When I met the husband he lived in a semi-detached. He liked to play his music loud, but his 90 year old neighbour was deaf as a post so that was fine.
We moved to a detached house next and neighbourly noise wasn’t a concern. The kids could shout, scream, cry … and they did. Likewise, so could I.
Three months ago we moved into a terraced house with neighbours on both sides. A baptism of fire? Hell yes.
People would visit and say “Ooh, these houses have big thick walls, you won’t be able to hear your neighbours”. Wrong.
We have two sets of neighbours.
On one side a couple in their 60’s. Our bedroom is next to their bathroom and in the morning I can hear them having a wash or at least the taps running … well, I hope it’s water from the taps. Occasionally I can hear them talking, albeit muffled. When Mrs Neighbour goes down her cellar steps each evening I think she wears wooden clogs. Their young grandchildren visit and race up and down the stairs, shouting and we get a taste of what it must be like for our neighbours.
Thank goodness they only visit once a fortnight and don’t live there full time … Ahem.
On the other side is a couple of hairdressers with two children aged 10 and 13. the day after we moved in they gave us some of their home grown cucumbers and introduced themselves. We don’t really hear them. I wish the same could be said for us.
On a typical morning; The 3 year old wakes, goes downstairs and slams a door, I go downstairs to ask him kindly not to slam the door and all hell breaks loose. He has a problem with doing what he’s told to do. This leads to the first time out in his bedroom which is unfortunately next to Mr & Mrs Hairdresser’s bedroom.
Time out causes much shouting (him), screaming (him), crying (him) and seething (me). Then everything calms down and we have breakfast, get ready for school and all is well in the world. That is, until after school when we arrive home and the children argue in the garden.
At tea time when I call the children from upstairs the 3 year old no longer favours the old fashioned method of walking down stairs, instead he prefers to lie on his stomach and slides at speed slapping each step with his hands. He sounds like a train.
Oh, and let us not forget anytime between tea and bedtime when one or both of them will shout down two flights of stairs … “I’ve done a POO”.
So really it’s no surprise that on Monday as I was herding the children into the car Mrs Hairdresser arrived home from the school run.
I smiled and said “Hello”, she did nothing.
The 5 year old said in her loud voice “Mummy, why does she never speak to us?”.
I wonder …
No more cucumbers for us.
24 Comments on "Neighbourly Love"
Sharing the terraced house neighbour joy here too.
‘Tis a fine balancing act of love, hate and cat poo.
P.S Which hairdressers do they run?
Terrace here for us too, and I can cope with the sound. I think we give back as much as we get but what is embarassing is when you hear those sounds .. you know.. dum dum dum… shagging noises.
The worst thing is if we can hear them then they can hear us!!
Prize for you over at mine!
BNM
On one side of our terrace we have a very nice childless couple who pretend that we don’t make much noise, but we’ve been on less friendly terms since our builders hammered so hard they caused a crack in their kitchen wall. Oops. On the other side they also have three kids who are very noisy, so we pretend that we can’t hear their kids much and they pretend that they can’t hear ours. Apart from when our daughter climbs over the very wobbly fence to play with their daughter and nearly brings the whole thing down.
We live in a little old house where we can hear what’s going on from one end to the other! I dread the phone ringing whenever my toddler is asleep (and have trained family and friends to not ring during sleep time – its those flippin telemarketers that do it), DH has had to learn not to bang doors (or the toilet seat) and I had to buy him headphones to use with the TV!
Life’s challenges are all in good fun!
Christie
http://childhood101.blogspot.com/
I’ve been posting (bragging) about the fact that I am finally on my own during the day after 16 years. Not used to the silence, I almost had a heart attack the other morning when I was convinced someone was coming down my stairs. Turns out it was a neighbour coming down his stairs but our house is usually so bloody noisy we never hear anything.
Is great when neighbours dont talk to you, you dont get involved in any politics, theres no interference and why should you care about any noise. We have the reverse issue, people keep wanting to pop around for chats and things, nightmare. I cant go mad when they park outside for days on end and when their kids play football and keep smashing the ball into my car its hard to be diplomatic in the right way.
As for noise- you have kids what do they expect *sighs at teh state of modern britain*
Tagged you at mine xx
Oh I feel for you, there’s nothing worse than having bad neighbors.
You should be extra nice to the hairdressers, bake them a cake or something, that will make her feel quite embarrassed.
We are very lucky in this street, we also have a terraced house, both sides have young children . Our kids all play together and we can hear the lovely piano from one of them every early evening. I hope it keep this way.
Good luck to you and family!
Ju
http://maialarasaid.blogspot.com/
We’re end terrace but I fear it’s the state of our garden that might pee off the next door neighbours more than the noise.
Ooh that’s a bit snooty isn’t it? We’re also detached with quite a long way between the next house so we don’t have to worry. However, our children and their children are intermingled so much I often get to bedtime and find I’ve got the wrong ones – bit of a worry, there.
Weird about the kids, though – you’d think she say hello just for their sake at least. Mofo.
We have an older woman with a grown up daughter on one side of us and never hear anything from them, hopefully we don’t disturb them too much either.
However, on the other side we have the bloody clampits! They think nothing of turning their music on at 11.30 pm and blasting it, or staring on with a bloody hammer at 12.15 am (at least they didn’t until I gave them a mouthful), or swearing very loudly(even the C word)! What’s worse they have 3 boys of their own aged from 18months to 8 and all of this happens when they’re around!
Needless to say we don’t really talk to the clampits anymore, but what the hell, at least now I don’t have to pretend to be interested in whatever smalltalk I used to be forced into when I was in a rush to get to work/school
I remember moving from my parents detached to my first house, that was a semi. The advent of hearing neighbours was a most uncomforting one. Especially as we were early-ish 20s and partial to late night parties. Our neighbours hardly spoke to us either.
Oh don’t get me started…
My neighbours in our terrace our the bane of my existence. We also get far more stony silences than free cucumbers.
our the bane??? I know I’m tired but that’s disgraceful – I do apologise.
Just don’t do it again, OK?
See, we managed to lull our neighbours into a false sense of vegetable giving security before we ambushed them with our daily noise.
You’ll know for next time.
He he! I have to laugh because we also live in a terraced house and our neighbours next door are an Italian couple and their 2 children, aged 4 and 2 years old. When it is not the kids screaming words like Basta, Macaroni or Peperoni in the garden at the WRONG time, like nap times, the man and wife shout so loud at each other that it sounds like the whole street will fall to the ground!
I wrote a post soon after they moved in http://www.perfectlyhappymum.com/perfectly_happy_mum/2009/04/the-neighbours-from-hell.html
The other night I thought I was going to call the Police as she was screaming for HELP in the street. When I opened the door to see what was the danger she was throwing stones at her husband, and by no means looked in danger… it was more him looking like he needed help…
Jeez, I couldn’t do with the arguing adults.
Will have a read of yoru post at lunchtime!
Oh, we’re in a terraced house and I despair of those shouted poo-conversations. I never feel bad about crying or tantrums, though, because one set of neighbours look after their grandchildren all the time, and the others have a twenty-year old daughter who likes to sing karaoke and be shouted at by her mother. It’s communal living without the free babysitters.
Well, think of it this was, you’ve given them topics for them to discuss with their clients.
I like that … that we enhance their social skills at work.
Neighbours are over-rated, anyway. Well, apart from the free cucumbers. Honestly, if you were on speaking terms with them you’d be forever having to make small-talk when you’re running late for school.
Oh, we also got a tomato plant which has given us plentiful tomatos.
The small talk thing is a bonus!
Our neighbours don’t acknowledge us either. They have two girls who are older than our kids. I have never seen them do anything other than get in the car to go to tennis lessons or school or return from tennis lessons or school. Their house is always silent. The girls have a snooty look which they shoot my kids but they never speak.
We are a LOUD household, they have never complained but I know they must hate us. The only thing I dislike about them is the smelly barbeque they always light just after I hang washing out on the line…
Their kids actually play with our kids, in fact they spend a lot of time in our garden and house, which is why I find it strange that she doesn’t speak to me!