Neighbors Shed

[Corinne]

[Corinne]

This is my second option. I do have a big tree in front of some of it.

It is right on the property line, but the overhang is on my property. I don't mind that as I have a small Yorkie and we can both stand underneath it in the rain, and she stays dry.

I am not a troublemaker, and never had a problem with a neighbor.

My yard is immaculate, and it would be oh so much nicer if the shed were painted.

I won't be doing anything without asking, and will wait another year . I cannot imagine them putting it off longer than this as the house is in bad need of siding repair.

Thanks.

Cor> Cor>

[Corinne]

Thanks for all the replies.

I personally think these are very nice neighbors. I only have met the wife, once, when I moved in a year ago.

They have a pool, and it is full of kids during the summer months, and I don't complain about the noise, ever.

I think neighborly relationships work both ways, and I plan to keep this one on a nice/friendly tone.

As I said before, they live in a tri-level, and I have a rambler. We are both very courteous of each others privacy even though they are looking down on me. It really is a nice set up, considering how the two houses are built.

Cor> >

[Corinne]

Good points Banty.

The neighbors must know how tacky it looks as their entire outside of the house needs to be redone. She said they were going to do it last October, but it never happened.

They have made some nice home repairs lately, but the siding is yet to be done. I will wait another year and then see what happens.

At any rate, I won't get into it with them and will put my own fence up if need be.

Thanks.

Cor> >

[Corinne]

I would not be tresspassing as the shed is right on the property line. For them to paint it, they would have to be on my property which does not bother me in the least. They would just have to come through my front yard to get to the back of their shed, which is in my back yard.

At any rate, I will definitely ask first.

Thanks.

Cor> Corinne wrote in

[Corinne]

[Stephen King]

Corinne wrote in news:mm8kg.61$ [e-mail]:

Good idea, because painting it would be considered tresspass. Your brush would touch something on their property. I don't make this up. Our town is very picky.

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

How will the neighbor even know? We're talking about painting ONE wall... the one the neighbor can't see and apparently has no curiosity about or pride in. If the paint is matched to the original, where's the harm?

If your neighbor somehow has a problem with that, they're not wrapped too tight. So they might hold it against you? So what? The shed looks good again from your point of view; it's unchanged from the neighbor's point of view. If it damages your already nonexistent relationship with your neighbors, I'd suggest you haven't lost much. But you have corrected the eyesore.

I already posted about a new neighbor I had a problem with over the length of her grass. Three new row houses went in across the street. The grass didn't get cut, the grass didn't get cut and the grass didn't get cut. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore and cut the front yards when they got to waist high. One of the neighbor's called the cops. Well, I never heard from the cops as apparently they had more pressing matters.... but I never cut her grass again. A few weeks ago, when it got to waist high again, I called the city. *They* came out and cut her grass... and charged her $140 for the service. I was happy.

As for my relationship with the neighbor: what relationship? I've never spoken to her. Don't have any need or desire to. But if that grass gets high like that again, she can pay the city to cut it for her again. I keep *my* yard looking good.

[Dick Adams]

I have always had good relations with my neighbors. We have shared gardens, helped each other remove trees and plant trees, and sealed driveways. This has been true with all of my neighbors for all of my life. Sure I had one that was cantankerous, but my moter-in-laws were worse.

Just tell your neighbor what you want to do. Be jovial.

Dick

[mm]

For the record, I was only addressing how easy it is to get forgiveness.

But how will they know? They will see Corinne walking back and forth from the shed, see her carrying paint to the shed and from the shed. They may smell the paint. Or they'll look around the back of the shed sometime and see that it is painted, and figure that she is the only one who would have done it.

I don't think there is a harm.

But the odds are 3 to 1 or higher they won't like it if is done without their permission. Your story below about your mowing the neighbor's grass just confirms that. And a lot of the cases on the tv court shows are about stuff like this. I have a friend who worked as a clerk in a Staten Island court during one summer in law school.

He said he saw case(s) where two houses had one driveway, but two garages, and one owner would put a fence down the middle of the driveway because he was annoyed at something the other guy did. Of course he wasn't allowed to do that, but he did it anyhow. (OK I'm not sure this is relevant, but I like the story.)

You think that is the only interaction there will be with the neighbors in the next 10, 20, 30 years they both live there? Someday, Corrinne will need the neighbor, or the neighbor will have a way to retaliate.

See what I mean? And grass is something that grows back.

Not at all the same thing, because I did this for my benefit, but I used to use my neighibor's electircity to work on my car, because he's next to the parking lot and my townhouse is about 60 feet farther away. So I have to dig out the 100 foot extension cord. So my friend moves out and someone else moves in, and it was the middle of a work day so he wasn't home to ask. So I used his electricity to vacuum or drill a hole. Well, another neighbor tells him (that doesn't surprise me) but he was annoyed and told me not to do it again. I used less than a penny of electricity, and even he must realize I used than a nickle, but what annoyed him I think was that I didn't ask. Or that I saw what he had on his "patio" by the electric outlet. I still think for a grown man to complain about this is poor.

[mm]

You say that now, that you would never do this, but things happen. For one thing, they may have totally forgotten this could happen. Or they notice it and forget about it by the time they are back in the house. How old are they? Wait till you hit 50, younger for some people.

[mm]

Why wait another year? Why not talk to them this weekend? You can skip the pie.

I can. Maybe they're short of money. Maybe her mother needs surgery. Maybe one lost his job. Maybe they're getting a divorce and don't want to spend more money on the house. Maybe they can't decide between vinyl, aluminum, and paint? Maybe that's why they're getting a divorce.

I think you're assuming their life is like yours and their status and plans are similar to yours.

My own ex-girlfriend, who I thought was the acme of reliability needed a new roof last fall, and still hasn't gotten one now. I asked her why not, and it seems she has some procrastination thing in this case, a part of her I've never seen before in 10 years.

BTW, doesn't this mean that even if the shed is painted, their in need of repair house will still be in your field of view? Even though your yard is immaculate, you may not be able to make your view immaculate, and that's part of life. But that doens't mean you can't ask them if you can paint their shed. They may say, Oh, we'll paint it, and then paint it, or not. Or they might tell you that you can, expecially if you can point to work you've done on your own house that looks good.

[trader4]

LOL. That's exactly what I thought. His story is a good example of the reaction you can expect when you fool around with other peoples property without asking. Had he offered to mow the neighbors grass before just doing it, the reaction may have been a lot different.

And I'll bet if someone started painting his property or driving a riding mower around on it, he'd be the first one to be pissed off.

The shed case is pretty simple. The OP doesn't own it and shouldn't touch it without permission of the owner.

And a lot of the cases on the tv

[Norminn]

clipped

My parents had a great lot, with empty wooded lots on both sides. The neighbor directly in back had a junky looking metal shed, painted dark green. My mom didn't want to see or be seen in the Florida room, didn't like the shed, and solved the problem with landscaping. Shrubs and trees blocked direct line of sight to each back neighbor, the critters wandered through from the empty lots, and it was a great place to enjoy surroundings. Fox, racoons, possum, burrowing owls, gopher tortoise, occasional scorpion and snake. Neighbors were kind and watched out for each other but kept respectful distance. Even the racoons were polite :o)

[George]

Why haven't you met them? I would at least introduce myself, try to read how they are and present my idea. If they turn out to be morons then you can decide if you want to fire the first rocket.

Really bad advice. I am easy to get along with and if a neighbor just decided to do something without even asking I would be quite annoyed.

But you don't know about these neighbors because you have never talked to them.

[Phisherman]

I have three adjacent neighbors, all different. One does not do anything to his yard, contracts to mow his lawn, and I am constantly spraying poison ivy along this property line. The other neighbor put up an ugly cyclone chain-link fence. I planted a 270-foot long hedge that is now 12 feet tall which completely blocks the fence from view. Another neighbor put up a shed, not particularly unsightly, but it is now covered with moss and algae growth. To block that view I planted a row of forsythia that blocks all but the roof of the shed. Personally, I avoid doing anything or saying anything about neighbor's property. I have been fortunate that I have the space to landscape and block ugly views. That might help sell my house, if I should ever decide to do so.

[Goedjn]

If you think that your asking permission to paint the back wall will be (correctly) interpreted as insinuating that they're not doing proper maintenance, and you don't want them to think that, then you could disguise your intent by asking permission to paint a mural there.Failing either of those solutions, you could always erect a free-standing trellis, a foot or two inside the line.

A good dense growth of pole beans, and it won't matter if they paint the thing or not.

[MoM]

There must be a property line. I'd be planting Kudzu along my property line!

MoM

[MoM]

I can see your point. When new neighbours moved in and the first thing they did was knock on the door and ask us to remove our cedar hedge I basically did the same thing. Mind you eventually we did remove it to make our property look larger when we sold.

MoM

[PRose]

Over 400 years ago, Nostradamus predicted that on Thu, 15 Jun 2006

07:55:35 -0400, in message , mm would say:

I was going to suggest that OP refinish the rest of the fence, that way she can say that she wants to paint the neighbor's shed so that it "matches in with the rest of the fence" rather than is in dire need of paint itself.

HTH PRose