Following on from Cappacinocruiser's trails with his neighbours I have come to the conclusion yesterday that you just can't please everybody. This is for why, and applogies this is a long rant so give up now if you can't stay the distance...
A year ago we moved into our current house.
The state of the place was as follows, the front garden was neat enough but the side-front garden was a bit overgrown. The fense which separates the side-front garden and the main-side garden had fallen down and the gate was kinda hanging off its hinges. The main side garden has a lawn which was mown, but the clippings not raked up and all the borders were overgrown. The huge lailandai hedge which runs all around the property boundary to that side was overgrown, about 14 feet tall and encroached onto the pavement. The gates to the rear entry for the drive were broken and falling off. The drive was a conrete plynth extended with what look like coucil pavement slabs. A rusty Mk2 Golf sat there on bricks with no front wings or struts. There was a metal shed which was unsightly. There was a small patio at the bottom of the rear garden which looked like someone had just dropped the slbs on top of the lawn. the rear fense was missing some planks which had fallen off. The rear lawn was mown but lumpy and full of weeds.
There was a small pond but it was full of stangnant water.
Several bags of rubbish were dumped up the side of the house long enough for them to be maggoty.
Since we moved in I have:
mown the front lawn properly, cut an island and planted a white english standard rose tree. I have restocked with new beddig plants, wall flowers, etc. in the front of the house we have 4 wall boxes which I keep stocked with flowers of the season.
The front side garden is mostly de-weeded, Ive planted a rhodedendron bush, I've cut back and properly dealt with the blossom tree which was in a state.
I've put the fense back up, fixeed the gate, and trained a climbing flower plant thing up the fense which has just come into glorious bloom with pretty pink flowers.
The side main garden is now properly rollered and mown with no clippings left out, I've cleared out the borders, recut and reshaped them.
The old driveway which was nasty has been ripped out and extended and now laid in nice sandstone coloured pea gravel. The nasty metal shed is long gone and I have replaced it with a "prestige" timer workshop which is specifically chosen and styled to look in keeping in a country village garden rather than looking like a small industrial unit.
I've installed new gate posts, new gates, repaired the rear fences and treated them properly.
The next driveway to ours was shabby and I had over order on the pa gravel so rathe rthan send it back I piad my builder to resurface the neighbour's drive (as this was a nice neighbourly thing to do, right?)
I spent two days last autumn cutting, trimming and reshaping that damn Lailandai hedge.
Adjacent to my property is an electricity substation. This has a courtyard thing in front of it that the 'leccy people never maintain. So last bank holiday I spent a few hours pulling up all the weeds and disposing of all the rubbish that kids had thrown in there to make it all look nice, just to keep the neighbourhood looking tidy.
I pay a bloke to come wash my windows and frames once every 6 weeks so the house always looks clean and bright from the outside.
I never leave rubbish ut, it goes straight in the boot of the car (or the van!) and I take it to the tip. I don't have any junk in the garden, I have a few small items tucked behind the shed but thats it.
I don't work on my cars early in the morning, since moving here I have never worked later than 8pm. I've installed anti-vibration mountings etc for the compressor so you can't even hear it outside of the garage when its running.
When ever I have a skip in for building works or whatever (when we refitted the bathroom etc) I go round the neighbours and tell them they can put any junk they want in there when I've finished loading it.
I park all my cars on my property, close the gates if I'm working on one on the drive and if I have to drop one off innto the street I park where its not outside anyones house where they use "their" space or opposite their drive.
I go ouut of my way to be considerate and tidy.
Only yesterday our next door neighbour commented we were the quietest neighbours they've ever had.
About a week ago she said that our garden "put hers to shame" for its tidyness and abundance of blooms.
So later last night I heard one of the other neighbours walking past with a couple of his mates and describe our house as a "disgrace". Apparently what I've done is "sacrelidge". And then the sealing comment "look how many cars he has on that drive" - usually 3 but we have the van there at the moment. C'mon 3 cars is not excessive is it?
So these fuggers were bitching on about "they don't know how I get away with it" and all that.
WHAT THE F*** DO THESE PEOPLE WANT?
The place is like 100 times better looking now than the mess it was before we came here. The big thing which seems to have upset them is that the drive is somewhat extended from being big enough to stand 2 cars now it will stand 5 or 6. And Istill have a huge gardern left, its all in proportion.
I'm just really pee'd off that people are talking behind my back and calling me when they don;t realise I can hear them!
And its all because of the old cars, because I make no mess and cause no distrubance and all the other neighboours think I'm great and joke about how I make the rest of the neighborhood look messy!
Its bloody carism or something thats what it is. Just cos they have a shiny new Jag and I have a scruffy Oldsmobile...
Bah,
Sorry, just got thinking about it again and had to rant that one away!
A year ago we moved into our current house.
The state of the place was as follows, the front garden was neat enough but the side-front garden was a bit overgrown. The fense which separates the side-front garden and the main-side garden had fallen down and the gate was kinda hanging off its hinges. The main side garden has a lawn which was mown, but the clippings not raked up and all the borders were overgrown. The huge lailandai hedge which runs all around the property boundary to that side was overgrown, about 14 feet tall and encroached onto the pavement. The gates to the rear entry for the drive were broken and falling off. The drive was a conrete plynth extended with what look like coucil pavement slabs. A rusty Mk2 Golf sat there on bricks with no front wings or struts. There was a metal shed which was unsightly. There was a small patio at the bottom of the rear garden which looked like someone had just dropped the slbs on top of the lawn. the rear fense was missing some planks which had fallen off. The rear lawn was mown but lumpy and full of weeds.
There was a small pond but it was full of stangnant water.
Several bags of rubbish were dumped up the side of the house long enough for them to be maggoty.
Since we moved in I have:
mown the front lawn properly, cut an island and planted a white english standard rose tree. I have restocked with new beddig plants, wall flowers, etc. in the front of the house we have 4 wall boxes which I keep stocked with flowers of the season.
The front side garden is mostly de-weeded, Ive planted a rhodedendron bush, I've cut back and properly dealt with the blossom tree which was in a state.
I've put the fense back up, fixeed the gate, and trained a climbing flower plant thing up the fense which has just come into glorious bloom with pretty pink flowers.
The side main garden is now properly rollered and mown with no clippings left out, I've cleared out the borders, recut and reshaped them.
The old driveway which was nasty has been ripped out and extended and now laid in nice sandstone coloured pea gravel. The nasty metal shed is long gone and I have replaced it with a "prestige" timer workshop which is specifically chosen and styled to look in keeping in a country village garden rather than looking like a small industrial unit.
I've installed new gate posts, new gates, repaired the rear fences and treated them properly.
The next driveway to ours was shabby and I had over order on the pa gravel so rathe rthan send it back I piad my builder to resurface the neighbour's drive (as this was a nice neighbourly thing to do, right?)
I spent two days last autumn cutting, trimming and reshaping that damn Lailandai hedge.
Adjacent to my property is an electricity substation. This has a courtyard thing in front of it that the 'leccy people never maintain. So last bank holiday I spent a few hours pulling up all the weeds and disposing of all the rubbish that kids had thrown in there to make it all look nice, just to keep the neighbourhood looking tidy.
I pay a bloke to come wash my windows and frames once every 6 weeks so the house always looks clean and bright from the outside.
I never leave rubbish ut, it goes straight in the boot of the car (or the van!) and I take it to the tip. I don't have any junk in the garden, I have a few small items tucked behind the shed but thats it.
I don't work on my cars early in the morning, since moving here I have never worked later than 8pm. I've installed anti-vibration mountings etc for the compressor so you can't even hear it outside of the garage when its running.
When ever I have a skip in for building works or whatever (when we refitted the bathroom etc) I go round the neighbours and tell them they can put any junk they want in there when I've finished loading it.
I park all my cars on my property, close the gates if I'm working on one on the drive and if I have to drop one off innto the street I park where its not outside anyones house where they use "their" space or opposite their drive.
I go ouut of my way to be considerate and tidy.
Only yesterday our next door neighbour commented we were the quietest neighbours they've ever had.
About a week ago she said that our garden "put hers to shame" for its tidyness and abundance of blooms.
So later last night I heard one of the other neighbours walking past with a couple of his mates and describe our house as a "disgrace". Apparently what I've done is "sacrelidge". And then the sealing comment "look how many cars he has on that drive" - usually 3 but we have the van there at the moment. C'mon 3 cars is not excessive is it?
So these fuggers were bitching on about "they don't know how I get away with it" and all that.
WHAT THE F*** DO THESE PEOPLE WANT?
The place is like 100 times better looking now than the mess it was before we came here. The big thing which seems to have upset them is that the drive is somewhat extended from being big enough to stand 2 cars now it will stand 5 or 6. And Istill have a huge gardern left, its all in proportion.
I'm just really pee'd off that people are talking behind my back and calling me when they don;t realise I can hear them!
And its all because of the old cars, because I make no mess and cause no distrubance and all the other neighboours think I'm great and joke about how I make the rest of the neighborhood look messy!
Its bloody carism or something thats what it is. Just cos they have a shiny new Jag and I have a scruffy Oldsmobile...
Bah,
Sorry, just got thinking about it again and had to rant that one away!