747 syndrome"!

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  6. That is actually really clever.

    I liked the altered state tank. Which makes me think I should make more money. Bring in some heavy equipment, and try to have a giant Olympic sized pool installed.
    It doesn't matter I don't have that much land. And the neighbors wont mind the noise. Right? Oh - then I should sue them for the cost of the pool install.

    I mean - if I can sue them for my basement bunker - all bets are off. Come to think of it - our ridiculous legal system would probably let me do that. Then all I'd have to worry about is getting pruney.

    Hey - can you explain why parents let their kids cry in restaurants?

    Love the sarcasm.

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  7. Barking dog solution: Our neighbors dogs barked when the people would leave (all day long. So my hubby went online and bough a bark B gone device. When the dogs barked, it emitted a noise (instructions swear it only deters behavior and does not harm hearing, etc) high pitched noise. it worked. we have loaned it out to friends and family. downside: the idiot neighbors lied and said we used bb guns to shoot dogs and that is why they stopped going on that side of their home. But alas, when asked to produce evidence, (bbs, video, hurt pups) they could not. No more barks.

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  8. My neighbor complained after one night of my dog barking the first night we moved in and she was scared. Now that she doesn't bark he continues to complain because he has nothing better to do. He just doesn't want a neighbor,and we each have a half acre. Crotchety old bastard he is.

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  9. My neighbor goes on our lawn and sprays weed killer because he said our lawn is making his get weeds. We mow our lawn like everyone else, but with young kids and pets we do not want to, or should have to use pesticides. Then our neighbor cuts our hibiscus plant (on our property because he said it got flowers in his central air) which he decided to put right next to it when he had other places he could put it. When he moved in he re did the entire house and made it huge, the bedroom window is right across from my bedroom, and he refuses to put up blinds. Not only can I see him and his girlfriend in bed, but while away he left that light on for 2 days and being it was summer and my window was open for air, I had to deal with light in my room for 2 nights! Now he installed a bright blue light in his yard that lights up to 2 yards, and leaves that on a night. And he has 5 dogs, he is the neighbor from hell.

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