Do your neighbors hate you?

[patrickl]

Of course there are.  That's not what I meant.  It's not like you're forbidden from building a basement just because you don't have to have one.  But basements are a helluva lot more expensive than a second-story, and they're less marketable (lack of sunlight, for example).  But where it freezes, the foundation of the home must be below the frost line.  In NYC, for example, that's four feet . . . and the foundation has to go deeper than that.  And many places get a lot colder than NYC.  So they build basements there as a matter of course, not just because someone wants a basement.

The foundation doesn't have to stand on a basement. In the Netherlands we put our houses on concrete pillars that are rammed into the ground until they stand on something solid. The foundation is then put on top of these pillars.

I've lived in several houses with basements. I wish my new house had one, but indeed the resale value is low since you can not use a basement for much. I guess a garage can have basically the same function and it's cheaper to build has a higher resale value.

[ratzz]

I hate my neighbors, but they don't hate me.

Same here!

I sometimes think that I am too considerate and they just live their life doing what the hell they like. Luckily they are not noisy often, but they seem to have a blow out once a month!

[Paulson]

 They hate me regardless of me working or not...so stuff em'

[Ummon]

The foundation doesn't have to stand on a basement. In the Netherlands we put our houses on concrete pillars that are rammed into the ground until they stand on something solid. The foundation is then put on top of these pillars.

Um, what if it doesn't hit anything?

I hate my neighbors, but they don't hate me.

Same here!

I sometimes think that I am too considerate and they just live their life doing what the hell they like. Luckily they are not noisy often, but they seem to have a blow out once a month!

Like, what kind of blow-out? Sometimes those are the most entertaining things in the neighborhood.

[MK3FAN]

I've been hitting my cabinet hard for the past few weeks, but I actually have a few hours in a day to work on it.  My wife gets home from work about 5:30.  We make and eat dinner.  It's 7:30 usually before I can start working on anything.  So for the past few weeks I've been out using my jigsaw, router and/or drill on something nearing a daily basis.  My neighbors must be getting so sick of listening to it.  I think it really is pretty impolite.

Well, I am a drummer. If I wanna get behind the skins after 8 PM or so, I actually go over to the neighbor's house and make sure that I won't be disturbing them. I doubt that they can hear the drumming inside their house anyway, but it CAN be heard if you are standing outside MY house. They have never complained or even said anything to me about it in the past. But then-again, I almost never play past dark. I always make a note to myself to ask them because I know I sure as hell wouldn't want someone making a bunch of noise when I am trying to relax or whatever.

[shmokes]

That's how I feel, and why I'm concerned about my use of power tools evening after evening.  It would start irritating me, and I think you gotta kind of try to create the world that you would like to live in, even if others aren't participating.  It's just a healthy way to live, IMO.

[Ummon]

Well, I am a drummer. If I wanna get behind the skins after 8 PM or so, I actually go over to the neighbor's house and make sure that I won't be disturbing them.

That's nice. Of course, electronic sets are very convenient also.

That's how I feel, and why I'm concerned about my use of power tools evening after evening.  It would start irritating me, and I think you gotta kind of try to create the world that you would like to live in, even if others aren't participating.  It's just a healthy way to live, IMO.

Well then, maybe you needs ta go over there and ask if you're being a pest?

[shmokes]

Not really.  Like I said, it would irritate me if the neighbors were doing that for hours on-end, night after night.  The golden rule should be enough to tell me that I'm being a pest.  Furthermore, many people dislike confrontation.  Even if I go over all nice-like to the neighbor, maybe she tells me it doesn't bother her, but really she is irritated as hell, but feels like she has no place telling me what to do.  Or maybe she just doesn't want to rock the boat and have a neighbor who dislikes her.  Maybe she says it's fine because I'm being so polite, but two minutes after I leave he regrets it, but would feel like an ass coming over and saying, "Actually, I don't know why I said that.  You're really bothering me.

There's not really much use going and asking the neighbors something that I probably already know.  I've just started taking breaks, i.e., if I'm sawing all evening for two or three nights in a row, I'll take a day off.  And I'm trying to finish by 9-9:15 instead of 10.

[saint]

CLEAR!

*thump*

OK, thread resurrected.

[Hemi]

I actually have a neighbor problem that I never knew about since I just moved into a better house in a new neighborhood. There seems to be a few 18-22 year olds across the street who seem to be into motor cycles. They leave their house and excessively rev their engines, they come home late at night and excessively rev their engines. It can be sunday morning very early and instead of just getting on the bike and going where they need to go, they sit there for a while bothering the neighborhood "reving their engines". I have thought of a number of ways to handle this problem, but the way that seems most satisfying to me would be to actually buy a bike, sit in front of their bedroom one morning while they sleep, and rev that baby until the engine blows. Maybe then they would get the idea of how much of a problem it is.

[Ummon]

If they work on them, there might be gasoline and other combustibles on the premises.

[Hemi]

Are you hinting at the fact that they can be burned if they do not stop bothering the neighbors? 

[Ummon]

I was merely expressing a speculation of something. If such speculation is correct, the options available from the information might be variable.