Piccsweety
Dec 4, 2008, 12:19 PM
This may sound petty and silly at first, but hear me out. We are renting a house and now live across the street from an elderly man and his wife. They are probably in their late 70's to mid-80's. While we were trying to move in, the man came over and engaged us in an extremely long conversation that took time out of our hectic move in schedule. That was fine at first because he just seemed like he was trying to be nice, but before he left, he "suggested" that we move our cars from the street into our driveway before it got too late, which we would have been able to do a lot sooner if we could have unloaded and moved the moving van. That night, he had a party and had cars lining the street on both sides. "Now I get it", I thought. Since then he and his wife come over whenever they see us outside and talk for a long time. The elderly wife offered to babysit my 18 month old daughter, which was a nice offer, but there is no way I would allow someone, this sounds mean, but that old that I barely know take care of my very active 18 month old.
Come fall, we had a lot of leaves falling and for the first week, we were not able to get to them because by the time we'd come home it would be too dark out. One afternoon while we were home on a break, he stopped me while I was loading up my daughter into the car and told me... he TOLD me, to tell my husband to rake up the leaves and leave them in the front, and that he would "take care of them". I explained to him that we just hadn't had the time, but that we would take care of them ourselves in the next day or so. The leaves in the front weren't even all that bad, it was the back (which they can't even see) that was pretty bad. Well the next day he came over with his leaf blower while my dad was watching my daughter and blew all of the leaves out of our front yard. Needless to say the leaf blower woke up my daughter from her nap. He never even knocked on the door to ask if he could... and there was a car in the drive, indicating that someone was home.
Well, yesterday we had a snow storm and today, again while my daughter was napping, he came over and used the snow blower in our driveway and walks/sidewalks. He again never bothered to ask, again my car was in the drive, and again he woke my daughter. I understand the need to be a good neighbor and to keep your yard clean, but give us at least a day! The other thing is that he has two dogs that they walk and they don't even pick up the "droppings" in the neighborhood... so much for the good neighbor thing. He also has the American flag flying all the time with no lights to illuminate it at night, which to my understanding is illegal.
I can't tell if he is just the type that gets annoyed looking at our yard, or if he is just trying to be nice. The thing is that we spent money purchasing tools and items in order to do our yard work ourselves and just because we don't get to it immediately, he takes it upon himself to trespass and do it "for" us. I know I sound ungrateful, and I'm really not, I just wish that he would let us take care of our house ourselves, especially since we are renting from the family that used to live there and would rather be responsible for any damage, etc. that we do instead of damage that me might cause the property. Our landlord said that he is just like that, but when is enough enough? How can we ask him graciously but firmly to allow us to handle our own yard work for my daughter's sake and considering we spent money purchasing the tools to do so? I don't want to upset them or anger them, but when do we get to speak up for ourselves while still respecting the elderly? Thanks for any advice!
Come fall, we had a lot of leaves falling and for the first week, we were not able to get to them because by the time we'd come home it would be too dark out. One afternoon while we were home on a break, he stopped me while I was loading up my daughter into the car and told me... he TOLD me, to tell my husband to rake up the leaves and leave them in the front, and that he would "take care of them". I explained to him that we just hadn't had the time, but that we would take care of them ourselves in the next day or so. The leaves in the front weren't even all that bad, it was the back (which they can't even see) that was pretty bad. Well the next day he came over with his leaf blower while my dad was watching my daughter and blew all of the leaves out of our front yard. Needless to say the leaf blower woke up my daughter from her nap. He never even knocked on the door to ask if he could... and there was a car in the drive, indicating that someone was home.
Well, yesterday we had a snow storm and today, again while my daughter was napping, he came over and used the snow blower in our driveway and walks/sidewalks. He again never bothered to ask, again my car was in the drive, and again he woke my daughter. I understand the need to be a good neighbor and to keep your yard clean, but give us at least a day! The other thing is that he has two dogs that they walk and they don't even pick up the "droppings" in the neighborhood... so much for the good neighbor thing. He also has the American flag flying all the time with no lights to illuminate it at night, which to my understanding is illegal.
I can't tell if he is just the type that gets annoyed looking at our yard, or if he is just trying to be nice. The thing is that we spent money purchasing tools and items in order to do our yard work ourselves and just because we don't get to it immediately, he takes it upon himself to trespass and do it "for" us. I know I sound ungrateful, and I'm really not, I just wish that he would let us take care of our house ourselves, especially since we are renting from the family that used to live there and would rather be responsible for any damage, etc. that we do instead of damage that me might cause the property. Our landlord said that he is just like that, but when is enough enough? How can we ask him graciously but firmly to allow us to handle our own yard work for my daughter's sake and considering we spent money purchasing the tools to do so? I don't want to upset them or anger them, but when do we get to speak up for ourselves while still respecting the elderly? Thanks for any advice!