Up for Sale

On Thursday the neighbors we don't like put up a for sale sign in their front yard. YAY!

We were wondering why they were painting their trim and actually cleaning things. Kris and the girls said now I have to find a different hobby since I won't have them to complain about or take pictures to post of their crappy garage, or complain about them parking in front of our window, or not cutting their grass, or a host of other things. I really wasn't that bad. And Kris would complain just as much, she just complained to me.

They have already had a few people looking at it. We were trying to think if we knew anyone who might be looking for a starter type house. That way we would be sure that we will like them One of Ali's friends has a dad who is divorced and currently renting a flat. He is looking to buy a house so we mentioned to him that the house next door just became available. Hopefully he'll take a look. It would be nice to have a friend of Ali living next door, sort of like Sarah has on the opposite side.

I am sure I will update the status, and have comments about the people we see looking at it, but they can't sell it soon enough for me. And now that I have said that, I am sure we'll be blessed with even worse neighbors than they were.

Spring Cleaning the Junkyard

Last week was spring cleaning time. No, not for us, for the next door neighbors. Of course it was all piled in front of our windows so when you walked into the living room from the kitchen you got a good look at the pile of junk. I had to run upstairs to take a picture:

Of course it was a rainy day, so that as soon as it was all emptied out under their little tent, it began to rain. So what would a normal person do? Probably start throwing things away, putting things away, etc. Nope. They got in their car and left. They take off leaving everything piled up outside in the rain.

So then when they got back, they just left everything stacked up there. Parked their other car in front of our window and called it a day. We ended up looking at the pile for another day before... wait for it.... they piled everything back into the garage. I thought they would actually throw things out, arrange things so they could park their cars inside, but nope. It all got stacked back inside just as messy and cluttered as before.

So now that it is getting warmer I am prepping for the infestation of mice from that hole next door. I am convinced that the mice I had running around the outside of the house last year were coming from next door. And now that they've roused them from their winter abodes, I am sure I'll be seeing some soon. The poison is already out, but I still need to lay some traps.

Oil Spill?

Here is something else I get to look at:


BP has nothing on the amount of oil that my neighbors have dripping from their cars. And it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Unfortunately, I can’t do anything to help that.

Shaming The Neighbors

To go along with the mice that I think are being brought in by our next door neighbors, I though it would take a second to describe what we are dealing with here. First, I posted this about 6 or 7 months ago. They had actually cleaned out their garage, and had room to park their cars.


Well only a short six months later this is the view I have from one of my family room windows. I absolutely can’t stand looking out the window at their cars. And why do I have to you may ask? It’s because this is what their garage looks like again:




Now add to it the condition of their yard...



I hope you can see why I am not happy. There is actually about four to five feet of my property on the opposite side of my fence. Of course I cut it, make sure it is weed free, etc. and of course their grass is as crummy as their garage. The back behind their garage is nothing more than a field of creeping charlie. I have actually taken to spraying their grass with weed killer (and the guy behind me) in an attempt to keep it from infesting my grass. I wonder if I can get in trouble for that? Also, I sprayed the grass with mosquito spray. I got bit about ten times the last time I cut the grass because they let it get so long, and it was just a breeding ground for them. Again, is that something bad? Could I get in trouble? The bigger question should be do I care?

Current Scorecard

The current tally is 10 mice and 3 moles killed around the house. I am really getting tired of having to dump mice carcasses. I was doing some thinking about it. We have lived here for coming up on 12 years. and we had never had a problem with mice outside until about 3 or 4 years ago. I think it has something to do with our neighbors. Their yard is a mess and their garage is even worse. It is a perfect breeding ground for them. I wonder if I can get in trouble for tossing poison in their yard.

As Promised...

The neighbors had their storage shed, errrrr, garage door open so I ran upstairs to get a couple of pictures.





I don't know, maybe it's wrong of me to be annoyed by that, but I am!

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

We had a guy come out and quote us a price on finishing off the fence around the backyard. For some time we have been wanting to do it but either haven’t had the time or the money to get it done. Three years ago we had a length of fence installed along the lot line to our north, and it is the best thing we ever did. The one thing the guy who was measuring etc., told us was that we should wait until the ground dried up, and not just at the surface but to a depth of 3-4 feet. See the pictures here of what the neighbor’s yard looks like after a good rain. If we put a fence up along the back lot line, the excess moisture in the ground will weaken the concrete footings and will cause it to simply crumble in a couple of years. If we wait until that happens (the ground drying up) I think we probably won’t get it put up until, roughly, mid-June.

And speaking of the neighbors, let me just say that we hate ours!

The people behind us will leave their grass go for weeks, and then when the guy decides to do it, he’ll cut half of it and then quit and go inside. It’ll then sit for a week until the feeling moves him to finish. Case in point... the guy didn’t rake his leaves last year. Correction, he raked them into a pile and left them. The result was that by the first snow, the leaves were spread back over his yard (and mine). So this spring, about three weeks ago, he begins raking. Again he rakes about 1/3 of the yard and stops. But he leaves a garbage can sitting outside, next to the pile he has raked. Nice. Again, during a good breeze, they get blown all over my back yard. Luckily I hadn’t raked yet. So hopefully the fence will do a little bit to help curb that as well as block our view of the swamp behind us. I mean, I built up our backyard seven years ago, and it took probably $300-$400 for dirt and sod, but it was a minimal investment, and a couple of days worth of work. So I ask myself why can’t this guy do the same thing?

Now, on to our neighbors to the north. First, we can’t have our windows on the north of the house in the family room because the neighbors constantly park their cars RIGHT in front of them. Here is the view we had yesterday:


Why do they do this you might ask? Well it is because they can’t fit anything in their garage. They have a 2 and a half car garage that is just piled full of crap. Apparently they treat it more as a storage locker than a garage. So as a result, their cars are parked outside. And since they are, when they want to sit outside, or want their rugrats to play outside, they back the cars down their driveway and park them right outside our windows so they can play, or sit, at the top of the driveway, which they wouldn’t need to do if they would simply 1) organize their crap, and 2) throw some stuff away.

Note the red car that hasn't moved since at least October. If they could put it in the garage, they could move the other car up rather than parking it right in front of our window. Next time they are out with the garage door open, I’ll snap a picture from upstairs to post so everyone can see what slobs they are.

Now toss on top of that the fact that they don’t do any upkeep to their house of the yard, and you can see our frustration. We basically feel like they are bringing down our property value. And it isn’t as if they don’t have time. Only the husband works, so there is someone always home. I work 10-12 hour days and I still come home and will do my upkeep outside (cutting the grass, cleaning out the gutters, cleaning up the yard, etc.) plus we make sure the girls clean up their toys and put them away wen they are done rather than leaving toys scattered all over the place for weeks. This is a pretty good story, and Kris and her friend Laura can atest to this... Last year they apparently replaced their bathtub. So where do you think the old tub went? Well is sat upside down in the front yard for two weeks. TWO WEEKS! It was like living next door to Fred Sanford!

I could rant forever, but I think you get the picture. Stay tuned for progress on the fence.