Now it makes sense, I'm not good enough for my neighborhood

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Nonsense.

It’s the OP’s property. Not the neighbors’ property. He’s not causing a hazard, or an unsanitary condition. And it’s not like a noise or an odor that can’t necessarily be avoided in the neighbors homes. If the neighbors don’t like it, they can damned well not spend their time staring at it and obsessing over it, and keep their fool mouths shut.

And to head off the usual rejoinder to this line of thinking: I don’t give a damn what it’s doing to the neighborhood’s property values, nor do I have an iota of sympathy for those who treat their house as nothing more than an investment, as opposed to a home in which to live their real, human lives. It is that type of thinking that helped get the US into the financial crisis, and it is that attitude that has contributed to the demise of community cohesiveness and civic pride across America.

22

Our neighbors are very kind, but I think they harbor the belief we’re derelict slobs about our lawn, too. One day one of the neighbors apparently thought our front yard was so unsightly they (we don’t know which one) mowed the front while we were at work.

Edited to add: Fortunately, it hasn’t happened since; I guess we’ve shaped up enough to be merely a tad slovenly.

23

A few years back, during the winter of that really horrible flu (for which they ran out of vaccine), we both caught it. It was during December, and that was the month that leaves from the street sycamores really built up on lawns and sidewalks. And we couldn’t do a damn thing about it. We were deathly, deathly sick and could barely feed ourselves, much less rake tons of leaves. Our front yard was buried in dead leaves for a couple of months. Hopefully the neighbors didn’t get their noses too much out of joint.

24

It’s a pile of leaves not three foot high grass and not construction debris in the yard. Frankly, if I knew my neighbors would have that kind of reaction, I’d leave the leaves there to rot, and paint my house pink with purple polka dots. If the HOA doesn’t make a big deal about it or if there is none, then the neighbors can go pound sand.

That being said, I would leave the leaves in my yard and not in the area between the sidewalk and the street. Where I live, that is considered public space, and I wouldn’t shovel my leaves there. Where I live, I am responsible for shoveling the sidewalk and am required to do so by law.

25

Yeah, you have the right to maintain your property as you wish, and wear what you wish. But IMO it is a rare man past his 20s who ought to be wearing “wifebeaters” in public. I used to, but have since decided I don’t need to make a point of looking that bad in public. So wear whatever you want, but don’t act surprised if other people correctly observe that you look like a slob.

What you describe re: shovelling and raking does not impress me as horrible. And I’m sorry you have health problems, and cannot afford to pay someone else to maintain your lawn. But if one moves into a neighborhood where property is generally maintained to certain standards, it is not unexpected that folk will notice and comment if you maintain your property to a far different standard.

As a committed pedestrian, don’t get me started on people who clear their driveway but don’t shovel at least a path on the sidewalks. Or trim overhanging bushes/trees. . . :stuck_out_tongue:

26

The larger point is that, I’m not going to leave my leaves where they are forever. I’ll get them cleaned up, they have 3 years of history to look at. Do I do it all in one day, no. But they get done. Does my sidewalk get shoveled before I go to work, no, but if it’s a reasonable snowfall, then I’ll do it that same night or the next morning at the latest. I simply can’t go outside and do all these things at once, but they do get done.

Also, unless you have a neighborhood association (which we do not) the standards are set by the municipality, not peer pressure by the neighbors. You should always strive to do better than the “standard” but there is no law that says I need to keep up with my neighbors. I just wish they had something more important in their lives than to whisper and shun me and my family.

I haven’t done anything wrong, but since I’m doing this outside stuff basically alone, I’m going about it at a different pace than the rest. I’d love for my yard to be golf course quality, but at this point I just can’t do it. I do things on my own, when I can do them.

I’m not neglecting the house, I just paid to have it painted in May 08. Trust me, just by doing that, I raised neighborhood perception, if not property values. If my leaves sit for a week longer than you’d like them to, tough tittie. I just wish these people weren’t so small.

27

I know how you feel. A lot of my neighbors are the same way. It’s mostly the older women who really have nothing better to do than bitch about how things look. Fuck them. Just because they want to manicure their yards with a tweezer and spend thousands of dollars torturing the vegetation into submission while also washing all kinds of unnecessary lawn chemicals into the nearby bay doesn’t mean I’m going to spend my time and money doing the same thing.

I recently found out there was a pretty big uproar about my putting in a fence (I have two dogs). Of course, nobody talks to me about anything, they just bitch out the president of the HOA every chance they get. Again, I say “fuck them.” I haven’t broken any rules so mind your own business.

28

I’m not specifically picking on you Digger but judging by some of the responses here I’m really glad that I don’t live next to some of you. I’m one of those neighbors who does make an extra effort to keep my yard tidy.
The funny thing about leaves? They tend to blow around, they tend to blow directly into my yard, especially after I’ve just finished raking mine. So don’t pretend that leaves lying about in your yard isn’t affecting anybody else. Just saying.

29

I’ve never given a crap what our neighbors think of me. In our last apartment we were there 4 years and I think I knew 2 peoples names. We’ve been in our condo for 2 years(and my SO is on the HOA board) and I only know one persons name. That’s only because she’s the HOA president and greeted us right after we moved in.

Screw what the neighbors think.

30

I don’t get why you wanted them to come over and socialize. It would never occur to me to go to my neighbors’ yard sales to chat. They are all nice people, though. I don’t think you should take this as evidence that everyone hates you.

31

Well, yes and no. A lot of places do have ordinances and rules where you can get fined for not maintaining your property or adding bizarre eyesores.

I think part of picking a place to live is figuring out what your neighbors are like. Personally, I have no interest in living in some suburban neighborhood where people have nothing better to do than bicker over the minutae of each other’s yards. Usually it’s old people with too much money and too much time on their hands.

32

If it makes you feel any better - I’d much rather have someone like you as a neighbor (who is nice) who may be a little slow on maintenance than the person who has a perfect yard and house and still can come up with nothing better in their life to do than to criticize others.

33

I would imagine that almost every incorporated municipality in North America would disagree. Almost every city and town has at least a few rules about that sort of thing.

The OP doesn’t rise to the level of concern anywhere I’ve ever lived, but there does come a point at which you DON’T have the right to maintain your property in any state you wish.

34

Hundreds of them. All facing a neighbor’s house. Watching. Waiting.

35

I say about leaves - it’s fall! If it isn’t my leaves, it’ll be someone else’s leaves blowing around. Every year I get a call from my mother having a fit about the leaves from her neighbor’s tree (known as That Bastard) falling on HER lawn. :rolleyes: So I go over and rake the leaves from mom’s own trees AND That Bastard’s tree, since she’s past it, or she’ll just have to search around for some kid to rake and pay him a few bucks. Point is, there are going to be leaves. (My front lawn and bushes are covered with oak leaves, and I have no idea in the world whose tree they came from, but there they are.) There are three Norway maples in my back yard whose leaves have to be taken care of first, when I have the time and energy I’ll do the front lawn.

36

I love fallen leaves. I like the sight of them, the smell, the sound. I wish more people would leave them (no pun intended) longer.

Enjoy your property in your own style. Be yourself. Try not to move into a neighborhood with that strict HOA mindset, if it’s not your thing.

Personally, I’d rather live in a free-style neighborhood, no matter how much tackiness prevails. It makes for more interesting walks, and maybe weeds out the most extreme bourgeois-striving, sheeplike fussbudgets.

37

Fortunately, our HOA isn’t out of control. I like my neighborhood. I lived here for five years, moved away for two and moved back here in June. I knew what it was going to be like and that there would be some issues at times but the rules are acceptable to me and there aren’t that many.

The problem is the grown-ups who just can’t accept that not everybody is going to want to do things the same way they want to do things. Not everybody is going to want to dress like you or drive the kind of car you like or even want to landscape their yard the way you would. I think it must be very frustrating to go through your entire life obsessing over and complaining about people who are different than you. What a waste of time. Yes, when you look out your window or leave the privacy of your home, you’re going to be faced with other human beings who have their own preferences. Get over it.

How boring would it be if we all did everything the same?

38

Heh. Last summer, our neighbors had a block party — and we weren’t invited!

I’m with Chicken Fingers, 100%. Not only are fallen leaves beautiful, but they are part of the ecosystem. Last year’s leaves are this year’s humus, which is, according to dictionary.com:

“the dark organic material in soils, produced by the decomposition of vegetable or animal matter and essential to the fertility of the earth.”

I know a man whom people pay to trim, rake, landscape etc in their yards. He hauls away all the leaves and trimmings — and sells it back to them as mulch!

hee hee hee hee hee hee hee!

39

If I were you, I would be hiring neighborhood teens to do the yard work and shoveling. They work cheap, appreciate the money, and you will have your work done with no backbreaking for you. I often happily pay either my own kids or neighbor kids for this sort of thing. It encourages them to be motivated and enterprising. Your neighbors will appreciate it (not that that matters much), especially if it’s their kids being hired. You don’t say that they complain about your snow; that’s an issue for your own safety, not to placate them.

By the way, It is not out of line for others to question whether digger is understating his level of unsightliness. I have neighbors who often say, “oh, my yard is a little out of control, but I (insert excuse here).” Their yard is filled with blackberry brambles and rotting falling-over fences blocking the sidewalk, forcing kids to walk in the street. Another neighbor hasn’t done a thing in his front yard in three years, hasn’t stepped into his back yard in over 8 years (it borders mine) and his dogs are a nuisance. I have heard him say exactly the same things about why he can’t take care of his property. He has money to buy beer and cigarettes, but not to haul his washing machine and car on blocks from from the driveway to the dump. He brags about how he lives off of a false disability claim. I would not dream of asking him if he would like my help. I have another neighbor who is 97 years old whose yard is beautiful. I underestimate the level of trashiness in my own yard; seeing it every day tends to blind you to it.

And there certainly are potential red flags in what he wrote. Obviously, we don’t know him, but according to what he said, he left his big ass pile of leaves in the space between the sidewalk and the street. Why on earth did you leave it in the space between the sidewalk and the street? Could you have possibly picked a more prominent place to leave them? “Yes right now it’s ugly, but I picked them up in previous years, I’m going to pick them up this year. It takes me a while, but I’ll get it done.” “I’m not going to leave my leaves where they are forever. I’ll get them cleaned up, they have 3 years of history to look at. Do I do it all in one day, no. But they get done.” How long do they stay sitting there? You state yourself that it’s ugly. It takes no more than 20 minutes to bag them up. You chose to wait to dispose of them, and by then, you’ll probably need to do it again, and the leaves are never done, they’re either waiting to be raked or waiting to be cleaned up from the planting strip/parking strip. You tried to treat weeds but “it didn’t work out too well.” For the last two years. Hmm. How bad does it look? It’s really not difficult to maintain a reasonable level of order. Whether you have a touchy back and a bad foot, or not, certain levels of order still have to be maintained if you’re going to own a home. Like I said, my 97-year-old neighbor can take care of it. I can let my yard go for a long while, too, but I confine it to the rear where it isn’t an eyesore.

And what do you consider to be “reasonably well-behaved” dogs? Do they run loose in the yard, are they chained in the yard, are they indoors but barking furiously at everyone who walks by? Do you even know if they are annoying anyone? Why would you have brought it up if you didn’t suspect it was a problem? Maybe it’s a non-issue, but again, this is we all say about our dogs, whether they’re angels or demon dogs.

40

Bah…

If you’ve got one of the nicest looking houses/yards in the neighborhood, quite bitching and lighten up.

If you’ve got one of the worst, get to working.