Neighbors-the Good, the Bad, the Cranky

Since moving to our new house, we have been blessed by having great neighbors. They have all been very nice, helpful and a pleasure to get to know. On the other hand.....we have our other neighbors that we don't see, but hear all the time. They are our neighbors that live right behind us. We live in an established neighborhood that is over 20 years old. So we don't have any CCNR's (covenants or restrictions). Most new neighborhoods have rules and regulations, mostly to help keep their home price value's up.

Our neighbors that live right behind us haven't been any trouble, until recently, with the weather improving and home projects underway. Almost every Friday, our neighbor mows, weed eats, uses a blower (instead of sweeping), and also trimmed his trees with a loud motorized tree/shrub trimmer. He did this until 9:00pm, until it got dark. A few weeks ago, he was using an Air Compresser, a small one that "clicked" on every minute or so. It was very loud and obnoxious for an Air Compresser, I should know, Lee has 4 of them. This Air Compresser was on all day for 2 days almost a month ago. On Saturday evening, our neighbor was Pressure Washing his deck, with a gas powered Pressure Washer. It is the loudest Pressure Washer on the planet. He started around 7:00pm, maybe earlier (we heard it when we were eating dinner, which is usually 6:00 or so on a Saturday). This continued on until 9:30pm-when Lee had enough of the noise. I should also mention, it was a hot day so we had the windows open as well. Lee went over to the neighbors house to introduce himself, the conversation went something like this:



Lee: Hi, I'm your neighbor that lives directly behind you.

Cranky Lady: Yes. (very short, cranky, snappy yes)

Lee: Well, we were wondering, if your husband was going to be done anytime soon making all that noise.

Cranky Lady: We know what the laws are, and we have another 30 minutes. (in a defensive way)

(Washington Noise Ordinace is that you can be noisy until 10:00pm)

Lee: Well, we were wondering if he could stop.

Cranky Lady: Well your kids are noisy when they play outside. (not really, but whatever)

Lee: Until 9:30 at night? No, I don't think so.

Cranky Lady: Well you were banging something over in your back yard and we didn't say anything.

(Mac was doing a project of some sort in Feburary, and he did this for 1 hour, until 5:00pm when it got dark, and I believe he did this for 2 days, 2 weeks apart).

Lee: Until 9:30 at night?

Cranky Lady: Well, we know what the law is.

Lee: So, you people know nothing about common courtesy?

Cranky Lady: FINE! I'll tell him to stop.

End of conversation, she slams her door.



Lee comes home, and says "I think we might have problems with them in the future".

In all of the years that we have lived in Apartments, Townhouses, other neighborhoods, etc. We have never had anyone who made so much noise until 9:30 at night. We understand that people work all day, all week. And maybe they don't want to do thier home chores on Saturday's to have thier weekends free. We understand this. Lee is one of those people, who works all day, all week and also wants to relax. In his home.