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I think many are missing the point about the screen door. Generally it is a not an issue of having screen doors or not. It is a matter of maintaining looks and quality in the neighborhood (association). If it simply said you can have a screen door can you imagine the variations there would be?
Variations aren't necessarily a bad thing.
The style should depend on each property's architecture and landscape design, not to match the neighbors.
Thank you for the answer about screen doors. Storm doors too. Unbelievable.
When I have the front and back screen doors open this summer with the fresh salt air coming through, I won't feel sorry for the poor HOA people cooped up in their clammy a/c because they CHOSE to live that way.
And you really can't live in New England without a storm door in winter, it saves so much on the heating bill and keeps the drafts out so you are more comfortable. Plus you're conserving energy in general. That would be a really stupid rule in a cold climate.
That article got me to thinking -- it's more a snob issue than anything else. That's why the HOA rules don't make sense, it's because there's usually no valid reason for them other than the snob appeal. The people don't want to be reminded that their grandparents used a clothesline or didn't have a/c or had to heat with a fireplace. So they suffer in the nice weather because they can't open their door and let the cool fresh breeze in. They'd get a house full of mosquitoes! duh. Get a screen door.
It may be that in New England there is more choice in whether you want to live the HOA way or not. Here in the Southeast, 80% of new construction is in an HOA. The reason for that isn't market demand. Cash strapped municipalities load-shed the provision of municipal services onto the developer and then require the formation of an HOA to manage and maintain the properties. This effectively allows the local government to collect the property taxes from the new residents and not raise taxes on their existing base.
The developer gets the boiler-plate covenants and by-laws from lawyers specializing in the field. They keep the onerous regulations in order to quickly sell the lots. It's sort of like when selling your house you have to clean it every morning in case someone comes to look. Once the developer sells a certain amount, usually about 75%, he's outta there, leaving the onerous regs in place and inexperienced volunteers to administer this small fiefdom, where membership is mandatory in order to buy. It's all downhill after that.
Calling this system a "choice" is questionable, at best, I think.
Last edited by seashell55; 04-06-2013 at 05:10 PM..
Reason: Typo!
Here's an interesting article about a screen door lawsuit a HOA lost in court costing the homeowners a lot of money.
Quote:
Beyond the gates of The Arbors Village and down the oak-lined main road, two white screen doors greet visitors at Edward Grede's home.
The decorative wrought iron entryway cost $2,500 when Grede installed it four years ago.
Today, the legal fracas that hinged on the doors will cost Grede's neighbors a staggering $250,000.
A failed lawsuit filed by The Arbors Village Association against Grede means each of the 190 homes in the neighborhood north of Hobe Sound will pay special assessments totaling $800.
I'm confused by the door. Why did this guy go to the extra effort with the white thingy?
It seemed the empty litter container you posted earlier already had a door that would have worked fine.
If it makes you feel better, I'm sure his mail gets wet when it rains due to it being tilted upward.
It's ugly but it certainly wouldn't raise my blood pressure unless I was being forced to put it on my property.
Thanks for the picture.
It's down one of the roads from my sub. I found it amusing when I saw it. Have no idea why this homeowner went to all that trouble to create that mess. Some said it sounded creative so then I really had to post a pic. The lids that come on those containers break pretty quickly, probably why he made that wood door. The house is actually pretty nice so that confuses me even more. A neat and tidy property and then that mess of a mailbox. Who knows, maybe some teens knocked it over too many times so he said screw it, I will create something from the garbage.
The house is actually pretty nice so that confuses me even more. A neat and tidy property and then that mess of a mailbox. Who knows, maybe some teens knocked it over too many times so he said screw it, I will create something from the garbage.
Is there a driveway across the street from it? When I was growing up, our neighbor's driveway was across the street--not directly across but sort of kind of. Their teenagers would back out and hit our mailbox ALL THE TIME. After it was plowed over 10 times, my father took a big fence post that was extra from the dog's fence. He put that big ugly post in the ground and nailed the old box onto it. When that got knocked down (doing damage to their cars at least lol), he eventually had the bright idea to move the mailbox to the other side of the driveway, where he installed a new real mailbox with an attractive post, like the original mailbox prior to the destruction of teenage drivers. Low and behold, the new location worked perfectly and nobody ran over our mailbox ever again!
Not attractive but certainly not worth a quarter million dollar legal battle. The house already had screen doors on it when he bought it from the builder. He was just replacing them and the HOA went nutty. Looking at the picture, I can't imagine how the old doors couldn't have been just as bad since the arch is completely disregarded in the design. I'm more bothered by the lack of continuity with the windows and the glass block isn't appropriate for the architecture. I'll critique it all day long but I won't dictate what they should do with it since it's their house.
]It may be that in New England there is more choice in whether you want to live the HOA way or not. Here in the Southeast, 80% of new construction is in an HOA. The reason for that [/b]isn't market demand. Cash strapped municipalities load-shed the provision of municipal services onto the developer and then require the formation of an HOA to manage and maintain the properties. This effectively allows the local government to collect the property taxes from the new residents and not raise taxes on their existing base.
The developer gets the boiler-plate covenants and by-laws from lawyers specializing in the field. They keep the onerous regulations in order to quickly sell the lots. It's sort of like when selling your house you have to clean it every morning in case someone comes to look. Once the developer sells a certain amount, usually about 75%, he's outta there, leaving the onerous regs in place and inexperienced volunteers to administer this small fiefdom, where membership is mandatory in order to buy. It's all downhill after that.
Calling this system a "choice" is questionable, at best, I think.
So true---in New England HOA's are few and far between. Moving South does take some adjustment and careful perusal of community documents, especially if one is used to the amount of individuality found (and appreciated) in New England. I made my husband drive through our future community to make SURE the mailboxes didn't match!! The rules that are in place make perfect sense to me, and there is no "cookie cutter" effect. I will never understand why someone would desire that level of control in their life.
I made my husband drive through our future community to make SURE the mailboxes didn't match!!
You're my kind of person!
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The lids that come on those containers break pretty quickly, probably why he made that wood door. The house is actually pretty nice so that confuses me even more. 
A neat and tidy property and then that mess of a mailbox. Who knows, maybe some teens knocked it over too many times so he said screw it, I will create something from the garbage.
