country quiet (Franklin, Gaston: house, neighborhoods, buy)

[Mike409]

If *I* wanted that much quiet, I would buy a house on a few acres, that is actually in the country. When you live in a suburb, for the most part, there will always be some sort of noise. People do mow their lawns, blow leaves, kids play and people get thing delivered by UPS/Fedex/etc.. The 'burbs are not country living, IMO.

[AnitaCuppajo]

The lawnmowers and leafblowers are the ones making me crazy! I'm all for keeping a nice neighborhood but are these people really that OCD that they have to mow and blow twice a week?? It was even more irritating when we were all supposed to be conserving gas.

[SnowWhiteQueen]

Hopefully you'll eventually learn to tune it out. I used to live off of HWY 51 and I could hear sirens, leaf lowers, traffic, lawnmowers, and on Saturday mornings a ballgame with a cheering crowd. I still don't know where exactly that was from but I could always hear it. I tuned it all out, but when people would come over and visit, they would complain about all the noise. I remember when I was living in another city besides Charlotte I would hear the city buses go by all the time until midnight and lots of cars zooming by and it was so hard to sleep. It was so loud I couldn't always tune it out so I slept with a fan running. It really helped.

[Doorway]

Originally Posted by royalfortune

Right now I am listening to a lawnmower. A leaf blower. A circular saw. Oh, a school bus just drove by. And a kid in a loud car. And the UPS truck. And here they all come back again, back past the house, and out of the cul-de-sac. In and out. In and out. Mow mow mow. Blow blow blow. Saw saw saw. Rumble rumble rumble.

A plane just flew over. And another. We're not even near the airport.

And out there, about half a mile away through some wooded area, is the Beltway 485. Even at 3am it sounds like a drag strip; who is grinding gears and revving jet engines on 485 at three a.m.? Who can sleep with all this speedway noise?

I lived in the center of Baltimore City for a dozen years. I heard loud trucks, loud people, gunshots! City noise. I lived in NEW YORK CITY, in an apartment on the sixth floor of a building fronting on Lexington Avenue. Constant noise. I had to wear earplugs to sleep.

But I have never lived in a louder place than suburban... Ballantyne!

What gives? We're completely happy with the house. It's great. Stellar location for convenience, too. But with us both working from home, windows open to the great outdoors, we've never heard any place as loud as this off-the-beaten-path (we thought) cul-de-sac. Trying to sleep is ridiculous it's so loud. Cars. Trucks. Buses (why thirteen buses when there can't be thirteen schools... do they each pick up ONE kid only?). Planes overhead (it's quieter in the cell-lot at the airport, no kidding!). Lawn machines, constantly. And the freeway noise. We've never heard anything like it. We can't talk on the phone with the windows open, and even with the windows closed it's loud! At 3am it's loud!

Any advice? (Aside from "move.") Anyone else live near enough to 485 to be bugged by it? Anyone else annoyed by their bustling cul-de-sac? Please. My misery desires company.

[signed] Sleepless in Ballantyne

MC

WHAT ???????. Not too bad at night around here, but the daytime mowers and blowers get pretty loud.

[jstn]

Originally Posted by royalfortune

Right now I am listening to a lawnmower. A leaf blower. A circular saw. Oh, a school bus just drove by. And a kid in a loud car. And the UPS truck. And here they all come back again, back past the house, and out of the cul-de-sac. In and out. In and out. Mow mow mow. Blow blow blow. Saw saw saw. Rumble rumble rumble.

A plane just flew over. And another. We're not even near the airport.

And out there, about half a mile away through some wooded area, is the Beltway 485. Even at 3am it sounds like a drag strip; who is grinding gears and revving jet engines on 485 at three a.m.? Who can sleep with all this speedway noise?

I lived in the center of Baltimore City for a dozen years. I heard loud trucks, loud people, gunshots! City noise. I lived in NEW YORK CITY, in an apartment on the sixth floor of a building fronting on Lexington Avenue. Constant noise. I had to wear earplugs to sleep.

But I have never lived in a louder place than suburban... Ballantyne!

What gives? We're completely happy with the house. It's great. Stellar location for convenience, too. But with us both working from home, windows open to the great outdoors, we've never heard any place as loud as this off-the-beaten-path (we thought) cul-de-sac. Trying to sleep is ridiculous it's so loud. Cars. Trucks. Buses (why thirteen buses when there can't be thirteen schools... do they each pick up ONE kid only?). Planes overhead (it's quieter in the cell-lot at the airport, no kidding!). Lawn machines, constantly. And the freeway noise. We've never heard anything like it. We can't talk on the phone with the windows open, and even with the windows closed it's loud! At 3am it's loud!

Any advice? (Aside from "move.") Anyone else live near enough to 485 to be bugged by it? Anyone else annoyed by their bustling cul-de-sac? Please. My misery desires company.

[signed] Sleepless in Ballantyne

MC

I bought this great house in Seattle. It was a unique design in the fact that it did not have a roof. The only problem is that it was wet all the time......what gives??? Why the frick is my living room wet all the time? I just don't get it!

[Metallisteve]

Originally Posted by royalfortune

...Did you listen to your house before you bought it?...

Hate to rub salt in any wounds, but yes, I did do this! Anything I buy gets a major over-analization by me! Internet research, hands-on demo, seeing it in person, reading reviews...whatever is possible.

[royalfortune]

I'm the same way, man. I am. And... I've bought plenty of houses before. (I'm in real estate.)

I'm just astonished at the decibel level of my nice woody, tree-lined, large-lot cul-de-sac.

(We've been here about two years. Maybe we'll get used to it, I'm sure.)

Nuts!

MC

[BlueLily7]

The only way to attain a quiet environment like you want would be to live on a deserted, uninhabited island. If there are neighbors.......there will be issues. This stinks because I'm like you, I want "country quiet". It's not because I'm intentionally antisocial or uptight, but I am a terribly light sleeper, an insomniac, and I HATE.HATE.HATE unreasonable noise.

I think I am pretty reasonable, just unfortunately, a person who needs a quiet environment and I can't change this, it's my nature, I can't HELP that noise bothers me. This is why I quit working a 3rd shift job in my single days- I had a neighbor that would weedeat and use his leaf blower EVERY single morning for about 2 hours from 8-10a which would normally be reasonable since it's not 3am, you know, but that was when I had gotten home and needed to sleep. But I don't think I wrong to say that it is unnecessary to weedeat every single freaking day of the week!

I have to run a loud air filter at night to drown out noises but I am in the same boat as you are right now- we did move to the "quiet country" because we now live in rural Brunswick County and my next door neighbors are FAMILY and THIS is what we have to put up with from them!:

-They have roosters (more than 1!) cooped up in their yard, apparently there is no ordinance around here on this, and hens running loose over into our yard in the daytime. These roosters are retarded because they crow at all hours constantly, 24/7. Not just at sunup. I swear I'm going to go at them with a BB gun one day. And this is family, I repeat!
-They also have 2 dogs cooped up in TINY pens not big enough to run in, 24/7, and possums come up all night so the dogd bark bark bark all night long.They could be considerate and put the dogs in their garage in a crate for the night but noooooo. And no one should ever keep a poor dog cooped up alone like that! I consider that animal abuse! They should fence their yard in so the dogs can run.
-They have a big jacked up "monster truck" with the loudest engine I have ever heard, and the last time I heard that engine was at midnight a couple of weeks ago. WTH business does someone have driving one of these around their yard, much less at midnight?
-They built a garage onto their house on our side of the property and installed a really loud stereo system so they can use the garage as an entertainment room while they are pidling around there and they are often piddling there from 8-10 at night when I am trying to get my very young kids to bed.

"The country" is not quiet for the same reason "the city" is not-- rude inconsiderate people. (Aside from the sounds of traffic, which is why if general traffic noises bothered me so much I would make sure not to live near a busy road....)

Oh yeah, gunshots...out here in "the country" with the "good ole boys", target shooting and firing for no good reason seems to be a prime hobby.

Country quiet, what a joke. If one truly wants guaranteed quiet the only choice truly is to live on a deserted island.

Commiserating...

edit to add--and did I mention again that this is not random neighbors, this is family...NEVER live near inlaws!

[anifani821]

BlueLily - I was thinking - dern - a lot of that stuff Lily is writing about - that is just country noise. Then I thought - well - shooting guns, that is just country people - Lily should have checked out who she was moving next to. Then when I read about the penned up dogs, the monster trucks and stereo system - I started thinking - OH DEAR - This is really really awful. But then when I saw what you had added . . . about it being FAMILY - I spewed the coffee. Had to clean up my monitor. I am still laughing!!!!! And I so agree - never live near inlaws.

Poor Lily. You simply have no recourse. (other than ear plugs for you and the kids . . . )

[JanuaryGirl]

I am sorry, I really feel your pain. Where we live now it is quiet, but we moved from possibly the loudest apartment/block in the city of Chicago. It was so bad that to get 7 hours of sleep I really had to be in bed for 10 hours because 3 would be spent listening to all types of noise.

I think it's just really hard to tell until you live there. Our area in Kannapolis is QUIET. This is somewhat surprising since the house is immediately across the street from a fire station and there are lots of kids that play outside and everyone has dogs. But, I guess there's not a lot of fires here and the kids are respectful and the dogs are quiet. I really think before buying a house prospective buyers should be able to spend a night there before closing though! How else can you really be sure?