# Just need to rant



## Waluy (May 9, 2013)

So my neighbor decided to call the city inspector and tell them I was parking on the grass. My driveway is one car width of concrete and one car width of gravel, the gravel got weeds in it that I have not had a free day to pull out yet because she let her dandelions (she has no grass that I can see just dandelions) grow for over a month (I have had to mow twice in that time frame) and they spread into my gravel. Last night she got out her mower and mowed only the front yard so she didn't get cited (city ordinance here says no more than 12 inches high and her's were at least 16"-18" over most the yard) and then called the inspector. 

Some people need to stop worrying about others so much.

Ok my rant is over now.


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## Scruffy (May 9, 2013)

*I think Willie Nelson has a song..*

"Mind your own business"..  Myabe you should send her a copy.


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## stonepecker (May 9, 2013)

Have you tried Weed-B-Gone?  On maybe a total grass killer in the gravel?
Some people have nothing better to do.  Look at the bright side, she is watching your house and that alone is going to keep anyone from breaking in.  In fact, you could put up a sign to that fact, just for giggles

I agree with you ......but then she would have nothing to do.


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## maxwell_smart007 (May 9, 2013)

Could be worse - I just came home from work to find my neighbour had cut down my tree!


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## pensbydesign (May 9, 2013)

ain't neighbor great
just makes you want to reach out and touch someone
.........a 2 x 4 should do the trick


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## Ross (May 9, 2013)

You could be a good neighbor and when you are spraying your weeds, spray her front yard.  Might want to do it late at night.:biggrin:


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## edicehouse (May 10, 2013)

Ross said:


> You could be a good neighbor and when you are spraying your weeds, spray her front yard. Might want to do it late at night.:biggrin:


 
Maybe "SNITCH" on it.....


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## StephenM (May 10, 2013)

edicehouse said:


> Ross said:
> 
> 
> > You could be a good neighbor and when you are spraying your weeds, spray her front yard. Might want to do it late at night.:biggrin:
> ...



Well, you got the last 4 letters right...


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## gimpy (May 10, 2013)

Go get some fertilizer and put in her yard, 
Then you can call the inspector.......lol


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## Smitty37 (May 10, 2013)

Hmmmm....I think my neighbors do that every now and then....
Had one stop by one day and tell me I couldn't blow my lawn clippings into the street.  I told him they weren't my clippings that they came from the cities right-of-way, which the city requires me to mow but it is still their grass, I can't put anything there without their permisssion.

Had another one tell me my daughter's car was parked on my lawn....I looked out and said "Yep, I can see that it is, thank you for letting me know".

One complained that I had a bird bath that was "too high" I said "Yes it is."  She said "What do you intend to do about it?"  I said "Nothing". She said "Well I'm going to report this to the board."  I said "OK."  She went to the president of the board's house and found a table and chairs in his front lawn that were even higher than my bird bath.

They also reported me for "changing light fixtures without approval of the architechural committee"  The committee called and I will not repeat here exactly what I told them, suffice to say they got the message and went home.

They got mad when I built a deck on the rear of my house without approval too --- but I did have a building permit so they were helpless.  Actually I had approval from the developer that was already on file with the city, but they didn't know that.

So just smile, do your thing and enjoy life.

Now cutting down my tree -- that would probably call for massive retaliation...but here in the USA if a tree's limbs are growing over my property line, I can prune my side of the tree with or without my neighbor's permission.  I can't cut the tree down though.


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## GaryMGg (May 10, 2013)

I went home for lunch yesterday and my neighbor had cut my front yard for me.
I went over to complain because he hadn't done the back too! :biggrin:

BTW, that's a true story albeit he knew I was kidding him about not cutting the back.
It's nice to live somewhere folks still look out for one another instead of against one another.


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## Waluy (May 10, 2013)

stonepecker said:


> Have you tried Weed-B-Gone?  On maybe a total grass killer in the gravel?
> Some people have nothing better to do.  Look at the bright side, she is watching your house and that alone is going to keep anyone from breaking in.  In fact, you could put up a sign to that fact, just for giggles
> 
> I agree with you ......but then she would have nothing to do.



I just moved into this house about 2 months ago and when I did all the grass was dead and you could obviously tell it was a parking spot I just haven't had time to take care of it with all the other things I have been doing like pruning trees that have been neglected for a while and making sure my yard gets mowed when it gets even a little to tall. I think what annoyed me the most was when I pulled one patch of weed/grass it was about a half inch of dirt and grass and then three to four inches of gravel. But city inspector said it would be better just to redo the gravel. So I have five tons of gravel being delivered today which will do the entire side all the way to her property line and all the way to my fence so I can park ANYWHERE on that side I want. We'll see how she likes that  but it will all be to code so nothing she can do.


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## Waluy (May 10, 2013)

GaryMGg said:


> I went home for lunch yesterday and my neighbor had cut my front yard for me.
> I went over to complain because he hadn't done the back too! :biggrin:
> 
> BTW, that's a true story albeit he knew I was kidding him about not cutting the back.
> It's nice to live somewhere folks still look out for one another instead of against one another.



Yeah that would be nice, the sad part is I was even going to go over last night when I was mowing my yard and ask her if she wanted me just to do her yard as well until I got the call from the inspector. Fortunately she is the only "problem" neighbor I have met everyone else seems really nice (I went around with my snow blower the week after I moved in and introduced myself and asked if they needed help with their driveways.)


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## mikespenturningz (May 10, 2013)

Consider how unhappy that neighbor must be inside to be like that. That may show this entire thing in a different light. I would just turn the other cheek and let it go maybe someday you will be able to do something really nice for her and change her mind. And in the meantime you will be happy and not dwell on the little stuff. You will have a nice place to park your vehicle. I will guarantee she will still be unhappy inside but you won't be.


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## Waluy (May 10, 2013)

Yeah I planned on redoing the drive anyway because my wife runs a home daycare and I want to make a path back to the back door where the kids come in I just didn't plan on doing it for another month or so.


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## stonepecker (May 10, 2013)

I would check it out and make sure that you can go all the way to the fence.  My Father-in-Law had a building permit for a 40X80 building on his farm.  He was told that he had to stay off the property line by 15feet.  He made a slight change in the length and it ended up being 40' X 100' building.  Because the building was bigger.... He was suppost to be farther off the property line.  They almost made him tear the building down.
The guy puts a building on a 160 acre farm.   He has the building 5 feet to close to the property line.  To me, this is just another example of being regulated to death.

Good luck.


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## Scruffy (May 10, 2013)

*Everything not required,...*

is illegal.

-- George Orville, 1984


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## Smitty37 (May 10, 2013)

stonepecker said:


> I would check it out and make sure that you can go all the way to the fence.  My Father-in-Law had a building permit for a 40X80 building on his farm.  He was told that he had to stay off the property line by 15feet.  He made a slight change in the length and it ended up being 40' X 100' building.  Because the building was bigger.... He was suppost to be farther off the property line.  They almost made him tear the building down.
> The guy puts a building on a 160 acre farm.   He has the building 5 feet to close to the property line.  To me, this is just another example of being regulated to death.
> 
> Good luck.


Needing a building permit for a farm is beyond me....


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## LarryDNJR (May 10, 2013)

maxwell_smart007 said:


> Could be worse - I just came home from work to find my neighbour had cut down my tree!



Did you at least get the wood for projects?


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## Haynie (May 10, 2013)

We are pretty lucky with our neighbors.


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## airborne_r6 (May 10, 2013)

I think I'm the problem neighbor.  You know the one that knocks on your door at 11:15 pm because I'm in my house with the windows closed and still have to put my noise canceling headphones on to not hear your party, or the one who calls the police at 2 am because the stereo in your car woke me up and all you are doing is sitting in it texting, or the one who yells at you because your friends are speeding down the street at midnight with their super loud exhausts.  I must be terrible to live by.


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## sbwertz (May 10, 2013)

spray the gravel with a pre-emergent.  Believe it or not, the weeds will grow in the gravel without ANY dirt if it rains.  I have gravel front and rear with weed cloth under it, and still get weeds growing in the gravel if I don't put down a pre emergent.  They pull right out, since there is nothing for the roots to get a purchase on, but they will grow.

I spray a pre emergent once a year and have no weeds, since it keeps seeds from germinating.


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## butchf18a (May 10, 2013)

*blanks*



maxwell_smart007 said:


> Could be worse - I just came home from work to find my neighbour had cut down my tree!


 
did you save the tree to cut into blanks?


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## TellicoTurning (May 10, 2013)

Waluy said:


> stonepecker said:
> 
> 
> > Have you tried Weed-B-Gone?  On maybe a total grass killer in the gravel?
> ...



Here in Tennessee the best way to grow a lawn is to pour gravel and call it a driveway... :biggrin:

My driveway is about 30 yards long and rises about 8-10 feet from the street level... it's about every 2-3 months maintenance chore to spray the entire driveway with round up.  I also have another gravel driveway off the neighbors drive that runs up to my shop and where my son parks his semi when he come home... also gets roundup sprayed about same time as the front drive.  'Course I live in the country and closest neighbor is about 1000 yards across the street and the side neighbor is about 1500 yards up behind me on a hill...


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## EBorraga (May 10, 2013)

I have a neighbor that always called the police on me when I worked late night on the race cars. Most of the time it was Friday night and we would work on it until 4 or 5 am. Never had the radio loud and always closed the overhead door. After a few times, the cops told me that there was a noise ordinance from 10p.m. until 7a.m. So the next day at 7:15am I fired up the car, which has straight headers and very loud. The cops showed up about 45 minutes later and told her I was within the law. She never called the cops on me again:biggrin:


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## OLDMAN5050 (May 10, 2013)

All this is why I love living in the country. Wouldn't go back to city life


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## Smitty37 (May 10, 2013)

TellicoTurning said:


> Waluy said:
> 
> 
> > stonepecker said:
> ...


 Did I read that correctly that you have a 1000 or 1500 yard drive from your neighbors drive?  Or do you mean the neighbor has a 1500 yard drive that goes past your place that you connect to for your son's truck?


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## Smitty37 (May 10, 2013)

OLDMAN5050 said:


> All this is why I love living in the country. Wouldn't go back to city life


 The worst place to live is where things are changing from rural to urban --- the city folks move to the country and then try to institute all the things they moved to get away from.

I recall a case where folks from "town" (actually flatlanders from New Jersey) bought the property next to a pig farm....they immediately started complaining about the smell and tried to get the county to pass an ordinance against pig farms.  They were given a gentle reminder that the pig farm was there before they were and if they didn't like the smell they shouldn't have bought the property next door. (they were actually a half mile away.)


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## Frank Nemke sr (May 10, 2013)

Waluy said:


> So my neighbor decided to call the city inspector and tell them I was parking on the grass. My driveway is one car width of concrete and one car width of gravel, the gravel got weeds in it that I have not had a free day to pull out yet because she let her dandelions (she has no grass that I can see just dandelions) grow for over a month (I have had to mow twice in that time frame) and they spread into my gravel. Last night she got out her mower and mowed only the front yard so she didn't get cited (city ordinance here says no more than 12 inches high and her's were at least 16"-18" over most the yard) and then called the inspector.
> 
> Some people need to stop worrying about others so much.
> 
> Ok my rant is over now.


   tHE HOUSE NEXT DOOR SOLD &the landlordtold me to trim my bushes. I told him hr could trim them to the fence.  He told me they are my bushes, you do it. So I told the renters I was going to do it.the pleaded with me not to do it. the next time he saw me he asked again.  I told them the renters wouldn't let me.He never bothered me again. I found out out my neighbers
are hie son  and daughter-in-law.


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## dartman (May 11, 2013)

Water balloons filled with weed killer works great.


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## MesquiteMan (May 11, 2013)

I sure am glad a live in Texas and that I live out of town on 15 acres.  My driveway is 1,500' long from the road and I can go outside and look in any direction and I can not see any neighbor.  My nearest neighbor is 400 yards though the woods.  I can park anywhere I want, build anything I want wherever I want, and make as much noise as I want any time of day.  I would not be able to put up with some lackey inspector, or anyone else for that matter,  telling me how to enjoy my private property rights.

The only issue I had was a few years ago when me a some friends were shooting skeet in my back yard.  A sheriff deputy showed up and wanted to know what was going on.  I politely told him it really was none of his business.  He agreed and said that some of the neighbors way down the street called in reporting someone was shooting high caliber guns.  I told him we were shooting shot guns but were about to start shooting the high caliber stuff shortly so he might want to go tell the folks down the street to be prepared to get their drawers in a wad.

The officer ended up staying a while and shooting some skeet with us!

God I love not living under some random iron thumb of a municipal government or HOA!


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## jttheclockman (May 12, 2013)

Could you imagine if we all lived in the country and had acres of land around us with no neighbors??? We are going to need a bigger country!!!! It's The neighbors that are always wrong. How is that???? For every story of the bad neighbor I am sure there is a story of a good neighbor and when having that neighbor sure came in handy.

How come no one RANTS about that???  People!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## mikespenturningz (May 12, 2013)

There is plenty of room in this country to not be packed so close together. Did you know that if you divided up Texas into 1/2 acre lots you could give every citizen in the USA one of those plots. There are approximately 172 million acres in Texas according to a google search. Texas is huge! I have to visit that state before I die that is for sure.



jttheclockman said:


> Could you imagine if we all lived in the country and had acres of land around us with no neighbors??? We are going to need a bigger country!!!! It's The neighbors that are always wrong. How is that???? For every story of the bad neighbor I am sure there is a story of a good neighbor and when having that neighbor sure came in handy.
> 
> How come no one RANTS about that???  People!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## jttheclockman (May 12, 2013)

mikespenturningz said:


> There is plenty of room in this country to not be packed so close together. Did you know that if you divided up Texas into 1/2 acre lots you could give every citizen in the USA one of those plots. There are approximately 172 million acres in Texas according to a google search. Texas is huge! I have to visit that state before I die that is for sure.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 

Get real Mike!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## mikespenturningz (May 12, 2013)

Do you have better facts John. There are roughly 350 Million Americans and the state of Texas could hold all of them. The point is that we don't have any problems with too many people in this country we just don't spread out enough. Simple math really.

*************** Below is a copy and paste. ******************************
There are 3537441 square miles in the united states. 
There are 640 per square mile so that would mean that there are 2,263,962,240 acres that make up the good old USA. 
*********************************************************************************
Does that look like we don't have enough land in the USA for 350,000.000 people?




jttheclockman said:


> mikespenturningz said:
> 
> 
> > There is plenty of room in this country to not be packed so close together. Did you know that if you divided up Texas into 1/2 acre lots you could give every citizen in the USA one of those plots. There are approximately 172 million acres in Texas according to a google search. Texas is huge! I have to visit that state before I die that is for sure.
> ...


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## Smitty37 (May 12, 2013)

The USA has a population density of 33.82 folks per square kilometer in 2010. A square kilometer is roughly 247 acres which calculates to over 7 acres per person.  And if we feel too crowded we can always move to Canada where our Northern neighbor has a population density that is one tenth of ours.


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## BKelley (May 12, 2013)

Be real nice to this lady and one night sprinkle about 5 lbs. of turnip seeds on her lawn.  She should really enjoy the turnips!!

Ben


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## TellicoTurning (May 12, 2013)

Smitty37 said:


> TellicoTurning said:
> 
> 
> > Waluy said:
> ...



Yeah, that was badly written... the neighbor's drive way is about 1500 feet (not yards) up the hill alongside my property... he lives on top of a hill that looks down onto my property... fortunately there is a line of trees between him and me so I have privacy... my drive way is about 1/3 way up his that cuts off into my yard and runs up in front of my shop.  The son parks there when he's home in his truck.   The other neighbor is across the road and directly in front of my side neighbor's place... the other neighbor's house is about 1000 feet (not yards) from my place.... we have to crane a little to see his property... he has a large magnolia with branches all the way to the ground that shields our view of his house from most of our view.   Nice and private here.


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## TellicoTurning (May 12, 2013)

Smitty37 said:


> OLDMAN5050 said:
> 
> 
> > All this is why I love living in the country. Wouldn't go back to city life
> ...



Peoples are funny..... we had a similar situation in Houston when I lived there... Houston International Airport was built in an area that was more or less out in the country and away from the general population... I don't remember when, late '60's or early '70's since I was still in Calif when it was built... but people started moving into the area around the airport as developers built subdivisions around... then all the residents started complaining about the noise level from airplanes taking off and landing and flying over their houses.


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## Smitty37 (May 12, 2013)

TellicoTurning said:


> Smitty37 said:
> 
> 
> > OLDMAN5050 said:
> ...


 Yea - what they need is a taste of C-5's flying directly over their house so low you can just about count the rivets .... we have that, and C-5s are one noisey "bird".  But Dover AFB was there when our development was built and the landing path was over farm fields.... now it seems to depend on something because for 6 years it was directly over my house now it is about 200 yards south of my house most of the time but occasionaly it is over my place.


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## j_b_fischer (May 12, 2013)

Waluy said:


> So my neighbor decided to call the city inspector and tell them I was parking on the grass. My driveway is one car width of concrete and one car width of gravel, the gravel got weeds in it that I have not had a free day to pull out yet because she let her dandelions (she has no grass that I can see just dandelions) grow for over a month (I have had to mow twice in that time frame) and they spread into my gravel. Last night she got out her mower and mowed only the front yard so she didn't get cited (city ordinance here says no more than 12 inches high and her's were at least 16"-18" over most the yard) and then called the inspector.
> 
> Some people need to stop worrying about others so much.
> 
> Ok my rant is over now.


 
Here's a thought ... go to your neighbor and apologize for the weeds in your driveway and explain that you have taken care of them (the vegetation killer idea mentioned early is a good one).  Then ask her if she needs help with her lawn and offer to cut her grass.  If you can afford to spend a couple of bucks, then offer to put down weed killer (not vegetation killer) and grass seed ... in other words, killer her with kindness.  I know it’s a long shot, but take away her excuses to complain and she has to stop complaining.


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## jttheclockman (May 12, 2013)

mikespenturningz said:


> There is plenty of room in this country to not be packed so close together. Did you know that if you divided up Texas into 1/2 acre lots you could give every citizen in the USA one of those plots. There are approximately 172 million acres in Texas according to a google search. Texas is huge! I have to visit that state before I die that is for sure.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 

So why doesn't everyone move Mike and then you won't have rants like this. Oh yea there will be something else to spend 5 pages of ranting on. Smitty can get his protractors out and divide this country's land up equally for us all and we live happily ever after. I was being facetious. Man you people are impossible.


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## Smitty37 (May 12, 2013)

jttheclockman said:


> mikespenturningz said:
> 
> 
> > There is plenty of room in this country to not be packed so close together. Did you know that if you divided up Texas into 1/2 acre lots you could give every citizen in the USA one of those plots. There are approximately 172 million acres in Texas according to a google search. Texas is huge! I have to visit that state before I die that is for sure.
> ...



We are impossible?? Don't you think we might have been being a little facetious too?:biggrin:  

Since getting married just short of 51 years ago I have lived in an apartment with no land;  In a development house on a 1/3 acre lot;  In a country farm house on 15 acres with another 60 acres remote from the house; in a mobile home on a 1/4 acre lot; and, currently in a development house on about 1/3 acre again. I grew up in three different houses in a small town one was considered to be "out in the country".  I lived for two years in a small city apartment after getting out of the service and before getting married.  Quite a variety of living space.....where I grew up, people did just what ever they pleased with their property - no zoning ordinances of any kind, no state regulations of any kind and it was a nice place to grow up, the people were not very well to do but the homes and most properties were well kept and pleasing to look at.  Neighbors rarely if ever complained about neighbors.  The same town now, has both local zoning and statewide regulations in place - covering the new development that has taken place, overall it looks no better and they have constant bickering between neighbors, including the old part of town which has changed very little since I lived there..


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## Sub Vet 10 (May 12, 2013)

Have yet to tangle with the HOA here yet but I'm sure it's not a long time off.


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## raar25 (May 13, 2013)

I guess I am one of those neighbors everyone hates.  I am trying to sell my house and we have two people on the street that leave piles of old stuff lying on the curb with a sign next to it that says free with 7 cars on the front lawn and in the driveway and various broken lawn equipment sitting on the front lawn.  So prospective buyers get to view their junk before they get to see our house.  So I will complain to everyone who listens, police, town health, the owners themselves anyone because I am tired of getting feedback from people that they love the house but they dont really like the neighborhood.  Normally I dont give a cr...p about what people do in their own property but right now it is affecting me .

Ok now I am done ranting as well.


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## Waluy (May 13, 2013)

raar25 said:


> I guess I am one of those neighbors everyone hates.  I am trying to sell my house and we have two people on the street that leave piles of old stuff lying on the curb with a sign next to it that says free with 7 cars on the front lawn and in the driveway and various broken lawn equipment sitting on the front lawn.  So prospective buyers get to view their junk before they get to see our house.  So I will complain to everyone who listens, police, town health, the owners themselves anyone because I am tired of getting feedback from people that they love the house but they dont really like the neighborhood.  Normally I dont give a cr...p about what people do in their own property but right now it is affecting me .
> 
> Ok now I am done ranting as well.



The thing is my lawn has looked nice since I moved in (with the exception of weeds growing in my gravel). There is never a junk car or piles of debris (I actually ordered a second trash can from the city because I knew I would fill one constantly and have extra bags that would sit if I didn't.) In the roughly two months I have been living in this house I have fixed the eye sore of a front porch, trimmed all of the over grown bushes and trees, turned the garden area back into a well maintained garden instead of a dead patch, painted the house, hauled off construction debris that had been sitting for months before I moved in, and before she called the inspector I was working on redoing the dilapidated shed in the back yard. I think considering it is a house I am renting I have already done plenty to raise the aesthetics of the house and neighborhood. At the very least I feel she should have come and talked to me about it and she would have known I had plans to fix the gravel section this summer after fixing what I saw as the more important things.

After all I am not a hard neighbor to get a hold of, I am outside most days for at least a few hours fixing and repairing things because I like to take pride in the way my house looks. Most Saturdays I can be found outside all day long working on things.


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## j_b_fischer (May 13, 2013)

1 - You sound like a great neighbor and tenant.  If youever want to move to Michigan I'll see what I cando to get you to live next door!!!

2 - Tell you rneighbor just what you told us ... that you would appreciate a chance to fix/clean sometinhg before the inspectors are called. "...and BTW, is there someting I can do for you ... (back to my killer with kindness idea posted earlier) ..."

As my father used to say ... there nothing better than a good [tenant, landlord, neighbor, pastor, boss] (take your pick), and there's nothing worse than a bod one.

Good luck.


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## edicehouse (May 14, 2013)

I just thought of something.  Maybe they were called on HER, and she thought you did it for some reason, and she was "getting even".


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## Waluy (May 14, 2013)

I don't think so I have met most of the people on the block and aside from her it seems to be a pretty close knit community, everyone helps everyone else and all the kids play together. But its all good I got my gravel spread last night and will continue to do what I do and hopefully one day she will see all she has to do is talk to me if something is bothering her.


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