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My yard is not up to my own standards currently, to be honest. We moved in mid-October while my husband was undergoing radiation for cancer. The moving was mostly up to me. I had a few family members who helped.
Then my husband had surgery and everything that could have gone wrong, did. We spent months in ICU and in the hospital.
We kind of just set all the planters and pots down in the backyard when we moved in and they've sat there since. Usually I decorate and garden and am a perfectionist. I just don't have the strength or energy lately, although I'm doing a little at a time when I can.
My neighbors are two guys who have an amazingly beautiful yard. I tried to introduce myself and one of the guys made no attempt toward friendliness. I explained that we were very behind because my husband was sick...and he responded with, "I'm sorry, I'm kind of obsessed with getting my yard cleaned up." Now I'm kind of irritated and it may actually help because I get overly competitive. I'm just hoping I can find a weekend when I'm turbo-charged so I can get it all done.
If I'm being honest, I used to be a lot more judgmental about cruddy looking yards. But now I realize that there very well may be extenuating circumstances.
I know a lot of folks hate HOAs but I love them. If I had to look across the street at a yard full of old cars, weeds, and junk I would move in a heartbeat. Now if someone needs help due to illness, age, or some other factor I would be happy to help but in my experience the folks with shabby yards just don't care.
I know a lot of folks hate HOAs but I love them. If I had to look across the street at a yard full of old cars, weeds, and junk I would move in a heartbeat. Now if someone needs help due to illness, age, or some other factor I would be happy to help but in my experience the folks with shabby yards just don't care.
Location: Finally the house is done and we are in Port St. Lucie!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by timfountain
But seriously, why would a renter care? It isn't their property and by definition, they are not there permanently. Would you you put effort and cost into improving someone elses property?
Yes.
We were renters for many years. Wow! Almost 20 now that I think back! Anyway, we did care about the places we rented. For us, how the place looks is a reflection on us. We power washed as needed, washed windows, except in Philly where the windows were old and they were two and three stories up, washed blinds when needed. Swept sidewalks and even planted flowers when the property would allow for that.
Maybe we were an anomaly but I like a clean and neat place, regardless of whether we owned it or not. We lived there and I dislike living in/with a junky looking yard/house. Does it bother me what others around me do? No. I don't live in their house. I get the satisfaction of how nice my place is.
We now own and still don't care about how others live. Resale isn't a concern. I don't worry about what may happen I just enjoy the now and the satisfaction of my beautiful space. As far as I'm concerned, this is my forever home and the kids will have to deal with selling, if they choose to. Who knows, by that time they may decide to be snowbirds. We will keep this house up the same way, or better, than any rental that we lived in.
At least with ownership, we can remodel or update as needed. We don't have to rely on a landlord to do those things.
To me, it says "Stop looking at this yard and mind your own business."
Unless it is really in your face, like rusting weight lifting machine in the middle of the front yard (turned out that was actually an expensive "art" sculpture - who knew?).
I think it means they simply do not care. There's a house in our neighborhood that we pass by and she (I've seen her, and only her a few times) has trash along the fence (broken patio umbrella, other debris), a refrigerator in her driveway, bits and pieces of carpet remnants all over the place for her hoard of cats to sleep on. She's not unable, hell, she moved the refrigerator herself (we saw her moving it, and then left it there for going on 3 weeks) I think she simply cannot be bother to give a crap about how her house looks.
Our neighbors place is a bit of a mess. Simply due to being overwhelmed. Two young twins, one toddler, one infant, and the husband is a Marine who is gone most of the time. One of the kids is in charge of the trash and leaves it strewn all over. But we help out where we can such as helping them weed their place while we worked on ours.
There's a good point as well. Parents may be assigning such minor responsibilities to their children. My younger brother was in charge of washing dishes growing up...I always had to rewash mine.
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