Marty,

Since you are selling the house, you sure can have a lot of fun with your exit plans. Just don't tell your realtor about the neighbor for hell, they can't keep their mouths shout.

Jean

P.S. By the way, we might be in one of those southwest Michigan resort towns tomorrow, too!!!!

P.S. Again. The counters on these blogs aren't always working right. You can test it by bouncing in and out a few times and nothing changes. Eventually, they seem to catch up and all of a sudden you'll see a big jump. Just thought, you as a blog virgin, would like to know this.

First of all Marty, Happy Birthday to your wife. Now for the idiots. Both of my strokes more or less were caused by insensitive neighbors and it involed trees. When I was a child, we used to have a tree that was between our home and a neighbors and it was left alone. They enjoyed the shade. When one neighbor moved, the next one also left the tree alone.also. I had neighbors though who would climb over their fence when I was away working and "trim" my tree and leave it for me to clean up. Yes, I offered at times but not as an ongoing ritual and after all you can't say they did it because you are not there to see it. The law was you could cut to the line (did't say about chopping up) not several feet away on the persons property.

Were you the one who was speaking of looking into the Villages? Met someone from there and heard all about it. Sounds cool. If not, come buy where my lot is- all acre+ property and you do what you want.......Oh, mine is on the quiet side of town. And trees--- that's all there are.

Love your idea for a farewelll gift, but think you can do better than that.

YOU ARE RIGHT PHIL. I'LL HAVE MY DAUGHTER'S COCKER SPANIEL MAKE SOME DONATIONS.

MARTY

man on man have you TOUCHED A NERVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MARTY.

ten years ago i bought a nice little brick house in a 30-40 year old subdivision rather than the "yuppie trendy new ones" for two reasons. i think older homes in my area are better built, AND all of the neighbors were older and retired. ( i was about thirty) well, with retirees comes moving to assited living facilites, and unfortunately, death) SO, i inherited three new neighbors about 7 years ago. one on the north, west, and east DIRECTLY "next door" to my house. they were in their 20'Sand thirties.

between them , as best i can tell, they share 10 children between the ages of 4-14, and about 10 outside dogs. also they have no civic sense of responsibility when it comes to maintaining their homes or yards.

the one on the west has in is front lawn. ( a basketball court, a "makeshift" skate board ramp, two parked cars on the grass, numerous UGLY AS crap "lawn chairs and swings" and hasn't put a coat of paint on that house in 5 years AT least, and it needed one when he moved in. he and his kids and ALL of their friends use my lawn as a fifity yard line when they play football. they have broken two of my storm windows with balls. although he paid for the repair, that's besides the point.

in addition, he leaves for work at 5am and lets the five dogs out and the bark fest begins. this went on till i had the stroke and i couldn't take the sleep deprivation any longer. on my best cat stationery i spilled my guts. he never said a word, but he did keep the mutts inside in an enclosed sun room and i can still hear them, but what can i say????? he has never spoken to me since.

the ones behind me, whose dogs joined in the "morning bark fest" moved after a short time. the neighbor on the east, was a single mother with two dogs. she was a tramp and was always trying to find ways of leaving her kid at my house to "play" with my daughter for an" "hour. this usually entailed 4 hours and a dinner later before she would saunter over and get her kid. she'd always ask my HUSBAND b4 i would get home from work and when i got home i had an extra kid and a kiss on the cheek as he left for work, or wherever.

i nipped that in the bud by calling her and telling her that she was NEVER to ask my husband as i was the one who was doing the babysitting and meal preparing and i wasn't interested. i got a lame " i'm sorry" but she stopped. THEN, she would leave her dog unattended for DAYS while she catted around. poor thing would wail incessantly. after a while of this i told her i had no coice but to call animal control. she moved two weeks later.

THEN, a new moving truck drove up with a couple with TWO german sheppards. i took over a casserole, made some small talk, established a rapport, and then laid it out. i told her of the last problem and that i would not be able to stand for it. she ASSURED me that her dogs didn't bark. YEAH RIGHT. we have had two years of it and i have complained EVERY SINGLE TIME. I have called them at 3am, banged on their door at 2am, whatever it took. they always apologized and FINALLY put in an enclosed patio and locked the dogs up at night. mercifully, they moved last week.

i have been anxiously awaiting the NEW neighbors. i will give them the same speech . i realize that my neighbors do not like me and i do not care. they are in the wrong, not me. they have all gotten citations from the city( they are pink and hanging on their doors, you cant miss it) but i didn't report them. the old man across the street did, but they think it was me.

right now, everything is much more quiet, but their lawns still look like hell. every other street still has the original neighbors. there are 20+ plats in that subdivision. WHY OH WHY did i choose the "eight ball street?"

i dunno. even my step daughter, now 14 said once" don't those kids have a game boy?" it's that bad,. they all have nice sized back yards, but they can't play in them because of all of the dog crap. it is RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SO YEAH, I KNOW ABOUT BAD NEIGHBORS. ask vicki about her next door neighbor, he's a REAL "winner" lol

unfortunately, it is against the law to deny housing or even ask about children or pets, if you are buying a home. i think that law should be changed so THAT like people can live peacfully together. then again, i'm sure the PERPETRATORS ENJOY the peace and quiet and aesthetics of living next to people like me. clean lawn, well maintained property, no kids running around destroying property, and quiet, the *beeps*!!!!! I HATE THEM ALL.

kim

When Jerry and I first got married we rented a tiny one bedroom house in a lovely old neighborhood. And we had the neighbor from hell!

Mrs. Jefferson!!!

We couldn't afford a dryer so, Jerry hung a clothesline in our backyard. Mrs. Jefferson had to walk down her driveway to see it.

Everytime I would hang Jerry's underwear on the line, she'd call the police!!!

Everytime!!!!

She said it was indecent exposure!

She called the police on us so many times - once for having our porchlight on past 9 at night! Once because we had J's parents over for dinner! Once because Katie was crying and our windows were open, (Katie was 4 months old!)and Mrs. Jefferson could have just removed her hearing aids!

We moved as soon as we could! On moving day, we left underwear on the clothesline just to make her crazy!!! We knew the house would be empty for 10 days and if she couldn't stand to look at it, she'd have to take it down herself!!!!

Marty, maybe Mrs. Jefferson could move in with you for a few weeks? I'm sure she's still around, they call her "The Terminator of Burton Avenue"!

THANKS FOR THE STORIES. NOW MY NEIGHBOR LOOKS LIKE A PRINCE. WHY CAN'T ALL THE SELFISH, STUPID, AND INCONSIDERATE PEOPLE LIVE TOGETHER IN ONE NEIGHBORHOOD IN ONE STATE?

They do, Marty. It's call high-priced condo living where they have associations that make rules like what color your mailbox can be and how many minutes you can leave your garage door open when you exit and enter your house. I like the concept of putting all the control freaks together in one place.

Jean

Jean