Have had these neighbors for 7 years. Retired USAF guy and active USAF wife. Two teenage daughters of wife and an adopted 7-year-old girl. The guy is very hard working and went into construction after retirement. I helped him build an addition onto his house, but of course he did almost all of it himself. We build a fence across the back of my property to keep the kids from cutting through and I extended it into his yard to block all access. He helped me build my deck, which I paid him for. We've gotten along fine for years.
Two months ago his wife got transferred to Texas for 18 months. During that time I was cutting the grass and made the mistake of mowing over a dead bush on the edge of our property that prevented access to an area that I have to mow. No excuse, I just did it.
Upon his return from Texas he confronted me about it and expressed his anger. The bush was dead, but it was a gift from the mother-in-law and they were keeping it. He didn't give me a chance to apologize and walked away.
Over the next few days I tried coming to his door to talk with him and he wouldn't answer the door. I gave his daughter a letter to give him expressing my regrets and admitting fault. I also offered to replace it with five more bushes if he thought that was acceptable. No response. A week or so later I bought a replacement bush and with another letter left it on his doorstep. The bush died from neglect and was thrown out.
Since then a privacy fence has been erected between us by him and his other side is open. He avoids me whenever I pull into the driveway and pulls his young child inside the house when my children are outside. He used to hang outside constantly and socialize with neighbors. This is completely out of character for him and I wish there was something I could do.
I feel I have done all I can and must let it run its course. Obviously his animosity toward me has been accumulating over time and this was the incident that did it, or there is something else going on. What do you think? How can I REPAIR this HOME life problem? It sucks to have neighborly problems.