Comments on neighborhood annoyances always make me feel fortunate. I live in a neighborhood of 1920s houses in a walkable area. Lots of dogs here, including a dog trainer that boards for training nearby, but there is never barking as the dogs are walked. A big contrast to my family neighborhood in rural northern AZ where every other house seems to have a dog on a chain in the yard, or high fences. I have never seen a dog walked there, but any of my walks become a gauntlet of baying dogs. I’m just glad they are contained by the chains and fences.
There are no lawn care sounds for the most part either, as folk use electric mowers for the most part or as I do, the old reel type. With regular sharpening it functions well, if perhaps with a less polished result.
I get highly annoyed at people speeding down the street-unsafe for kids and a rare outdoor cat.
My neighbor I know is annoyed with my black raspberry bushes, which occasionally pop up in her property. I try hard to keep them well trimmed back, but roots are hard to control.
We are rural. 3 wooded acres. Thank God, LOL. But we do have new neighbors 2nd house in on the main road who are “messy”. Lots of “stuff” around the house and in the yard, downed trees and limbs not picked up. I wish he’d take a little more pride in his place.
I am rural too, and grateful for it! Zero neighbor complaints! Of course few neighbors mean we still have dial up internet because to have cable you have to have 10 houses per mile and we don’t.
@abasket oooh, this one gets us, our part time neighbor is into burning everything, but never hot & roaring, always smoldery/smoky. Our house is uphill from them and we have to close all the windows on two sides of the house when they burn as we are smoke sensitive.
Our neighbors are nice but very messy. The husband is a contractor and starts projects at his house but doesn’t finish. They have a half finished addition in the backyard, a window replaced in the front but not finished, etc…The garage is full of stuff. The small driveway has an RV, boat and toy trailer. They have 2 adult children so they park four cars on the street. He collects things on his jobs. He probably has 30 ladders in his backyard. Last year a family of skunks was were living under his backyard shed. His dogs are great but he has a short white picket fence in the front yard (that is falling apart) and they harass every dog that walks by.
I feel lucky to have no neighbor annoyances after living here for 17 years. Empty lot to the north, owned by the neighbor on the other side. Every time my husband asks if he can trim ivy or trees on that lot, the neighbor says sure, thank you! Neighbor on the other side, we rarely see the wife, but the husband is amazing! He’s mid eighties, and on his bike, sharp as a tack every time I see him. We always pretend that we’re trying to run each other over, and he always has something hilarious and interesting to say. The next house over, nicest and most accommodating people ever.
We’ve definitely had less than optimum neighbors before, so I know how fortunate we are.
We are lucky to have really wonderful neighbors in our immediate vicinity. In the wider neighborhood, my only real annoyance is that people love to set off backyard fireworks all throughout the summer. Makes walking my dogs challenging - just as we’re at the furthest point from the house, one goes off and the dogs panic heave and pull to get home asap.
As far as what we do to annoy…we have an annual summer backyard party that goes LATE and is generally LOUD (my H rigs up a huge sound system for music). We usually invite all of the surrounding neighbors as a proactive move to ensure they don’t call the police So far, they never have, but I’m sure they have a few choice words about us each year.
I’ve called the senior help line for the ‘falling’ neighbors but was told there was nothing they can do until the neighbors ask for help. They won’t. Even her son, who is very nice but lives 800 miles away, can’t get her to accept any help.
I’ve told him I don’t want to see him shoveling or using the snowblower. Once when he was in the hospital they let the other neighbor use it and that guy didn’t know how to do it! He was blowing the snow from their driveway into his driveway that had cars parked in it. (They since moved and the new neighbors have been remodeling the house for more than a year so don’t live there yet).
I used to worry. Now I just accept it. My brother asked me if I’d read anything on Next door about the ambulance on our street at 4 am. Nope, but it was up the street about 6 houses, so must have been another neighbor. We live in a 'transitioning neighborhood, so there are a few older people living here still. Ambulances aren’t unusual.
Here’s a follow up to my good neighbor/bad neighbor story mentioned above: We notified the good neighbors across the street about a HUGE tree that had a large hole in the trunk. They sent a thank you email and today the tree is coming down.
If I were the neighbor, I’d be sending you a lot more than an email! A bottle of wine or a gift certificate for a nice dinner. That was a disaster waiting to happen.
We just had a tree taken down at the apartment complex I manage. It was much shorter than then one pictured here and cost $375 with the stump still here. The stump will cost an additional $125 to take out.
There were at least 5 people working here all day, with ropes and saws and chippers and a tractor thing that picked up the logs and branches that didn’t fit into the chipper and dumped them in a huge truck. Several trucks were here on and off throughout the day. It must have been $$$$
I am tempted to look into the cost of having someone trim a very large overhanging branch over our driveway. The neighbors have a huge pine tree that drops numerous pine cones and smaller branches all the time onto our driveway, front yard, and sidewalk near our house. I’m tired of picking all that up! So, yes, an annoyance!
So far, they never have, but I’m sure they have a few choice words about us each year.
All he said was “good call”. I said we dodged a bullet. Can’t imagine what it cost to take down.