Wednesday, June 10, 2009

...Could You Be My Neighbor?



A sign similar to this went up in the front yard of the house next door to us a couple weeks ago.

It does not excite me.

I'm not good with change.

I liked very much that my old neighbor kept to themselves. In fact, I'm not even sure who lived there. It was rumored that it was an older lady but I swear to you that I never saw anyone coming or going from that house.

Now we are anxiously waiting to see who our new neighbors will be. And we pray that whoever it is, they don't mess up the very essence of our street.

I say that because we have been burned in the past.

This is our second home. Our first house was in the city and located off of a business main road. It was suitable for what we needed at the time, but it was truly a starter house. We always knew that it wouldn't be forever; however our neighbors made it pretty nice.

On one side there was a retired RN, that had survived breast cancer and now devoted all her time to gardening. Her backyard was full of roses...beautiful roses that ranged the spectrum of the rainbow. Evelyn took great pride in her yard and it showed.

A family with 3 boys occupied the home on the other side. They were fairly nice, and we seemed to get along well. SS and one of their boys became friendly when they played on the same baseball team one summer. My lil sis befriended the older boy *ahem* and my husband became pals with the Dad.

Keep in mind that we lived in the city, so the houses were closely situated having only a few feet of yard that kept us divided. It was a blessing that our neighbors were good people, and we took that for granted.

After about 4 years of "comfort", the neighborhood began to change. People a few houses down moved and rented their house out. Then Evelyn passed away. And eventually the family next door fell on hard times and had to move.

The new neighbors were nothing like the old. They didn't care about Evelyn's roses, and barely managed to keep their grass cut. Which is more than I can say for the people on the other side. Sometimes their grass would be over a foot high before they would cut it. That alone drove S crazy.

Along with the changes, we started to outgrow our starter house. Plus, we wanted to put a little distance between us & the neighbors. All of a sudden those few feet of grass seemed pretty claustrophobic. The city looked grimy and our street had forever changed.

So we packed it up and moved to the country. Our street now is a very quiet, cul-de-sac with only a handful of houses, each one having an acre or more.

We got our breathing room and then some.


We've been there for 4 years and it's been dang near close to perfect. Even though there are a few cosmetic things I'd still like to change, it's exactly what we wanted.

And our neighbors...for the most part they keep to themselves, often waving as we pass. Sometimes S talks to the neighbor to the right. When a tree fell down on our street and blocked the road, one of our neighbors came out to help remove it. After we first moved and one of my cats wandered off, another neighbor called to let me know.

We've already got one set of new neighbors. This past summer a new family moved in right across the street from us. Imagine our surprise when we realized their daughter had been in the marching band the year before. Occasionally those particular neighbors will ring our bell (sometimes at weird times) but overall they keep to themselves too.

Now I just hope that the new neighbors appreciate our quiet neighborhood, and do their part to keep it that way.

And if they can't, please God let them be good looking, down-to-Earth people who keep a well groomed yard, ride Harleys and like a good margarita on the weekends.

I'm just sayin'...

15 comments:

The Four Week Vegan said...

The anxiety, I mean anticipation, of new neighbors is hard. We have had 3 neighbors on our north side and sadly each has been increasingly worse. The current one has 100 pigeons caged in the backyard - no wonder that mockingbird freaked me out so much. When they are caged it is fine - the make that calming cooing noise and don't smell from where we are at. HOWEVER, they usually let 20 or so out at a time and they like to perch on the phone lines at the corner of our yard - now think about it, what do you think the corner of that yard looks like after 20 birds perch above it for any amount of time??? You got it - it gets on our fence, our brickwork, and our built in bbq - eeeewwwwww!!!!! So, I so understand neighbor trouble, I really do.

The Royal Family said...

I have been really blessed to have good neighbors, I actually am worried because one of my fav. neighbors and friends might be moving FAR away... We did have a problem with two of our neighbors in this house. 1. two houses away had 2 cats... but they were allergic so the cats were outside cats, with no liter box, and crazy people around here do desert landscape well I LOVE my grass so we were the first house on the street with grass, yep those dang cats come into my backyard where my daughter plays, to poo ALL OVER... More than I think Cats should go, it was so gross and kept us from playing in our yard, thank heavens they were just renters and have now moved into their own home. 2. the other half of my house (we are in in a townhome) had a dog that barked all through the night and when little miss A was a newborn it would wake us all up... Like we didn't get enough sleep already... Glad that dog got over it... Now they have 4 dogs, that share our backyard fence, which sometimes they bark if we are out playing, but that just excites A because she loves dogs. :) so all is well in our world. But there are plenty of houses empty on our steet because of the market conditions and I hope they don't ruin it. So... long story short I understand.
YOU AWAKE?

Martha@A Sense of Humor is Essential said...

We have a nice, quiet neighborhood too. Everyone comes together during Earthquakes and wildfires and the occasional block party, we are very blessed. Your home doesn't end at your front door, that's for sure. Great Post, Brandy.

Debbie said...

Wouldn't the world be great if we could choose our neighbors?
Stopped by from SITS.

Keys to the Magic Travel said...

We moved here two years ago...and the neighbors were one of the main reasons why we left. It was horrible. I wouldn't even let the girls go outside.

But now...I really don't like our neighbors on one side of us. The parents got divorced...and I was really hoping that they would move...but they are still there. Or, half of them are :-)

Then again...who ever would have moved in...could have been worse.

But...I do have a blog buddy moving into the neighborhood soon!

April said...

Good luck! I am the kind of person that when I am at home, I want to be left alone. My neighbor has not figured that out in 3 years! She always bugs me. To me, the perfect neighbors are no neighbors!

CaraBee said...

We live in a neighborhood of predominantly older folks. The ones we've met (not many) are really nice, but they are getting up there. The ones on either side of us have lost their spouses in recent years, so I'm thinking it's just a matter of time before either they kick it or move out. While I would love to have a younger family move in, I have fantasies of a couple that my husband and I both love and we do everything together, our kids are best friends, blah, blah, blah, I'm super nervous that we'll get the bad neighbors.

Good luck!

Shannon said...

Good neighbors are hard to find.

At least yours don't blow their grass clippings into your yard.

Lula! said...

Oh, bless you. My neighbors are a bunch of dead people, deer, fox, coyotes, rabbits, snakes, groundhogs, wild turkeys, opossums, and feral cats.

Yeah, you win.

Living It, Loving It said...

I have often pulled a Squidward Tentacles when it comes to my neighbors (I own a condo). I want to move so far away I can brag about it! I know it is time to sell but my husband says that we will miss the humor when we move.

Roxane said...

Hell i'd be your neighbor! Mr. H has a Harley that we both love to ride (CHECK!), I love Margaritas (CHECK!), we are both fairly good looking people (CHECK!)

My current neighbors have too many kids that they cant control. They wake up at 6:30am and scream at the top of their lungs. I am considering calling the police next time it wakes me up.

Penny Lane said...

Yeah I remember the feeling. When we moved into our house, it was new construction, and we had neighbors on one side who were nice enough, but on the other side was an empty lot, and when someone finally built on it, we were apprehensive as to whether or not they'd be good or bad. Well, they're pretty good. We lucked out, but we do have weird neighbors across the street. They won't say hi if spoken too, and they sit on their porch all day and watch everything. Creeps me out.

Christina - Rant Rave Roll said...

LOL! I'm with you on this one. I could grow old and die, and really not care if my neighbor ever ventured over to borrow a cup of sugar or present me with fruit cake around the holidays. Well, unless of course they're bringing margaritas... in that case leave them on the step and ring the bell. ;-)

Candice said...

I hear ya. The house next door to us has sold as well. Hopefully the new owners won't be total jackasses. ;)

betty said...

I will take your new neighbors if you take my new neighbors. Seriously TAKE THEM! We have a home owners association but they don't seem to notice that their trash all over their over grown yard of clovers is not OK!