Wont you be my neighbor?

GungHo

BoomShake wrote: »

Bags is a game where you toss palm-sized beanbags, trying to get them in a hole in a wooden board. Since the board things are hollow, there's a pretty good thunk when they hit the board.

I played bean bag tic tac toe when I was 6~8. But, that's because the neighbor kid fucked up his arm because they put a slip n' slide over some rocks, the water wiggle was considered a torture device, and we threw all the lawn darts into a nutria rat colony.

Dr. Frenchenstein

You're probably not breaking any noise ordinances, (i doubt a cop is going to give you a citation for that) however, you do need to be considerate of your neighbor as neither of you are probably going anywhere anytime soon. Do you really want to get into it with this guy over playing bags (cornhole, whatever)? do i think he's being unreasonable? yeah, bags is not THAT loud, and he needs to realize he's in a townhouse as well. just like people stated, if you want to be noisy, go live in the country. Same thing if you need absolute silence. you should be able to enjoy your backyard at a reasonable volume at any hour of the night. the reasonable volume seems to be the sticking point here.

why does everyone keep saying "you share a wall with this guy" why would that have anything to do with noise from outside?

did you say he has kids? well their bedtime is probably 9-10 even on weekends, so that may explain why he was johnny on the spot to get you guys to stifle.

Sipex

You're lucky, the noise ordinances where I live encompass the entire day. I think they were mainly put in to keep people from blaring their stereos at any time of day but there are people who abuse them. I have a friend who's too paranoid to turn his TV up past a barely audible whisper because of a neighbour like this.

It sucks, I know, I've had neighbours on both ends of the spectrum (too loud or complaining about noise) but you can't do much about it, just be thankful he's not so passive aggressive that he just calls the cops on you (other friends have a neighbour like that and the cops are pretty unforgiving about this sort of thing here, at least...those ones were )

Where are the bedrooms located in relation to your basement? If they're on the 2nd floor you might be able to play bags downstairs.

Disrupter

If I had a basement...i would be down there playing right after he told me to knock it off.

Basements tend to do a good job of keeping noise in.

I dont have one.

One of the sacrifices I gave up to avoid dealing with short sales and what not to get my obama 8k for buying a home.

My next home will likely have a basement, and not be a townhouse. And perhaps I will be able to enjoy my bags in an assortment of places then

The issue I have isnt so much with bags specifically, its feeling like I have to walk on egg shells and be super careful. Bags is pretty loud though, so perhaps it wont be an issue further then that.

kingmetal

I live with 12 people ages 21-27 in a neighborhood in San Francisco where the people around me have so much money that they get to have a private neighborhood meeting with the police (of which we've never been invited to, but we're renters). We resolved 90% of our neighbor complaints by talking to our neighbors, writing them kindly worded letters introducing ourselves and providing full contact information for everyone in the house.

While sometimes people are just jerks, mostly these situations come down to a matter of respect. This works both ways, you feel that your neighbor is not respecting your youthful enthusiasm and likewise your neighbor thinks you're just some jerk kid who is going to move into the neighborhood and smoke crack on your front lawn.

So be the bigger person and really fucking nice to this guy, he could turn out to be a really great person who helps you fix your toilet when it explodes in 6 months or gets you a really nice job when you get laid off. He might also be a class-A dick who you want nothing to do with, but isn't that sort of the gamble with everybody?

Diorinix

The first step to compromise is for you to talk to him. From the sounds of it, you've taken too long to at least introduce yourself formally to him. It may be awkward, but treat it like a band-aid - rip it off so you don't prolong the pain. It may be awkward for you, but as you've said, he sounds foreign. Maybe he's the one who's intimidated by the young man with a smokin' fiance who just moved in to the other half of the townhouse AND they're half his age.

Once the introductions are made, it'll be easier to start up conversations in the future - including discussing what's "reasonable" for quiet-down hours for him and how to manage that with your social schedule. You want your late evening hang-outs with your buddies because you always work late, but maybe like others have said he needs to be up at 5AM to get to work on Saturday mornings, or has goes to church at 7AM or whatever. It gives you a better idea how to respect his half of the townhouse, and he gets to respect you for being a more mature man than what he may have first imagined. This situation seems to have stemmed from just a basic lack of communication from the get go.

Each community, regardless of ordinance by-laws, have their own pseudo-rules. A more settled, family oriented neighborhood is definitely going to be much more strict on quiet hours than one near a college or downtown. This is reality and is the only thing I don't think you're getting. You truly are the odd one out expecting a neighbor to be fine with repetitive noise outside after dark. If this isn't acceptable for you, maybe moving into this neighborhood, regardless of affordability, was not the right choice after all. It doesn't matter that your current neighbor is foreign, old, young, male, female, whatever.