DIYbanter - View Single Post

Bob F

wrote:
On Monday, April 14, 1997 12:00:00 AM UTC-7, Vicki L Naylor wrote:
Hello,

We bought our (new) house about 4 years ago. A year or so after we
did, these... ummm, "people" (and I use the term loosely) bought
the house next door. After problems of all kinds - they buy a lot
in town and apparently think that gives them the right to have
country music blaring 12 hours a day, people always over at 4:00 in
the morning screaming at the top of their lungs, etc. They tried
for months to stop us from building a fence around our yard (we were
striving for some semblance of privacy) because it ruined their
"view" (ha-ha, of our yard, I guess. There are definitely no views
here, except of other houses in the subdivision) Anyway, they have
now (about a year ago) started a day"care." I use quotes because to
these people, apparently, daycare is leaving 6-10 screaming,
fighting, rampaging kids in the backyard unsupervised for hours at a
time. (Incidentally, they built a fence around their yard before
starting the day"care." Hypocritical, or what? At least it gives
the kids something to kick and bounce rocks off of all day long,
(but didn't stop the kids from hitting our windows with rock-packed
ice/snowballs last winter). Anyway, my question is, is this legal?
Can you just throw a bunch of kids in the yard, ignore them, charge
probably 2-3 dollars per hour per child, call it daycare and get
away with it?! I know there is something about "licensing" a
daycare, but does that actually *mean* anything? I would have never
bought this house if I'd have known this was going to happen (like I
wouldn't buy directly next to a school or factory for the same
reason). We are in Washington state, if that makes a difference.
And I am not some yucky, grumpy ol' complaining neighbor - I am
telling you, these people would drive anyone insane.

Thanks for any comments or commiserations,

- Vicki

That's the risk of living in a neighborhood. You can't control who
moves in next door to you. I'm currently waiting to see who will buy
the house next to me that is being sold for the third time. I've had
3 neighbors in the six years I've lived here and all of them have
been nice easy to get along with people. I hope the next neighbors
are just as nice because I can't up and just move if they aren't. I
like my home. I like my neighborhood. It only takes one bad neighbor
to change the face of the neighborhood. I don't want to be the one
living next door to a difficult person. Been there. Done that.
Unfortunately, just because I've already had a bad neighbor
experience in the past doesn't mean it can be checked off the life
lesson list as having been through this already. It could happen
again. I pray that it doesn't. The older I get the less patience I
have with difficult people. I do my best to get along with everyone,
treating others with courtesy and respect; and I expect to be treated
the same way in return. The problem is if you ever get on the bad
side of a neighbor usually they are the type to retaliate because
inconsiderate people don't care how their actions affect others. If
you want to be happy, I advise moving. No, it isn't fair to you to
have to do that but do you want to be right or happy? Life is too
short to be miserable. Good luck to you.

I'm sure they really appreciate your timely advise. I'm sure that when they
posted this problem 13 years ago, they didn't expect such a quick and helpful
response.