Neighbor Problems

[murathan]

I think you can all rant here. Neighbor sound problems due to your accordion and other instruments.

You cant believe but my lately neighbors encourage me to play. They even ask why dont I play in these days. Their son is a painter. But I dont push my neighbors generally. I practice at certain hours if I do (14:00-20:30) they know it will not continue they said. I avoid exercises generally and use small registers when I do. I play good things with full sound. Not personally but my friends had court hearings and police visits. They resulted empty. Because the decibel (sound volume) is not more than a vacuum cleaner or dress washer. I said my other neighbors, thats my job and you never effect me to cut, but we will be cooperative to each other. If you have a child or sick person at home, sleeps at certain hours let me know. I dont practice at room areas might be used as bedroom. We are living happily.

 

[debra]

In my first apartment I had problems with (upstairs) neighbors who didn't like accordion and no matter how softly we played they kept complaining. I went to there apartment to check, while my wife played in our living room, in fortissimo. The TV was set to such low volume that with some effort I could still hear the accordion in the background, but I could also still hear the TV quite well. Then the local bus passed by and that was 5 times louder than the TV and you could no longer hear the TV. This was enough to convince me the neighbors had no issue of the accordion being too loud to enjoy the TV. They just never wanted to hear any bit of accordion as they hated the instrument.
A few years later we bought a detached house and later another and we decided that we never want to live in a house that's not detached.

 

[JKJ]

We live on a farm in a rural area and have no neighbor problems or even comments even when playing reveille on the bugle from the back deck. The nearest house is at least a 1/4 mile away, maybe a mile down the hill from the back deck.

Years ago when we lived in the city I only once had a next door neighbor make a comment about music from my house. A friend visited that day with his violin and we practiced some piano/violin duet with the windows open. The closest neighbors mentioned later that was the most beautiful thing they ever heard! (Hmm, they never said that when I played the piano solo... )

JKJ

 

[Rosie C]

Although bought when I played bass guitar in a rock band, our house has a 300+ year old barn with 2'6" stone walls. No neighbour complaints even when the whole band rehearses.

 

[Frank Barocco]

the decibel (sound volume) is not more than a vacuum cleaner or dress washer.

The TV was set to such low volume that with some effort I could still hear the accordion in the background, but I could also still hear the TV quite well. Then the local bus passed by and that was 5 times louder than the TV and you could no longer hear the TV. This was enough to convince me the neighbors had no issue of the accordion being too loud to enjoy the TV. They just never wanted to hear any bit of accordion as they hated the instrument.

These examples confirm what I always intuited: Some neighbors sometimes "like" to nitpick to an extreme.
People's personalities are vastly different. Unfortunately some people's personality is easily irritable, sensitive, and arrogant.

I have always had a strategy to deal with neighbors: When they do something that slightly annoys me, I let go and do not complain. But then if down the line they complain about something small too that I did (like the occasional accordion sound), I can mention to them that as a good person I have made efforts to overlook their annoyances too. Like my neighbor downstairs smokes pot and lights tons of incense and I can smell it but I let go. The other one washes his car with loud music on and that's okay. It could easily not be okay.

If I were to be the person who complains about everything they do, they would then later on feel entitled to complain about anything I do.

One hand washes the other.

I will go back to living in a house though, it is much better for privacy.

 

[murathan]

We always lived in apartments. I had complaints twice in my life. First I was learning piano, playing almost silent. But the neighbor below dont like music, because he was a moron !! I started working at conservatory and later we moved. Second complaint was from a university student, he was trying to get a degree, I dont know he got it or not (probably not), I changed the room only, later they moved. Here I have 3 adjacent neighbors and dont got problems since but I opened the subject myself mentioned above when I saw them in the elevator first.

 

[losthobos]

My neighbors bring me cheese and wine....I feel very grateful....and fat...

 

[JKJ]

our house has a 300+ year old barn with 2'6" stone walls.

WOW! I've never seen such a barn!
When I lived along the Monongahela river in Pennsylvania there were two old houses on a hill above the river, both originally associated with the lock and dam #3. I visited friends once who lived there and were 3' thick brick, inside and out, supposedly with an air gap in the middle perhaps for insulation. The house was cool or cold all the time.

I wish we had a horse barn and shelter with at least block walls. Our barn probably at least 150 years old and all wood (all the posts are cedar trees). Horses can damage wood walls if they get feisty.

 

[John M]

I guess I am spoiled. During most of my life, I never had close neighbors. I only lived in the "city" until I was 8 years old. Then my Dad bought 5 acres in Willoughby Hills (east of Cleveland, Ohio). Ever since then, I have always lived in the country. In 1980, I bought 7 acres. and when the 40 acre farm, next to me, went up for sale, I bought 11 additional acres. So, I don't have to worry about, making noise -- disturbing my neighbors, etc., and my wife likes it whenever I play my 8X through my Bose speaker, which can have quite a high volume level.

I don't know what I would do, if I had to move back to the "city". My Dad once said, "you can take the boy out of the city, but once he is out of the city, you will never take the country out of the boy".

 

[Alan Sharkis]

Not a problem for me now — I also live in a detached house. In fact, when my band was together, we’d sometimes play at my house and again, no complaints.

When I was a kid, living in an apartment, my neighbors told my parents that they loved to hear me play.

Maybe luck had something to do with it?

 

[Rosie C]

WOW! I've never seen such a barn!
When I lived along the Monongahela river in Pennsylvania there were two old houses on a hill above the river, both originally associated with the lock and dam #3. I visited friends once who lived there and were 3' thick brick, inside and out, supposedly with an air gap in the middle perhaps for insulation. The house was cool or cold all the time.

Our neighbour's half is very original, but ours was renovated by a previous owner to make garages and lost most of its original features except the walls. We renovated again recently after the roof started to come down.

Ours has no air gap, but the ancestors knew their stuff - it's cool in the summer and once heated stays cosy-warm in the winter. We live in rural Wales and a lot of buildings are old - our neighbour's house was built in 1640 and is 'listed' (it has a government protection order) and the church I attend was built in 1200.

 

[Tom]

Our neighbour's half is very original, but ours was renovated by a previous owner to make garages and lost most of its original features except the walls. We renovated again recently after the roof started to come down.

Ours has no air gap, but the ancestors knew their stuff - it's cool in the summer and once heated stays cosy-warm in the winter. We live in rural Wales and a lot of buildings are old - our neighbour's house was built in 1640 and is 'graded' (it has a government protection order) and the church I attend was built in 1200.

Wow! I think the first permanent buildings in my county were built in the 1840s. Of course there were seasonal residents before that, but they were asked to please leave. Probably not that politely so we won’t go there. . My neighbors like my playing, but can’t hear when I play in the house. For my wife and kids I have a Roland.

 

[dak]

First I was learning piano, playing almost silent. But the neighbor below dont like music, because he was a moron !!

Liking music does not mean enjoying someone practicing it. I can like burgers and still not enjoy hogs digging up my yard. Ok, so I am vegetarian, sue me. But that was the silliest analogy I could come up with in a huff.

 

[breezybellows]

Liking music does not mean enjoying someone practicing it. I can like burgers and still not enjoy hogs digging up my yard. Ok, so I am vegetarian, sue me. But that was the silliest analogy I could come up with in a huff.

I have a better analogy. It's got to do with consent. But I'll stop right there.

 

[JKJ]

We live in rural Wales and a lot of buildings are old - our neighbour's house was built in 1640 and is 'listed' (it has a government protection order) and the church I attend was built in 1200.

That’s one of the first things that got me when we started visiting countries in Europe - the ages of buildings, roads, and such. I have a friend who loves on a house built in the 1800s and I thought THAT was incredibly old. Then we started staying in places such as a stone house in Italy they said was 1000 years old! The only things that old here I’ve seen are rocks! And likewise, the cultures in places, especially away from the cities, were obviously continuous over many centuries. What a difference from here where almost everything seems it was dumped in a pot and stirred.

When metal detecting, the oldest coin I ever found in Tennessee was from Germany!

 

[murathan]

No and no. He was a complete elite moron, an idiot somehow owned an apartment flat.

 

[dak]

That’s one of the first things that hot me when we started visiting countries in Europe - the ages of buildings, roads, and such. I have a friend who loves on a house built in the 1800s and I thought THAT was incredibly old.

The church in the small town I am in dates from about 950AD which is not all that much younger than the 800AD cathedral in Aachen where I lived decades ago. In Italy, you have roads dating from Roman times. Inhabited houses (rather than ceremonial buildings) tend to be quite younger, though.

 

[Rosie C]

That’s one of the first things that got me when we started visiting countries in Europe - the ages of buildings, roads, and such. I have a friend who loves on a house built in the 1800s and I thought THAT was incredibly old. Then we started staying in places such as a stone house in Italy they said was 1000 years old!

We visited Albany, NY last year and we noticed how timber and steel were much more common as building materials than at home. Where we live there's a lot of not exactly mountains, but a very rocky terrain - so a lot of houses are built from stone. Some very old but built for subsistence farming years ago.

Here's two photos from near where I live. They're both Roman buildings abandoned around 300AD. The amphitheatre is about 10 miles drive from us, associated with the lost 19th legion. The other ruins are from a civilian town and close enough to where we live to walk my dogs. Rather than fighting the locals, the Romans built public baths, ale houses, bakers shops etc, and let the locals see how good Roman life was. Perhaps less good if you ended up in the amphitheatre of course.

 

[isorry123]

I have two elderly neighbors - they like when I play. Sometimes I go to their porch and will sit, chat, and play.

one of them keeps asking for polka but I haven’t learned any of that

 

[breezybellows]

I have two elderly neighbors - they like when I play. Sometimes I go to their porch and will sit, chat, and play.

one of them keeps asking for polka but I haven’t learned any of that

I know exactly one polka and that's what I play whenever someone asks me to play a polka.