"Neighbours" who needs them?

[PinkFloyd]

OK... here's my story short and sweet:

I moved into a beautiful little scottish fishing village in 1992 and it was like heaven, in fact it was like stepping back in time 100 years. So peaceful, so quiet and "so" unspoilt. The only noise you would hear would be the wind or the rain or the occasional seagull flying overhead. Idyllic........... until:

1998: Seems "moving to the countryside" was the fashionable thing to do so my, once, clear view of the sea and unimpeded walk down to the beach was replaced by 200 houses and "neighbours"

All went well for a while, everything seemed to remain as it was...... the same peace, the same quiet, the same idyllic life....... until:

2002: The house next door (which used to be a field) was occupied by new owners who brought with them a Jack Russel dog, an Irish Wolfhound, a border terrier, a german Shepherd and a border terrier....... oh, and a child that suffers from hyperactive behaviour.

2003: the house next door to them (used to be the same field) was occupied by a family who thinks everyone should listen to them....... they have an ugly teenage son who beats a drumkit for 4 hours every night, the younger son revs his fathers motorbike up for him for 45 minutes each morning (and I mean "revs") The "mother" spends 5 hours mowing the lawn with a petrol engined "strimmer" 4 times a week........ she could cut the "lawn" with a proper mower in 2 minutes as it's the size of a postage stamp.


These 2 families seem to operate a rota system. The dogs next door bark like mad for a few hours followed by an hour of the hyperactive child smashing his toys and screaming with the mother oblivious (ignorant) to the upset it may be causing those who have to live next to this Zoo.

As soon as they shut it (probably eating or mating) the drums kick in or the bike revs or that insane woman starts mowing her lawn with a strimmer.

Thing is........ there's no reasoning with these people..... they think they are entitled to live "their" lives "their" way with no regard to anyone else.

And this is supposed to be a village........ I just dread to think what's going down in the "real" world.

"neighbours" anyone else feel like buying a bazooka and blowing them away?

Don't get me wrong, 99% of the village is populated with really really good people........ I'm unfortunate that the 1% that are noisy have moved in next to me.

Pinkie.

 

[D-EJ915]

I have essentially no interaction with my neighbors except when I go over to my friend's house up the street. I don't care about them, and they don't care about me. It works.

I voted the "whatever" option (undecided), I could go with nobody, but it's nice to have people around.

 

[lan]

I have pretty hot neighbors.

I voted "Yes, I love to look at their underwear on the clothes rope"

 

[radrd]

Good neighbors are awesome.

We have neighbors on one side of our house who are an older couple with no dogs or children. They are very nice people who keep an eye on our house and don't mind watching our dog when we go out of town. Our dog isn't very loud, so I'd like to think that we are good neighbors too, as we feed their cat and look out for their house when they go out of town.

Bad neighbors suck.

On the other side of our house, we have criminal neighbors who loudly fight with their children, probably abuse them IMO. These children never seem to leave home and blast loud music at all hours of the night. One of their kids burned down our back field (no one was hurt). Furthermore, their house is in severe disrepair.

I voted for invisible neighbors.

 

[aerius]

One of my neighbours was a MILF, and life was good, but then she moved away. Since then I haven't seen my neighbours in years.

 

[Braver]

yep, neighbours suck. the neighbour on the one side for some reason feels the need to drill holes in his walls at least once a week. which sucks even more if he starts at 10am and I have a hangover

the other one has a terrible choice of music, combined with deafness (at least, at the levels he's cranking it, he should be by now). and if it's not Mariah Carey or something cheesy from the 80s, he practices his bass (which is better than trumpet, which was what he tried a couple of months before). and he's seriously terrible at it too. just seems to be random patterns of notes, played at random speeds. you can feel the walls and furniture vibrating (I kid you not).


-end of vent-

 

[Earwax]

I have two neighbors who seem to be in love with their gasoline powered toys, mowers, blowers, trimmers, earth movers, you name it. One is an all-round sweet guy who plows my driveway when it snows and wants nothing in return so I forgive him his noisy toys. The other is a stuck up jerk who's always yelling at his wife, I wish he'd go away or at the very least least run out of gasoline.

There's two or three barking dogs around but they don't bother me at all.

At least all these people seem to be basicly honest and safe to be around, unlike the place I lived before, where there were a couple of wackos I felt VERY uncomfortable around.

 

[sacd lover]

I love my neighbors. They are all outgoing and talkative. All the kids in the neighborhood are friendly and polite; even the teenagers. My dog Maggy has her own fanclub, with all the kids and half their parents coming out to see her whenever I go past. My half hour walks usually take 45-50 minutes by the time everyone pets Maggie, but I have a great time talking to everyone. There is never any vandalism or undue noise and everybody keeps up their property and looks out for one another. I must be very lucky.

 

[wallijonn]

find what the town noise ordinances are. the put in a complaint with the cops. if there no town ordinances, then join the town council and pass some.

 

[Lil_JV]

Hilarious post! My neighbors to the right of me have the most anoying dog in the world! I am not over exaggerating when I say it barks 12 hours a day. I am also anoyed by the neighbors to the left of me. As I type they have 12 cars(all theirs) on their driveway whos total value add up to about $5000. And their garage! Oh the humanity! They have a special POS truck that they start up once a year to hall away the $hit that piled up that year. And this is an ongoing cycle.

JV.

 

[ServinginEcuador]

I voted yes, bu invisible. I love to have our neighbors over and spend time with them, I just don't like having their music or other noises invading our apartment. Other than the noise issue I'm pretty cool in every other respect.

 

[The_Mac]

I live in a great neighbourhood. Napping in a hammock in the summer is a common occurrence for a lot of us, we have the occasional block party/barbeque, and nobody is all that noisy or anything.

worst noise is normally the sound of a lawnmower in the afternoon.

 

[Edwood]

Neighbors are fine where I live now.

It is a very quiet neighborhood.

It's the landlords I hate.........

this can be solved by owning a home.

Neighbors can be reasoned with. Landlords have to be sued or threatened monitarily.

-Ed

 

[Demolition]

Here's a story about my neighbours...

The couple living on one side of my property are quiet and keep to themselves. They've been there for about ten years, but we haven't said more than ten words to each other in that time. Meanwhile, the couple on the other side were friendly and talkative. They'd been there for about five years, along with the husband's elderly mother. They seemed like nice folks. I say "seemed like" because they turned out to be not so nice in reality.

On January 30, at 1:45 am, I smelled smoke in the house. I checked up- and downstairs, but there was nothing amiss, so I looked out my front door and noticed that the friendly couple's house was on fire. I called 911, then ran over there and pounded on the front door but there was no answer. The door was very warm and I had visions of "Backdraft" in my mind, but I booted it down. I called inside, but couldn't get in due to the smoke and heat. The fire department arrived quickly (there are two stations within a 5 minute drive) and they knocked the fire down rapidly. I feared that the couple had been trapped inside, but luckily, they were away.

Then, the police and the power company arrived and dropped the bombshell -- the couple were stealing power for a fairly large marijuana grow-op. Their makeshift wiring overloaded, and the house went up. I had an inkling about that because the smoke was incredibly thick and black. It was pouring out of every crack and crevice, and also straight out the chimney. In my previous career, we occasionally were drafted into fighting forest fires. The only times that I've seen smoke like that is when completely sodden vegetation burns.

The couple returned the next day to sift through their belongings and I went over there to see if they needed anything, e.g. food, clothing, toiletries, or other necessities. Well, the friendly demeanor was completely gone. After enduring the evil eye and some nastiness, I just turned around and left.

Anyway, that's why I voted "Undecided". Just because you have an outwardly friendly neighbour, it doesn't mean that you have a good neighbour. I had considered my standoffish neighbours as "bad neighbours". But, in retrospect, I prefer neighbours like them -- because they're not two-faced, lying criminals.

(Note: since the fire, my quiet neighbours have chatted me up a few times, and even had me over for tea. They're not such bad folk after all.

)

D.