just found out my partner at work is one of those people

pheller wrote:

spitfirebill wrote:

edwardh80 wrote: I'm not an American. I find it amusing and ironic that in the Land of the Free there is such a huge industry (HOA's etc) to control what people can and can't do on their personal plot of land.

I am an American and I find it just as strange.

I think it's because as Americans are slowly becoming more greedy and getting paid less, with less financial stability and less trust in retirement accounts, we've also become more focused on what our property is worth and the effect that inconsiderate neighbors might have on that property. People use property as nest eggs, and as such want to maintain and protect that investment. Housing is expensive to own and not everyone can afford to own their private 10 acres, so when you're forced to live amongst the plebs, you also still harbor that urge to protect that investment. Unlike cars, we can't just sue or use insurance as a way of claiming damage to the value of our investment. I can't sue my neighbors for being slobs if they ruin my investment.

I think it has much more to do with Mrs. Drysdales dislike of the Clampetts.

Today I got to walk 83 acres on Lake Keowee. It was interesting to see $1 million lake homes next to delapidated mobile homes.

I worked on this lake in the mid 70s and there weren't a handful of houses on it at that time.

spitfirebill wrote: Today I got to walk 83 acres on Lake Keowee. It was interesting to see $1 million lake homes next to delapidated mobile homes. I worked on this lake in the mid 70s and there weren't a handful of houses on it at that time.

And that's a case where the neighbors aren't going to stop the rise in prices, and even if they did, its all about the location.

The new neighbor that doesn't like my lights is a trip. I haven't talked to him because twice I've gone over to introduce myself and both times he pretended to get a phone call and run off so I'll make assumptions like he did. He and his wife look to be aging hipsters who've decided to farm on 3/4 of an acre. The lights that bother him are two strings of led Christmas lights with ping pong balls over the bulbs as defusers. They are tucked into the porch so that there's just enough light to walk from the driveway to the door but not a bright annoying white light. They stay on most nights in case the wife has a problem and needs to call for help when I'm not home.

Since we can't travel much anymore I've been fixing up the yard so my wife and her friends can sit outside and enjoy. We have a nice porch, flowers and we just put up a little roof over the grill which seems to have been the last straw. He was talking to the guy up the road and apparently from the "party lights" that burn all the time, tiki torches, grillzebo and having an American flag out every day he has decided that I'm the awful suburban douchebro phony patriot he thought he moved away from.

In reply to Wall-e:

If it's any consolation, you would fit right in over here in my neighborhood, provided you are willing to shoot your hand cannon off at random times, or alternatively you could set my half-assed landscaping on fire with fireworks on the 7th or 8th of July.

EastCoastMojo wrote: In reply to Wall-e: If it's any consolation, you would fit right in over here in my neighborhood, provided you are willing to shoot your hand cannon off at random times, or alternatively you could set my half-assed landscaping on fire with fireworks on the 7th or 8th of July.

I agree. I hope Wall-e retires to the south.

Joe Gearin wrote: One species (lawns) are bad for the soil, bad for water conservation, and just plain dumb in areas where grass doesn't grow naturally. When I fly over AZ and see hundreds of acres of brown.... and then little patches of green squares, it's silly. Why waste all the water and resources to force mother nature to do something it's not supposed to do? Fill your yard with cactus and rocks for pete's sake, or better yet....pave it to make more room for derelict cars!

No kidding; if I moved to Arizona, I'd use "I live in freaking Arizona" as the perfect excuse not to plant and maintain a yard full of grass.

In reply to MadScientistMatt:

Some folks just like having a green lawn, although I've read artificial has been gaining popularity, so just because you see green from 30K feet, don't assume it's real.

MadScientistMatt wrote:

Joe Gearin wrote: One species (lawns) are bad for the soil, bad for water conservation, and just plain dumb in areas where grass doesn't grow naturally. When I fly over AZ and see hundreds of acres of brown.... and then little patches of green squares, it's silly. Why waste all the water and resources to force mother nature to do something it's not supposed to do? Fill your yard with cactus and rocks for pete's sake, or better yet....pave it to make more room for derelict cars!

No kidding; if I moved to Arizona, I'd use "I live in freaking Arizona" as the perfect excuse not to plant and maintain a yard full of grass.

Indeed.

I hate grass, but its better than weeds because it grows a lot slower. I started converting my lawn to zoysia, but I'll move long before it fully takes over. I also started converting shaded areas to english ivy because its lower maintenance than a spotty grass/bare spot/weedy mess. And I don't want to mulch them.

If you are complaining about the quality of your neighbors grass and its mowed, you've gone a little too far IMO. Grass is low on my list of complaints. **

Using a makeshift tarp and duct tape to extend a carport into an outdoor living room pisses me off.
Parking your permanently non-functional bright yellow suburban (with no roof) on 44" tires right in your front yard like you came home E36 M3faced and that's where it ended up? Yeah. That pisses me off.
As your kids outgrow their toys (basketball hoop, sandbox, plastic car, etc.), just leaving them around the yard and letting them grow into the yard? That's E36 M3ty.

** On the subject of grass though... guess what happens when your next door neighbor lets their backyard get really overgrown with grass? Crazy bugs. Like insane amounts. Its very unpleasant.

I think most people whore are "those people" just want their neighbors to be generally clean and respectful of those around them.

Ask yourself this question: would I love seeing this, or upon seeing this, would I pitch a fit?

I live in Suburbia. Our houses are close together. You have a junkyard in your lot where I can see it, I'm gonna have a chat with you.

You don't do anything about it, I'm gonna have a chat with the HOA board about you and they're gonna have a chat with you, including fines etc, etc.

I'm all about personal freedom, but when it affects me and my family, it's not me with the problem, its YOU.

ProDarwin wrote: I will never live somewhere without an HOA or City Ordinances again. County ordinances here aren't cutting it. I think I'm done stressing over it, and I'll just take the 5 figure loss in property value when I sell and be happy I'm going to GTFO.

And I will never live somewhere with an HOA. My property, I do what I want there.

In reply to Appleseed:

I think it looks awesome and would bring you a frosty beverage so we could chat about it.

In reply to Appleseed:

Pitch a fit. I can't stand the berkeleying Beatles and especially hate that song.

Painted something else, though... probably not.

Trans_Maro wrote: In reply to Appleseed: I think it looks awesome and would bring you a frosty beverage so we could chat about it.

X2

I got a nastygram once. Now i just put plates on everything as soon as it shows up. Most things i drag home are old enough for historical plates, which are sub $35 for permanent registration. When something expires and I don't plan to renew i park it nose facing the street so they can't see last year's sticker.

I try hard to keep it clean and went as far as buying a harbor freight garage to keep a car and my wheel stacks in. I'm sure the person that bitches to the neighbors about my racecar trailer and work trailer in the driveway LOVES that. My wife wanted to paint a middle finger on the racecar trailer they complain about.

We met complainer a couple years ago after living here for 7 years. She said "did you just buy it from the young guys with all the loud cars?" Nope that's us and the cars are mine.

A curbstoner bought the house up the street. Different car out for sale every day. Don't care, his business, and his asking prices are crazy high. She probably hates him too because of the cars or because he's not white or some other reason an old lady would hate someone

The biggest issue I have had here is lack of time to part things out so they sit half torn apart for too long. I realized that so I quit parting cars out unless it's a quickie engine pull and scrap job. That and I have more cars than garage.

I keep my front yard neat and tidy. The lawn is mowed and I'm killing a little more of it every year and turning it into wildflower gardens for native plants, honeybees, hummingbirds and butterflies. The local government loves to greenwash stuff so this fits right in. This is my way of getting more riding time and less mowing time.

The back yard...

I have two big dogs and the parts that aren't vegetable garden look like the surface of the moon. There are some parts motorcycles and a tire stack under the back porch.

If you don't like it, berkeley you, stop looking over the fence. If you complain, the free tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini stop showing up.

The neighbour to the back had better not bitch. He cut all the low branches off his fir trees so what privacy we had went away and now I get to look into his living room. I put a gazebo around our hot tub this year to get some damn privacy back.

In reply to Trans_Maro:

"If you don't like it, stop looking over the fence."

Then proceeds to complain about neighbors trimming trees on their property...

Appleseed wrote: Ask yourself this question: would I love seeing this, or upon seeing this, would I pitch a fit?

I'd much rather look at that than the usual faded grey tank. I keep the place clean and mowed, only have two clean newish cars in the driveway and generally don't make much noise. This week he complained to the chicken guy that he's not comfortable being in his yard while we're sitting on our porch. He's going to be miserable soon since my wife sits on the porch reading all day when I'm working weekends and when I'm off I bring the tv out at night for a movie or two.

In reply to Wall-e:

That guy just seems to want to be upset. Help him in his quest.

"Some people are just dying to be offended..."

-Lemmy.

Man, I'm glad I don't live anywhere near some of you people. We're in Suburbia, we keep things nice clean and tidy out front. The fenced back yard isn’t perfect, but we keep the untidy stuff (Sunfish, utility trailer, spare yard furniture behind a privacy fence as I don’t’ want to look at crap any more than my neighbors. I did have the local neighborhood rep come and talk to us once about 15 years ago. We were working on the basement a put a massive load of stuff out for trash and re-cycle. The thing is trash day is Monday and I was going out of town on Sunday night so I put it all out Saturday instead. One of the neighbors called to complain because we had a large amount out early. I'm 99% sure I know who did it. Guess what? My attitude was, well it is out a day early and it does look bad so I'll move it into the garage and get my wife to take it out on Sunday as I'll be gone. I didn't get butt hurt, I didn't plan revenge, I didn't complain on the internet. I just got on with life.

I know a lot of people don't like our lawn as we refuse to put any chemicals or weed killer on it. Nothing toxic to the environment or more importantly our kids, grand child and pets has been put on our yard for over 25 years now. The result is you have to embrace dandelions as your friend. I don't understand how people can put the poisonous toxic E36 M3 on their lawns. My wife is a dog walker, she hates spring when effing ChemLawn is poisoning neighborhoods all around. Every one of her clients who has that E36 M3 applied year after year has had their dog’s die of cancer at a young-ish age, those that don't put E36 M3 on their lawns the dogs live long healthy lives. Small sample size and anecdotal evidence I know, but I'll take dandelions any day over poison. The good news is our Village doesn’t treat the parks or public spaces and asks people not to use that E36 M3 on their lawn either so no one can complain.

^Regular mowing and allowing the lawn to be taller than the shortest setting on your mower (I always used the tallest or next to tallest setting), is healthier for the lawn and keeps most weeds at bay.

The lawn is able to grow thicker and choke most of it out, and with it being denser there is less water evaporation in the heat which also helps keep the lawn green.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

Plus, the bees need dandelions. I like honey, so I don't mind the damn yellow weeds. On top of that, spreading weed killer is just one more chore taking time away from more fun endeavors.

I see the common complaint is eyesore, Mine was for sound.

MulletTruck wrote: I see the common complaint is eyesore, Mine was for sound.

Every Sunday morning my neighbours get to share in the joy of a Ducati bevel drive engine with Conti mufflers.

None have complained yet.