Does your neighbor's yard make you cringe?

[Quest4fun]

My wife gets a little perturbed when I complain about the neighbors. The following are a list of things that get under my skin. I'm probably the only person who believes these things make the neighborhood look shoddy but I'm still going to bring it up at every association meeting. It's all about keeping property values up.

1. Driveway/Garage Grilling - First of all it's illegal and dangerous to grill in your garage. My thoughts on driveway grilling is that it's tacky unless you're having a block party. Take it out back. If you must grill in the driveway at least have the decency to put your grill away.

2. Garage Doors - This always brings about an angry debate. I have no problem with an open garage door. My gripe is people who never close their garage door. NEVER. There is a house around the corner from me who never closes their garage door so everybody gets to look at their mess. I'm glad I don't live across the street.

3. Lawn Care - I'm very glad we have a rule regarding lawn care. That being said, there are still people who mow their lawn maybe once a month. If you're not going to do any landscaping at least mow your lawn.

4. Mr. Johnson's Used Cars - I know some people can't help having 5 cars parked out front of their house. IMHO you should clean out that garage so you can at least fit two of your cars in your garage. It's not fair to your neighbors that you are always parked out front of their house.

5. Newspapers - Pick it up already.

6. Christmas Lights - I know it was snowing this weekend but come on! It's April. Time to take down the Christmas decor. I know you removed the snowman last month but that's not enough. If you don't want to take them down then don't put them up.

7. Automotive Upgrades - I'll tolerate the stupid exhaust you put on your vehicle. As long as you're not speeding it's not that loud. What is loud is your car stereo. Nobody wants to listen to the bass line of whatever song you're listening to. Turn it down. People live here.

That's pretty much it. I know a few of these things aren't yard related but I thought they still fit in with the whole appearances thing. Help out your neighborhood. If maintaining a home isn't your thing I'd suggest renting an apartment.

 

[jennobrn01]

I refuse to water the lawn. I just think it's a waste of money and natural resources. I'm not running a golf course, so if there's a drought, my lawn can hibernate. I don't begrudge the lawn beautiful people, and I often admire their work. I'm just not one of them!

I completely agree!

 

[Chattyaholic]

I'm so grateful not to be living in an "association" with all their "rules" on what a person can or cannot do on their own property.

I just don't understand why people get so bent out of shape over someone else's property. If they don't mow their lawn why should anyone else care? If they leave their garage door up all the time, why should anyone else care? Don't look inside if you don't like to "see the mess." If they want to grill in their driveway, it's their driveway, their grill. Why is it a problem for anyone else? If they paint their house a color you don't like, again it's not your house so why does it matter to you? If they choose to have a lot of "lawn ornaments" it's their lawn, obviously they like them. I could go on and on. I just don't get why people are so concerned about other people's business.

 

[Castlebound]

Our neighbors are very sweet but they decided a few years ago that it was just too hard to keep up with real flowers. So they have a front yard filled with fake flowers. When giving directions I always tell people to turn at the house with the forever flowers. My aunt and uncle now get forever flowers in their front yard also. My grandma lives in the inlaw quarters at their house and she puts fake flowers in plastic swan planters.

 

[DisneyBeagle]

I'm so grateful not to be living in an "association" with all their "rules" on what a person can or cannot do on their own property.

I just don't understand why people get so bent out of shape over someone else's property. If they don't mow their lawn why should anyone else care? If they leave their garage door up all the time, why should anyone else care? Don't look inside if you don't like to "see the mess." If they want to grill in their driveway, it's their driveway, their grill. Why is it a problem for anyone else? If they paint their house a color you don't like, again it's not your house so why does it matter to you? If they choose to have a lot of "lawn ornaments" it's their lawn, obviously they like them. I could go on and on. I just don't get why people are so concerned about other people's business.

For the most part, I am pretty layed back about my neighbors. I don't care if the grill in their driveway or in their bedroom. I don't care if their garage door is up or down. However, I do care when they don't take care of their property. Now I'm not saying that it needs to look like Better HOmes and Gardens, but a badly maintained yard and exterior of the house is a reflection of the whole neighborhood. There is a house about 3 doors down that hasn't bothered to put in their landscaping yet. I'm totally fine with them not having their landscaping done if they could keep the weeds down, but they don't. We had a horrible windstorm a few weeks about and I had LOAD of tumble weeds from this house blow into my yard. My husband and I have filled over 20 trash bags with tumbleweeds and we still need to clean out our window wells.

 

[DawnCt1]

I have 16 pink flamingos that I put around my pool area in the summer! It would make my neighbors cringe. Lucky for them they are secured behind a fence and aren't visible. You never know when one could escape however.

 

[DisneyBeagle]

I have 16 pink flamingos that I put around my pool area in the summer! It would make my neighbors cringe. Lucky for them they are secured behind a fence and aren't visible. You never know when one could escape however.

Does these flamingos have outfits that change with the seasons?

 

[LisaNJ25]

I live in a 2 family house.. my neighbors in the middle of the night last week spray painted their half of the fence and their gate silver.

 

[disykat]

My messy neighbors are gone - Yay! There's no longer a car on jacks in the driveway and garbage strew across the lawn. The new neighbors are even planning on getting the weeds under control YAY! It definately DID affect the value of my property to have them next door.

That said, I'm thrilled that I live in a neighborhood (and yes, we have an HOA) where people can grill in thier driveways if they want to, play ping pong in their garages, have statues on their lawn if they want, etc. There's mess -and then there's living.

 

[sassyat30]

Uh, we just took down our Christmas lights on the bushes yesterday.

Wanna know why? BECAUSE THEY WERE BURIED UNDER FOUR FEET OF SNOW UP UNTIL A COUPLE WEEKS AGO!!! They are on the north side of the house that never gets any sunlight.

And no, they haven't been lit since New Years's Eve ~ we literally couldn't get to them to take them down!!

For those who are so worried about what their neighbors are doing (garage door open, Christmas lights up, lawn not mowed, grilling in the driveway) maybe you should move to the country where you won't have any neighbors to worry about.

 

[Quest4fun]

I'm so grateful not to be living in an "association" with all their "rules" on what a person can or cannot do on their own property.

I just don't understand why people get so bent out of shape over someone else's property. If they don't mow their lawn why should anyone else care? If they leave their garage door up all the time, why should anyone else care? Don't look inside if you don't like to "see the mess." If they want to grill in their driveway, it's their driveway, their grill. Why is it a problem for anyone else? If they paint their house a color you don't like, again it's not your house so why does it matter to you? If they choose to have a lot of "lawn ornaments" it's their lawn, obviously they like them. I could go on and on. I just don't get why people are so concerned about other people's business.

I'm all about the whole "Free Country" thing. I choose to live in an a neighborhood with an association for the simple reason that it keeps property values high by making the neighborhood what some would consider "desirable." I like driving down my street and seeing nice houses and clean yards. It's simply a matter of preference. It also comes in handy when it comes time to sell. The neighborhood shares in the investment so we all do our best to protect it.

People are more than welcome to let their yard go to pot and turn their front yard into their backyard. They should move to a neighborhood where there aren't any rules. It's all a matter of preference.

 

[MoniqueU]

Just the foreclosure across the street from us. The lawn is pretty much dead.

I did live in a townhouse where the neighbor lady used all sorts of junk to hold her plants and flowers including a toilet. Tacky Tacky.

 

[Quest4fun]

Uh, we just took down our Christmas lights on the bushes yesterday.

Wanna know why? BECAUSE THEY WERE BURIED UNDER FOUR FEET OF SNOW UP UNTIL A COUPLE WEEKS AGO!!! They are on the north side of the house that never gets any sunlight.

And no, they haven't been lit since New Years's Eve ~ we literally couldn't get to them to take them down!!

For those who are so worried about what their neighbors are doing (garage door open, Christmas lights up, lawn not mowed, grilling in the driveway) maybe you should move to the country where you won't have any neighbors to worry about.

There are exceptions to EVERY rule. I don't expect you to dig out your lights. I'm referring to people who don't have to dig them out of snow. Those people are simply lazy.

I'm just supporting my decision to live in a neighborhood with strict association rules.

I don't need to move to the country. I moved to a neighborhood with a strict HOA so I can be near people who are picky like me. The people who don't like it don't live here.

I'll say it again. It's all a matter of preference and I don't think I need to be attacked because of my preferences.

 

[pearlieq]

Do unmowed lawns really not bother people? The rest of the stuff mentioned I just file under personal quirks, but I'm not a fan of the unmowed lawn.

It just looks terrible--it goes to weeds and it gets knee high. The weeds travel into the other yards, which is a pain to deal with. And it just looks so ratty. People start thinking the house is abandoned. It makes the block look bad.

Put out all the lawn gnomes you want. Dress up an entire family of gesse in seasonal outfits. Heck, put a family raft ride off of your front porch. But please, please hack down the lawn every once in a while.

 

[janey99]

My back neighbor's youngest child is 11, and he still has various "Step2" toddler toys in his driveway - a turtle sandbox with cover (and the cover blows all over the yard regularly), some type of cream colored plastic playhouse with red, blue and green windows and doors, and some type of yellow plastic toddler minigym with holes in it that looks like stacked cubes.

Add in his 4 garbage cans, 2 recycling cans, his BBQ grill, some type of long rail that looks like a balance beam which is for skateboarding, a laying down basketball net, 2 wagons, a random pile of mulch that has been there for years, and four cars, and I've got a real treat to look at from my back porch!

As DH says, if all that stuff is in the driveway, what the heck does he keep in the garage?!

I think my aunt takes the cake - many years ago, a neighbor of hers had an above ground pool, which was frozen for winter. The neighbor went deer hunting, and butchered 2 deer on top of the frozen surface of the pool and left all the remains there until they melted into the slush in spring !

30 years later, I can still perfectly recall the image and gag!

Jane

 

[Quest4fun]

Do unmowed lawns really not bother people? The rest of the stuff mentioned I just file under personal quirks, but I'm not a fan of the unmowed lawn.

It just looks terrible--it goes to weeds and it gets knee high. The weeds travel into the other yards, which is a pain to deal with. And it just looks so ratty. People start thinking the house is abandoned. It makes the block look bad.

Put out all the lawn gnomes you want. Dress up an entire family of gesse in seasonal outfits. Heck, put a family raft ride off of your front porch. But please, please hack down the lawn every once in a while.

Some people just don't care about a nice lawn. Healthy foliage is good for the environment IMHO. If people don't want to hassle with mowing or watering they should consider replacing their lawn with rock or gravel. My grandparents did and their yard looked very tidy.

 

[Talking Hands]

I'm that neighbor. My next door neighbor has no children and her yard is her pride and joy. I have a lawn guy who comes every other week to mow. Aside form that there is no landscaping at all. The yard was a place for my girls to play with their friends. I don't garden and hate being out in the hot sun. Sorry neighbor but deal with it.

 

[Castlebound]

I live in the "country" and I can still scratch my head at some choices that people make. Tractor tires as planters, metal headboards and footboards stuck in the ground to make a "flowerbed", and my neighbor's forever flowers. These are not choices that I would make and I wouldn't report them even if I had someone to report them too. However junk piled in the yard to the point that you wonder how they decide what goes to the curb for trash. That will get a call to our county's planning and zoning office. Unfortunate decorating choices are one thing but trashing a property to the point of lowering the value of the homes around it are another.

 

[wendy46001]

we have two foreclosures down the street, the HOA mows for them now but everything is dead....cant wait for that auction

we also have the christmas light family
this is florida cant use the snow excuse (and that one i understand)
but half the lights are just hanging off the house (I know they can see them)...just waiting for another good rain storm to blow them totally down....Maybe that will happen before July

and while I could care less about a few strategically place Gnomes
I draw the line when the front yard looks like a gravesite, with small trinkets and fake flowers a muck

 

[mumom95]

I just don't understand why people get so bent out of shape over someone else's property. If they don't mow their lawn why should anyone else care? If they leave their garage door up all the time, why should anyone else care? Don't look inside if you don't like to "see the mess." If they want to grill in their driveway, it's their driveway, their grill. Why is it a problem for anyone else? If they paint their house a color you don't like, again it's not your house so why does it matter to you? If they choose to have a lot of "lawn ornaments" it's their lawn, obviously they like them. I could go on and on. I just don't get why people are so concerned about other people's business.

Because what a neighbors yard looks like can really bring down the value of your house. If someone is buying your house, if there is something about your house they don't like they can always change it after they move in. But if the neighbors yard looks like it hasn't been mowed in over a year, there is nothing the potential buyers can do about that.

I know when we bought our house 8 years ago there were a couple of houses that we looked at that I didn't buy not because I didn't like that house, but because some of the houses and yards on the street were really run down and not well taken care of.

I'm not a fan of multiple lawn ornaments, but as long as people keep their lawns mowed and don't have multiple cars up on blocks in the driveway, then the lawn ornaments don't bug me much.