My Neighbors Are Awful (I Can't Sleep)

[Jackie Daytona]

Do you have bad neighbors? Leave a comment. I got ya'all beat though.

3-4 years ago I moved to a new neighborhood. I dislike all of them. To protect identities (and myself) I'll be assigning numbers to these people.

Some of these complaints will seem unreasonable. Until you understand that I spent YEARS working night jobs. Which make it very hard for me to sleep at night. And my neighbors? They make it impossible to sleep during the day. I'm so tired.

Neighbor 1
Has endless woodworking projects. Opens his garage, and moves his saw table to the entrance. This creates an amphitheater. Which blasts my house with a high-pitched sound. He'll do this FOR HOURS. He's doing it right now as I type this.

He also setup (and purchased) a drum set for his son. Which he decided to put in the garage. (Never mind the spare car they don't use is parked outside. Because what is a garage for if not for junk?) And they also open the door each time they play the drums. Because I guess they want me to hear clearly how bad their son is at playing. Dude could not keep time if he strapped a watch to his ear.

Oh, and they have non-stop guests. Which park in places that block me from backing out of my own driveway. And make noise. Because they leave their car running. And stand around talking outside. All of which drives my dog crazy.

Neighbor 2
Some old guy. 70+. Stares at me. Literally comes out of his house and stares at me. Every time he sees or hears me outside. It's like he spends the whole day looking out the window. (Seriously, it was 4 a.m. and my dog randomly barked at a guy going past. This dude turned on all his lights, opened his door, and stared at me from his doorway.)

Why? I've no idea. I tried confronting him and he ran inside his home. All I know is my dog won't take a dump with someone staring at him.

He also obsesses over his lawn. Mowing even when there is barely any grass growth. Even during droughts. And he'll go over the same section multiple times. It takes him an hour to mow a section that is roughly 8'x10'.

Autumn is the worst. He has one of those backpack leafblowers. I heard him holding it down at full blast for over 20 seconds. I looked out the window. Dude is staring at a SINGLE LEAF on his lawn. It's stuck. And he spends MINUTES blasting this high-pitched machine at ONE LEAF. Unlike the leaf, I was blown away.

Neighbor 3
Has never heard of a condom. He has a ton of kids. Which scream. Endlessly.

That could be forgivable. Kids are rough. Being a parent isn't easy. But your kids really shouldn't be keeping me up at 10:30 p.m. because you're having a party. A week away from the last party you had. And I couldn't sleep then, either!

One of their dogs escaped from their back yard. I tried to wrangle it. The dog was insanely aggressive, and starving. There was nothing I could do.

Also, owns a chainsaw. Spends hours cutting wood. Sometimes all day. Where did all the wood come from? I don't know. But he sure has a lot of it to cut.

Also sets off fireworks on random evenings.

Neighbor 4
Grandparents of some kids. Which get dumped on them every weekend. They are completely out of control. All they do is scream, squeal, shout, or talk loudly. Non-stop. From 10 a.m. to dusk. They very literally spend all their time in the back yard. Which is just outside my bedroom. It's a nightmare.

Neighbor 5
Old lady that puts her cat out at random. Climbed up on my car. (Multiple times!) Scratched the paint. Then had the nerve to ask me for a favor. Nope!

Neighbor 6
He's a pretty good guy. Except that he uses a high-pitched mini chainsaw to cut small branches into exact 1.5 ft lengths. And will spend hours doing so. For days. I dread the next windstorm.

Neighbor 7
Installed a super-bright porch light, and aimed it at my house.

Neighbor 8
Two doors down. Brings his dog to my yard to take dumps. Sometimes he cleans it, sometimes he doesn't. Why can't this bozo walk in his own yard?

Neighbor 9
Retired cop. Smokes a cigar at midnight. Why would he do this? Beats me. All I know is that he stares at me.

Neighbor 10
Lives a good distance away. Has shooting practice in the evening. At complete random. Throughout the year.

Neighbors X
Then there are these people that are outside between 12 a.m. and 4 a.m. People riding bikes around town. There's quite a few. I don't know what's going on around here. It's weird.

Not Neighbors
There are owls, random animals, and other birds that make it impossible to sleep at night. As they constantly make annoying noises. With no rhythm.

Randos
For reasons unknown, lots of people throw their trash in my yard. It happens multiple times per week.
----------------------
This place was perfectly fine when I moved in. Now? It's intolerable.

All my other options are far more expensive. I don't know what to do.

[Sir Dookface McFerretballs]

Move out to the desert or forest somewhere.

Buy an RV and live in that, can move whenever you want.

If everyone is staring at you... You should probably make sure you put your pants on before walking outside.

[Breathe]

I previously just answered the question without reading the entire blow-by-blow.

It sounds like you live in the South, OP. There are some things burdening you for no reason though. The paint on your car for example; if that was a legit complaint, buy a car cover. If your neighbours are out at certain times, go visit your friends or family, do some errands while they're out there. If you stay busy, you won't notice half of this stuff. The fact you seem at home most of the time, you've got nothing to do but Rear Window your entire neighbourhood.

Maybe swap where you have your bed and get a fan for white noise for times their activities seem to bother your sleep schedule. Maybe actually talk to the neighbours that would most likely develop at least a mutual respect, in turn, you may notice less bothersome things.

[Jackie Daytona]

Originalmente postado por Sir Dookface McFerretballs:

Move out to the desert or forest somewhere.

Buy an RV and live in that, can move whenever you want.

If everyone is staring at you... You should probably make sure you put your pants on before walking outside. :MMForFun:

Jeez Dook. It's not like that.

I had a delivery order the other day. Half the items were delivered. So, the delivery driver was standing outside on speaker phone with the person responsible. Trying to get the situation resolved. Multiple neighbors came outside to stare.

They are just a bunch of nosy busybodies. I'm literally doing nothing more than standing on my doorstep talking to someone. No yelling. No conflict. She was a very nice lady.

Originalmente postado por Breathe:

Maybe swap where you have your bed and get a fan for white noise for times their activities seem to bother your sleep schedule. Maybe actually talk to the neighbours that would most likely develop at least a mutual respect, in turn, you may notice less bothersome things.

I've actually started to sleep in my spare bedroom. As it is towards the center of the house, and thus has more sound insulation.

As far as fans? Most of my outlets don't work. The landlord doesn't care. The whole place has strange wiring. The lightswitches are on the outside of the rooms. It makes no sense. There are 4 switches that appear to do nothing. I have no idea what they are attached to.

[GunsForBucks]

You should stop what you are doing and big smile and wave to them each individually with the royal wave...hand up and just twisting a little at the wrist to avoid too much effort... until they feel awkward and back off.

Won't take long for them to start to ignore you .. or maybe be friendly..

[Zepondrax]

Nah just stand there and give them the bird, then they will ignore you :)

Originalmente postado por GunsForBucks:

You should stop what you are doing and big smile and wave to them each individually with the royal wave...hand up and just twisting a little at the wrist to avoid too much effort... until they feel awkward and back off.

Won't take long for them to start to ignore you .. or maybe be friendly..

[Jackie Daytona]

Originalmente postado por Zepondrax:

Nah just stand there and give them the bird, then they will ignore you :)

Originalmente postado por GunsForBucks:

You should stop what you are doing and big smile and wave to them each individually with the royal wave...hand up and just twisting a little at the wrist to avoid too much effort... until they feel awkward and back off.

Won't take long for them to start to ignore you .. or maybe be friendly..

I did try that. They aren't that easily intimidated.

It's morning right now. And the neighbor that runs his saw table is going at it. AGAIN.

It's a continuous high-pitched noise. I want to be asleep right now. I'm losing my mind.

[Chaosolous]

With a list of complaints that long and specific you’re probably the actual bad neighbor and everyone just does stuff to annoy you.

[Grendalcat]

One time I had a problem with neighbors that ran around on their noisy 4 wheelers in the woods behind my house. When I started firing blank rounds from my back deck, that cut down considerably on the noisy riding. In fact they started riding somewhere else.

[Ray Rook]

Originalmente postado por Apollo702:

If one doesn't deeply know a neighborhood consider renting for 6 months and seeing just what it's like before taking the plunge and buying.

No one does this. What the hell kind of advise even is this?

Just go walk the neighborhood and ask people what it's like. Use some common sense.

Are there a bunch of toys in the yard and a kiddie pool? It's probably got a lot of kids. Is the trash can overfilled? It's probably got a lot of people.

Are there a ton of cars in the drive way? It's probably got a lot of people.

Is there a barrier between yards? You can probably expect someone to drive through your yard.

Looking up local laws on noise. The neighborhood could be perfect, but if the laws aren't saying you have to control noise, you are still going to have 0 say if it does happen.

Also, people hate on HOAs, but this is one thing they're good for.

[GunsForBucks]

Originalmente postado por Ray Rook:

Originalmente postado por Apollo702:

If one doesn't deeply know a neighborhood consider renting for 6 months and seeing just what it's like before taking the plunge and buying.

No one does this. What the hell kind of advise even is this?

Just go walk the neighborhood and ask people what it's like. Use some common sense.

Are there a bunch of toys in the yard and a kiddie pool? It's probably got a lot of kids. Is the trash can overfilled? It's probably got a lot of people.

Are there a ton of cars in the drive way? It's probably got a lot of people.

Is there a barrier between yards? You can probably expect someone to drive through your yard.

Looking up local laws on noise. The neighborhood could be perfect, but if the laws aren't saying you have to control noise, you are still going to have 0 say if it does happen.

Also, people hate on HOAs, but this is one thing they're good for.

Yeah I am thankful for my HOA honestly.
Sometimes they get a bit picky but it's better than having a trashy neighborhood.
They don't do enough in some cases or the people there are just iffy.
Like a trailer full of dead TVs even some old tube ones buried.
A cabin cruiser on a trailer that has been there 14years and has a tree growing out of it.

But really they cover costs like trash and recycling that would cost at least half what the HOA dues are. then the pools and tennis courts and lakes and security.. events and even fireworks.

There was a change in the noise thing.
No hours
Just can't go 100db over "ambient"
So technically you could mow the lawn at 2AM as long as your neighbor was making noise too.
Kind of goofy and makes it so variable.. I don't think they even enforce it unless someone gets out of hand.
But then they really can just enforce it on whim, don't like laws like that.
"We have special equipment and train the people to use it" ....... yeah sure

[Rod]

Originalmente postado por Zepondrax:

My neighbours in my apartment floor next to me they dont care, they just leave the pungent cooking odour in the lobby, everytime I go out there it REEKS. Ive had enough so now what I do is, I leave the door open as we have a side door, so the bad smell can go into the stairwell instead of in my apartment.

Buy Ona liquid. Put some in a bucket and let it evaporate. It will kill nearly any smell.

[Pieshaman]

YOUR SOLUTION IS HERE:

Put this on LOUD, then go to bed
sleep like baby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMRoNNKWuqQ

[Pieshaman]

some complaints of yours make no sense though, maybe you are a little psychotic? xd

[Zepondrax]

Not much you can do about it, I live in an apartment, and our neighbors are right next door which means you get all their foul cooking odours wafting in to the apartment every hour or so, its revolting. I cant even shut my windows, every time I try to or even shut my windows they start cooking and it stinks everywhere

Originalmente postado por Jackie Daytona:

Originalmente postado por Zepondrax:

Nah just stand there and give them the bird, then they will ignore you :)

I did try that. They aren't that easily intimidated.

It's morning right now. And the neighbor that runs his saw table is going at it. AGAIN.

It's a continuous high-pitched noise. I want to be asleep right now. I'm losing my mind.

[NW/RL]

Maybe you should move or get a job that isn't the night shift