And This Is Why I Live in the Jungle

You have a similar story?

http://www.7dvt.com/2014disharmony-prospect-street-dispute-between-neighbors-strikes-sour-note

Yes my next door neighbor also has been secretly filming me working on
My ukulele on my lanai or porch.until I caught her filming me one day. I called the cops, now she filed a complaint against me that the saw dust and wood is a fire hazard.
I wasnt using any power tools, just used chisals to shape the bracing and used block sander
. This the same neighbor ive been helping when she had computer trouble, never knew she was secretly building a case against me.

Frogs don't complain about the noise, Chuck?

Just think if he came out in a hazmat suit after spraying nitro all day!! hahaha

I Bought my house just over a year ago and was very concerned about what neighbors might be like. In that time I have done a bunch of renovation - power tools, nail guns, compressors, dust collector - plus a new roof and not once has a neighbor complained, in fact, I have received nothing by compliments.

I do have one neighbor that bugs me, not because they are noisy or complain that I am, they bug be because they are not neighborly. Not just me, but to everybody. I have asked other neighbors about them and they have had the same experience.

They had a garage sale last year, my wife went to see what they had and they could not even be bothered to raise their heads and say hello. Just weird.

Here is hoping the cabinet saw, new 220v compressor, and drum sander do not piss somebody off.

Back in '99, we built a rather large addition onto our home. We got all the necessary permits and got started. The first thing that needed to be done was the extra lot next to us needed to be lowered so a footer could be poured. A woman that lived directly behind us, down the hill on the street below (henceforth known as the 'crazy lady'), drove up on our street, as the backhoe was working the land, and told us we couldn't dig on our property because of coal mines beneath it.

I told her we had the permits, and the work would be done. She started trying to argue with me, and I just shook my head, pointed at my front window, said, "There's the permit," and walked away. In a huff, she got in her car and left. 20 minutes later, a man from the city permit office drove onto the street and told me a complaint had been registered, and he had to investigate. He went and looked over the hill, and told us a barrier needed to be put up so dirt and rocks would not roll over the hill to the property below. An hour delay. Back to work.

The next day we had quite the surprise. A car with federal tags drove up and parked in front of the house. It was 2 men that worked for the EPA!! They told us a complaint had been registered that we had dug down so far the we were into some 100 year old coal mines beneath our property. Well, my chin hit my chest at the sound of this one. I told them to look around, there were no sinkholes in my property. He laughed and said, "A lady on the street behind you, had an old coal mine that was leaking out some toxic liquid called us a few years back. We, per policy, filled it in and closed it off at no charge to her. But she has had us come back several times to check it. Now she thinks you're going to dig into it."

He asked if we were going down any further and I told him no. I asked him how much further we would have to dig to get into the coal mine, and he said "50 feet. At least. You could dig an in-ground swimming pool if you wanted. Further if anything happened that your property fell in and was damaged because of the mine, federal regulations say we would have to fix it or compensate you for the full amount of your loss.

Me: 2

Crazy Lady: 0

Chuck, could ya turn that thickness sander off please? I can't hear myself think!

We're on the the flip side of that coin. We bought a house in March and the day we were moving in a guy from the city shows up. He walks up to me and my wife and asks if we're the new owners of the house. When we say yes, "He puts out his hand and says, "On behalf of the mayor and the rest of city hall we'd like to welcome you to the neighborhood." He said that he or the police had been out to the house 2-3 times a week for the past year because the previous owner would get in to arguments with the neighbors. He did all sorts of crazy stuff like putting park benches on the sidewalks to keep people from walking on them and had a recorded message on a motion sensor to tell people to get off his property. When we toured the house to look at it, he had video cameras in all the rooms to monitor us. We actually bought the house from an attorney who was assigned to sell it because he refused to after a divorce.

What a nightmare! I've been blessed with neighbors that don't mind the noise, even when I pull my table saw out of my crowded one-car garage to the driveway to cut large panels (I build equestrian tack trunks, toy and blanket chests and shelving display units as well). Some of that good will comes from projects I've done for them, I guess. I've never considered having to deal with an obnoxious neighbor

Makes me worried about our plans to move to Houston in a couple of months. I plan to utilize the entire two-car garage for woodworking. I better take all the neighbors out to dinner before I hit the power switch!

That is EXACTLY why I have no neighbors. Closest one....over a mile. Can't see em, can't hear em and so I forget about them.
The problem is that some people are just not happy unless they are causing other folks misery. I think that basically those people are miserable and want to share

That story is nuts. Luckily Chuck you've got the best neighborhood enforcement in Opihikao: Madam Pele (Volcano Goddess). She must help to keep neighborhood densities lower in that area

Habanera Hal said:

Makes me worried about our plans to move to Houston in a couple of months. I plan to utilize the entire two-car garage for woodworking. I better take all the neighbors out to dinner before I hit the power switch!

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Just make sure there are no home owners association where you buy - that was a prerequisite for me.

I have a friend in Arizona who had to repaint his garage door, I believe it was white and they said it had to be clay or sand or something like that.
My father had to get approval when he built a free standing 12'x12' shed at the back corner of his lot.

When moving to a new area, cruise the neighborhoods you're interested in on a Saturday morning when a lot of the garage doors will be open. Look for signs of woodworking tools and move next door. Strength (and noise) in numbers.
Also, ask the realtor if there are any restrictions against raising swine. I've found that if they allow you to have pigs they'll let you do anything. Even spray lacquer!

Sheesh...what a Kooky neighbor. That guy should forget about hiring lawyers and hire an arsonist instead

Where I live there are no noise ordinances, but that alone does not get rid of the crazy neighbors. 2 years ago we were in a bit of a fight with our only close neighbor. They ran a business from their home where they did disaster clean up. They were hauling all the debris back to the house and burning it. Wood, drywall, plastic shower enclosures, you name it. In this case I was the complainer. What they were doing was wrong, the only ones to disagree was the neighbor. To get back at me she called in a false report to the sheriff saying I had verbally assulted her on her front porch one morning. The sheriff told my wife she specifically said my name and pointed to my house. The interesting part....I was in Germany! After that the sherriff would not come out if they called. They did stop out one other time when their 2 pitbulls had the other neighbor pinned inside his garage and he could not leave. The poor dogs were put down due to THEIR neglegence. Glad they are gone now! My new neighbors are the best I have ever had!

People just need to be respectful and think about when they encroaching on others. I have a next door neighbor who is blowing all his snow from his driveway up against the side of my house. It's about 4 feet deep. Not sure how to approach him without him without him getting offended. If my basement is leaking water this spring, I won't care if he is offended.

His defence is to have the Judge stand in her sun room while he turns on his machines. Unfortunately it will take a great deal of arguing and an application of the rarest commodity in the universe: common sense.

Heh - I live in an apartment and I do think about timing before I start my Jet 10-20 and dust collector. Other than that I have a small bandsaw and a miniscule table saw. They're not too bad. It's a duplex though and no one lives on the other side of the workshop walls. I know I've bored you to within an inch of your lives with my praise of hand tools, but one last argument is that they're silent(ish).

Barbara Headrick of Burlington Vermont made her address public knowledge when she filed this complaint. Perhaps everyone should send her cards as she apparently needs love.

~AL~

Maybe I'm the odd man out, but the situation is totally the fault of the woodworker. He should either move or shut down his business.

He knew when he moved in that the business was not authorized, which is why he got the permits. The officials that issue those couldn't care less about the character of the neighborhood, they just want the permit fees. When he violated the terms of the original permit, they should have shut him down. Instead they granted a new permit - no wonder the neighbor is upset.

If he wanted to run a woodworking business he should have done it in an area that allows it.

I have some experience with the issue. In my HOA controlled neighborhood we have an absolute prohibition against running businesses from home. A neighbor up the street started running a handbag and luggage business out of their garage. There was no noise but the famous little brown truck was showing up all the time and the business was generating a lot of car traffic.

I didn't know about it until it was all over but the bordering neighbors handled it all quite nicely. They reported the business to both layers of our HOA and for good measure asked the town if the business had a license to operate. The last was real fun. The business didn't have a license to operate and had to pay a fine. Also, unlike the town in the story, our town will not issue a business license if it violates town or HOA rules. So they got shut down.

Other than the traffic, the other reason the neighbors wanted the business gone is the one mentioned is mentioned in the story. If that business was allowed to continue, it would set a precedent for others. Most of us moved to the community for peaceful days and nights. We didn't move here to be in the middle of a commercial or retail district. Just 2 miles from my community is the unincorporated section of the county where just about anything goes. If you want to run a business from your home, that is where you should live. Right next door to everyone else running businesses from their home.