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I would not buy any home that would limit my pool of buyers on the resale side. So if I am asking about it, others will be too. I wouldn't buy next to a highway either.
I was surprised how minor (cooking smells or pot) the odor complaints could be considering those are things that could change the week after you move in as someone else moves into the neighborhood.
I thought this was going to be like living near a hog farm or a rendering plant, both of which were in the area I grew up in.
Haven't gotten to experience the paper mill some mentioned but the rendering plant at a town in the rough area I grew up could be smelled 20 miles away under the right weather conditions.
Transient smells of cooking? No. Pervasive background smells from wastewater treatment, mills, factories, feedlots, big tidal saltmarsh definitely.
Lived several miles from a trash to steam plant and occassional whiff not a problem, that was sort of like background nosie.
One of the problems I think from cooking smells is it seems like they linger around more. It's like a non smoker sitting near the ash tray of a smoker. Sorry if you love raw onions and do things like throw scraps unbagged or uncovered trash you will not be my neighbor.
I grew up in a small town just southeast of a small turkey farm. You'd think it would have been a huge issue but it was only noticeable when the wind blew that way and if you were either outdoors or had the windows open.
OP - I'm sure it's noticeable when you leave and come home but you may be able to minimize even that if you keep your garage shut until just when you need access. Also, keep in mind if reasonably you're going to have windows open (lots of people just run a/c and NEVER open windows). And lots of people may INTEND to sit outside or whatever but never do. So the impact may be less than you think.
Can you ask any potential neighbors what they think?
Yes. Even really strong smelling flowers can be annoying. Jasmine and orange flowers can even be overpowering. I wouldn't want to live next to an orange orchard, for instance. Plugs me up immediately - allergies.
My grandparents lived in Orange County CA for many years when orange groves still existed everywhere. When we were in grade school, my parents would put my sisters and I on the Santa Fe train to go down for a weekend visit in spring. The route passed through miles of groves. I remember the almost overwhelming scent of sun-heated orange blossom and Eucalyptus (originally planted as fast growing timber by lumber speculators and as windbreaks for the groves) saturating the train most of the trip. I'd imagine what it was like to live there. Scents are so evocative. Even now, catching even a quick passing scent of orange or Eucalyptus whisks me right back to memories of those trips: the old style train cars with their upholstered seats, friendly conductors, thrill of buying dining car snacks with our allowance, sounds and scents of the locomotives, railroad tie creosote, engine whistles, all of it. These days you'd really have to search to find an orange grove of any size. Business parks, condos, and shopping malls. They certainly don't smell like flowers.
Last edited by Parnassia; 04-07-2021 at 01:41 PM..
Yep, the paper mill smell is crazy. Used to catch a whiff of it once in awhile at the home I grew up in. And that was about 10 miles away from the mill. Couldn't imagine having to smell that every day.
Paper mill smells kind of like sauerkraut to me, not my favorite but not that bad.
Sheep farms and pig farms, on the other hand...I actually did rule out a place because of the animal stink from the property next door.
Transient smells of cooking? No. Pervasive background smells from wastewater treatment, mills, factories, feedlots, big tidal saltmarsh definitely.
My sister and her husband purchased a house on 4 acres. The other homes around them are also on 4 to 6 acres. And yet they’re very close to town which was very nice. But I asked her why did she move out in the middle of nowhere when she said to me “I find as I get older, I am both intolerable and intolerant.“
Having that much acreage, they can barbecue and nobody complains. They can play their music loud and nobody complains. Nobody complains because they can’t hear or smell it.
And I agree with a lot of the posters here. Cooking smells are almost always very transient so they don’t bother me at all. But it’s the chemical smells, the factory smells, waste water plant smells, the smell that emanates from the town dump… Nope. No way, no how. Our town dump smells so bad, there are shopping centers I don’t go to anymore because of the dump smell.
Cooking smells - two that get me are corned beef & cabbage, and curry.
I once dated someone who had friends in an apartment complex and every time I went there it was corned beef & cabbage. When I was looking to move out of my parents house, dad suggested a "nice apartment" in that same town, and all I could think about was that awful smell (plus I don't much like people so....)
Colors wouldn't bother me in the least, but smells likely would. I grew up in New England when paper mills were still belching the most awful stink you can imagine short of a decaying body, so I know how hard those are to live with. The problem with "residential odors," and here I am thinking more about tobacco and marijuana than cooking, is that you never know when they are going to move in (or, hopefully, out).
I lived in a town with a paper mill for a few years, and while I couldn't smell the fumes at my house, I could every time I drove in and out of town, and I really dislike that smell. It smells like nasty pesticides to me. Friends who lived near the mill had that odor in their house all the time. I would never live in a place with that stench. I'd rather not be smelling someone else's tobacco smoke. I dealt with enough of that growing up with a chain smoker for 18 years.
two areas come to mind which i either left or refused to move there.
one was in an area in the country side that had farm animals and it smelled like manure. someone invited me to move onto their property, and it was a great piece of land with trees and a log cabin, but the smell was not tolerable. their feelings were hurt, and i said i would love to live with them but not in a place that smelled like crap, and that did not go over very well.
the other time i had i moved to a beautiful area which i loved and had always wanted to live, small town, on the water, forest near by, wildlife galore on my daily walk. But for the two years i lived there, not a day went by that the air was not filled with the smell of pot. nasty. even at work at the office was not a break, because the customers in and out all day smelled like pot. it was just nasty. there was literally no place to go that did not smell like pot. horrible. i moved away.
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Solly says — Be nice!
