Funeral home across the street, OH NO!!!

[Desnik]

OK, so I was talking to my across the street neighbor. We were talking about his house. It is a beautiful house built in 1837, 4600sq ft. 7bdrm. on 1acre. It is kinda like a federal style colonial, just gorgeous. Anyway, the house has been passed down from generation to generation and he has no family, he's the last one left and the house is too much for him to take care of. He asked us how we feel about a funeral parlor across the street!! He has been made an offer and in writing to not change the house structually, which is very important to him.

Would this bother you? Our thoughts are traffic, depreciation of our house, and seeing so much sorrow all the time!! Any realtors here with an opinion? Would you want this directly across the street from you???!!!

DH is upset about this. This is our 3rd house in just 2 and a half years!! We thought we would be here for awhile.

 

[vacationwoman]

If it came to pass I would move.

 

[Beauty]

I agree,

I just don't think I could deal with the constant sadness.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Not nice. Does zoning permit it? Apparently so, huh?

 

[Rutt and Tuke]

Your neighbor asked how you would feel about it. Be honest with him-- maybe he can think of another use for the home.

 

[tiggersmom2]

It would depress me to no end to see families in mourning ALL the time. I would move if this happened without a doubt.

 

[zurgswife]

I wouldn't be thrilled...

 

[Celluloidgal]

Hmmm...hard one.

I live in an older house too. I feel for the owners. I can understand the $$$ of upkeep, and I can understand not wanting any structural changes to it. The funeral parlor option, as gruesome as it seems, maybe the only option to keep that architectural part of our past alive.

On the other hand...traffic on the street would be a pain. Seeing the constant flow of people at one of the most difficult times of their lives could be depressing.

Hmmm...hard one.

 

[dvcgirl]

Oh man,

If you're friendly with your neighbor at all, I'd try and persuade him to *not* sell to a funeral home business. It will really hurt the value of your home. No doubt about it. Think about it....would you want to buy a home across the street from a funeral home? And if you're in an area zoned for business, well, I'd think about getting out anyway....

 

[gymnasticsmom68]

I'd move NOW!

 

[oogieboogie]

Ugh... no way. That's just too depressing.

 

[Celluloidgal]

Originally posted by oogieboogie
Ugh... no way. That's just too depressing.

This coming from someone with "Halloween!" in their tag and a skeleton as their pic!

(just teasing oogieboogie )

 

[Ragmop]

Right now I'd check the zoning laws!! How can a buisnesss move into a residential neighborhood?

 

[SugarBear]

You don't have to worry about noisy neighbors.

My biggest worry would be traffic.

 

[powellrj]

we lived for several years across from a cemetary and to be honest it never really bothered me that much. There were not funerals every day, and when there were it was only for a few hours at a time. My concern would be if a funeral home didn't move in the other options may be much worse. He could sell to another type of business that would have much more traffic than a funeral home would have, or he may split up the house into apartments and you would have many more people and cars to deal with everyday.

 

[Stepharoonie!]

Originally posted by zurgswife
I wouldn't be thrilled...

Me, either...

 

[EsmeraldaX]

Well the sadness and traffic would bug me.

If you have young children, it could distort their view of death (ie. they see dead people's families crying every day, they start to think that everyone dies every day (which I know people die every day but I can't think of a better way to explain how it could appear to a child) and they may be frightened.

Perhaps he could rent the house out or sell it as a bed and breakfast?

 

[C.Ann]

Wouldn't bother me in the least..

But then I've been known to just wander around cemeteries for hours at time too....

 

[FroggyinArk]

personally wouldnt bother me, but obviously neighbor wants community input, other wise he would not have approached, there may be another reason hes wanting to sell, and it may be hes lookingfor reason to avoid the mortuary too, so i say speak up let him know it would bother ya, and see where it goes, it could be a blessing if the property is already zoned commercial and is currently not in that usage, someone could buy it and force a commercial development onto it,

 

[kylara]

Well since I grew up across the street from a funeral home I guess I can add my opinion. First, you do not see grief and crying people everyday. In fact, I noticed that most tend not to cry outside of the home. In fact, for the most part, I didn't pay attention to what was going on over there unless is was something big (ie. the biker funeral where the majority of attendees were on hogs or the firefighter funeral where the hook and ladders where part of the processional).

I will say the traffic can be real bad. We were lucky in that their is a church on the corner so the funeral home is able to use their parking lot. That helped alleviate some of the worst of it but the cars still took up a lot of the parking spaces on the street and getting in and out of the driveway could be a chore at times.

Overall, it isn't the worst thing that could happen, the funeral home moving in, but I will still let the neighbor know how you feel and also check the zoning laws since I know that the funeral home needed to be zoned as a business and also needed special permits.