Tuesday, January 16, 2007

This Week: Neighbors

As most of you guys know we live in a town-house in a very nice spot, backing up to a lovely golf course.
Lots of trees around us, and lots of green spaces and walking paths. Simply said: It is a perfect place to live. Or, is it???

I used to think so, but I don't know anymore. NOT since we got the neighbors from hell next door. It started over a year ago when our neighbor to the south decided to sell his house. He was an older, single man, never any problems with him. OK, every once in a while we would hear him take a shower at 2 AM, but not more than that. Anyway, he sold the place to a young guy, and he in his turn, has room-mates, at least three people that we know of. But new people come and go all the time. Needless to say the easy, quiet days were over as soon they moved in. We think they are between 23-27 years old. The music started blasting at night, they drank beer and screamed in the back. Awful! The worst time was probably when they threw a party about a year ago, and we could hear everything. Including the vomiting sounds from their bathroom. Yes, the cops came that night. My neighbor E(now ex-neighbor) called for them. It was party-time both inside and outside, on the golf course in the back and in the common area up front.
Not much sleep for anybody that night,let me tell you. THAT is the worst party, of all their parties. A little, tiny bit of revenge came in the morning after that blow-out. Sweden played Finland in the Olympic Hockey finale at 8 AM. I was up, and ready to watch the game in front of the TV. AND, we all know what a dream game that was!!! Every time Sweden scored a goal I rushed out to the deck and SCREAMED out of happiness, and I aimed the screams to the neighbors house!!! AND, when we got the gold I ran out and just shouted out my happiness for all that it was worth. Fun! But, anyway, I was not going to talk about hockey golds here...

Things gradually seemed to be better next-door, no big parties, no blasting music...Good and fine.
Until recently...Our ex-neighbors E and B, the ones that used to call the cops on the said neighbors, did sell their place...AND they sold their place TO FRIENDS OF THE AWFUL neighbors!!! How could they???? THANK YOU EVER SO DARN MUCH!!! So, right before Christmas a new set of 25 year olds moved in to E and B's old place. A young couple bought it, and as far as we all know they have about 3 room-mates as well. The parking situation on our already cramped street is getting worse and worse. The new people, and the "old" neighbors park illegal all the time.

BUT enough is enough, now all of us old, and seasoned, neighbors are taking action. As soon as they park illegal we'll have them towed, as soon as they'll throw a huge party again, we'll call the cops. NO MERCY!
Yes, they did throw a double-party the other night. And it was nothing but damn awful! All night long it was music, screaming and drunk people everywhere. One of our old and seasoned and good neighbors actually saw people peeing on my rose bushes...And outside one resident there was puke on their side-walk. Nice, huh?
But, as I said now the police are informed, and the home association. No more crap!

I am telling you though, that as soon as the times are better on the real estate market Peter and I are out of here.
TOO BAD, in a way, because I love this place...I love all my lovely, and good neighbors...Neighbors that have also become Really and incredible good friends. I love my house, I love the view...It will be sad as hell to leave. But, on the other hand I am so ready for single family home living. And, oh yes, my dream house here in Reston is STILL FOR SALE!!!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hm...sometimes when I try to comment, it does not show up on the blog? Anyway, what I was trying to say is that I feel sorry for you and P about the sucky neighbours. Now may be a good time to put in a "lowball" offer on your dreamhouse!! SB

Keith said...

Maybe the neighbors have some wild plot to drive you all out so that the can have the whole row of houses fille with just their friends...Amazing how inconsiderate these people are of their neighbors. No courtesy to tell any of you that they're having a party and that the evening will be noisy. Also no sense to tell their guests to park in visitor spaces (I know not many, but still). Not only that, they have to take things outside. More like animals and stereotypical fraternity members. These "kids" are in their mid- to late-20s. You think they would have some brains. As long as you continue to live there absolutely don't let them take advantage of you....Glad to hear the dream house is still available!

Annika said...

SB:
Damn right...Yes, it would be great, S, but this house has to be sold first. Or so I think...and you know how bad the times are now...

Keith:
Enough is enough...No more crap. Now we are ALL taking action. The new neighbors are actaully worse thena the old ones.
I know,ZERO RESPECT!!! NONE...

Anonymous said...

You can sell your house to my neighbors :-)

Annika said...

Tina:
Oh yeah? That bad ;-)

Anne-Marie said...

Sorry to hear about your inconsiderate neighbors. Young people with no brains. I had a very odd couple in the apartment above mine when I lived in Sollentuna. They had an old piano that was not in tune and all of a sudden they could start playing the piano at 12 at night. They also seemed to play inne-bandy (have no idea what that is called in English) and it sounded as if they were in my apartment. Finally the guy moved out and it got quiet.

Anonymous said...

Anne-Marie:
Yes, inconsiderate neighbors are the worst! They can turn your life in to torture. Try the bass thru the wall at 2 am...Music torture...
Inne-bandy, what a pain in an apartment...NOOOO!!!

Anonymous said...

I think "innebandy" is called "indoor field hockey".

It's really upsetting to read your story about your neighbours, Annika. Your home is your castle, or supposedly so! So to have rude and inconsiderate people disturbing the peace is just awful. There are laws about noise pollution, at least in Australia, and that applies to both barking dogs and barking mad people going berserk at parties. There are clubs and pubs, you'd think they'd go there instead of upsetting a whole private residence area.

Anonymous said...

Matilda:

Oh I know...Awful! We are reading the by-laws here now, to see what we can do. There has to be something, and I know there are laws about having too many people in one house, that are not related. So, we'll see what we all can do. We are not taking this sitting down any longer, for sure. I just cannot believe how they can show so very little RESPECT.

Oh, yes...indoor-field hockey is the right word for "inne-bandy"...Thanks!

Anonymous said...

How terrible!! How about going down to the local police, introduce yourselves and explain the situation. In short. Do not whine, but make them understand your situation and gain their compassion for it. Then ask if they can give you a direct number (possible a couple cell phone numbers) to some of the officers so you can get VERY quick response when the idiots act up. Then show no mercy and work with the absolute ZERO tolerance policy. Take pictures so you can show the police when they drop by of cars parked incorrectly etc.

This is what I did when the people across the street from us were having gang-meets at their house, loud parties and tons of cars parked there at all hours, loud music from their cars, and fixing cars on the street.

It took an intense 8 months, but they have now been OK for about five years. The people that lived on our street were to afraid to do anything, so these people got away with it for years before we moved in here.

Make the idiots understand what my American husband always says "Don't mess with the Vikings and expect to get away telling about it"!!

Good luck,
Fia (Swedish)

Anonymous said...

Fia:
A warm welcome to my blog!!!
Thanks for your input! Sounds like you have great experience with crap like this.
You are so right! A zero tolerance policy is the way to go. And yes, we do take pics. whenever we can of illegaly parked cars etc.
The other day the president of our HOA was here taking pictures and putting up signs of warnings on the cars. Then, out of one of the two houses, a 20-something brat walked out. Walked straight up to his BMW and ripped the paper (with the warning text) into pieces saying to the stunned people that were watching: You guys need to find something better to do with your weekends than to put crap like this on peoples cars.
Nice, huh? Very nice...Very mature and all that...

IDIOTS is the right word to use! No brains and zero respect.

I will write more about this, and keep all of you updated.

Thanks again for your input, Fia!

Anonymous said...

Wow Annika, this is horrible!! I can't believe that grown ups act this way. No brains and zero respect indeed. And your neighbors selling to their friends!?!? That's really strange, after they called the cops on them and all... But it sounds like you're getting som great advice and input in all the comments here. GO FOR IT!! Jag hejjar på er!! And I hope you get to buy a new place soone!

Annika said...

Monika:
It is a nightmare...All of the "good" neighbors on the streets are now ganging up against these people.
I know, it is so strange that E and B sold the place to friends of the first pack of bad neighbors. Lack of damn respect there, too...

Me too...I am ready to move on. I really am...