I need to vent a little and also want your opinion on something involving a neighbor.
We purchased the last lot in a small subdivision of all custom homes. The town used to be small and rural, but due to its great location is attracting more commuters and yuppie-ish people. Our lot is about 4 acres. The nearest ones are about 2.5-3 acres. The house next door is the fanciest/largest in the neighborhood and is atypical for our town due to its size and features. Very nice house. Professional landscaping, the whole thing. Anyway, when we first bought the lot and were designing our house the woman next door sort of wanted to give her two cents on the house location within the lot and was very interested in what color and style it would be. I tried to be accomodating. Our house is a different color and style (I didn't change it for her, I just told her to set her mind at ease). Now remember, you cannot see these two house at the same time. We are on the cul de sac and further back from the road.
It's been two years (we are just moving in), and they are not very friendly. He is a doctor (sort of, a chiropractor, which I don't consider a doctor, but that is another thread), and I am a lawyer, so I don't think professional status is what the issue is. The general impression I have gotten from others is that he is friendly in a sort of salesman way and she is just not friendly. We have tolerated minor annoyances from them (throwing their old Christmas tree on our land, stuff like that). She tried to convince us that the power transformer on our property line (which we never gave an easement for, but that is another thread) could not handle the addition of our house. I ignored her, it was fine. They didn't invite us to the neighborhood holiday party they had last year. We weren't living there yet, but we were there a lot. Other neighbors remarked that they missed us there. I let them know we weren't invited (in a nice way. "We missed you at the Smith's party". "Oh, they had a party?", that sort of thing). They cut down some trees on our side of the property line, claiming they were ignorant of its location. They also broke tree-cutting rules willy-nilly when they were building, which is causing the town to be harder on us. The husband knows it and thinks it is amusing. He actually said, "yeah, but I got what I wanted".
There have been a lot of little things like this.
The husband comes home during the day a lot. We think he is checking up on the wife. They have landscapers over there a lot, and DH was told by one of the workers that the owner of the business "has the hots" for the wife. She is always walking around in skimpy workout clothes, so she gives them plenty to look at.
Oh, they also instruct the landscapers to park on the street after their house and before ours so the dripping oil stains the street and not the driveway. So now when people come to our house they see either a horribly stained street or a bunch of derelict work vehicles.
The landscaper stops by to talk to DH (I am sure they want work from us) and last year offered to plow our driveway for $25 a plow (it is a long driveway). They never sent a bill. Everytime DH said someting to him it was, "we'll settle up later", "don't worry about it", etc. They never left a bill in the mailbox either. Last summer they dug a hole for us as well. No issues. DH last spoke to the guy about a month ago and he said he would plow us again this year. DH asked about the bill for last year and the guy again said don't worry about it. We probably owe him $300. I expected to get a bill this year for last year and the first storm from this year.
Last Friday we got the first plowable snow. Fourteen inches. Plow guy plows the neighbor but not us. We don't have his number and can't find it in the book, so we stopped by the neighbor's on Saturday when she was out in the yard.
I hope I can articulate how bizarre the encounter was. We started with pleasantries and then got down to the plowing issue. DH said something like, "it looks like the landscaper's guy (he has a crew) forgot to plow us...". He was about to ask for the phone number. She interrupted and said something to the effect of "He isn't going to plow you. You owe him money, so he won't plow you." Now, if I decided I needed to deliver this news to someone, I would probably give them the guy's number and say "he said something about needing to settle a balance". She said it like she enjoyed it. I explained the situation (no bill, "don't worry about it".). She was acting like she didn't care, but she clearly enjoyed delivering the message.
She reminds me of that girl in high school who enjoyed telling you that she saw your boyfriend kissing someone else under the stadium bleachers. That was pretty much how she said it.
We never got the guy's number. Someone else agreed to plow us out for $35 (which is reasonable, we have a huge driveway). But now I am POed at both of them. This is a small town and I can pretty much guarantee she will tell everyone about this. DH wants to let it slip to the husband about the landscaper ("Rather than come home everyday for lunch why don't you just hire a landscaper that isn't hot for your wife"). We also plan to start enforcing the property line better.
What do you think?
paigect
jerzeegirl
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