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Yes, it's all the fault of my parents for raising me on a 110-acre farm outside Eugene, Oregon during those happy days of the sixties but, now that I'm near retirement age and have endured decades of environmental noise pollution from traffic and neighbors-from-hell at each of the homes my husband and I have rented or leased:
I'M LOOKING FOR WAYS TO JUDGE A HOME AND PROPERTY FOR POTENTIAL EXCESSIVE NOISE SOURCES BEFORE WE BUY.
Help! I'm not talking about roosters crowing (music to my ears) or farm machinery; I'm talking about boom boxes, constant loud parties, dirt bikes, unregistered/unmufflered pickup trucks, packs of barking dogs, illegal home businesses, etc.
Any ideas that have worked for you besides spending hours watching the property's residents or Googling them? Sure could use some advice, as my poor hubby doesn't see us making enough money to buy another 110 acres so we can build our home in the middle of it.
Even if you sat around for days and listened, that is not a guarantee that someone won't move next door who is a noise maker. Possibly location might help you a little bit. Where the house is situated on the lot and street, if other people's garage's are on the side of your house, how close you are to major streets and highways, etc. If you are at the end of a cul de sac, the traffic noise will possibly be less, provided there are not busy streets behind you.
When I lived in a subdivision with houses closer together, I hated it. The people next door seemed so nice and we even shared the price to put up a fence together. I had no idea they had no problem letting their dog out at 6:00 in the morning to bark her head off.
You could call the local police department and see if they have records of complaints on that street. Or go door to door and make friendly inquiries about the neighborhood.
A bedroom community of Salem, Oregon called Dallas (as opposed to the city with longhorns). Hubby works in Salem and has a company truck so we don't have to worry about stroking out when we sit down every month with our Excel budget sheet and enter gas commute bills. With my rural background, I'm just one of those overly-sensitized people about any kind of environmental noise, so I figure my neighbors and I will get along just fine as along as we can't hear (or maybe even SEE) one another. And I want to raise chickens again with a couple of noisy roosters, too.
Great tips so far about checking with police reports and talking to potential neighbors, who will usually give you the scoop about what drives them crazy about disturbances of the peace.
Please keep the ideas coming! (And, by the way for Silverfall, whose posts I have admired and learned from since January, are you a buyer's agent familiar with little ol' Dallas???)
Thanks! This is just a superior forum for education and real-world experience!
A bedroom community of Salem, Oregon called Dallas (as opposed to the city with longhorns). Hubby works in Salem and has a company truck so we don't have to worry about stroking out when we sit down every month with our Excel budget sheet and enter gas commute bills. With my rural background, I'm just one of those overly-sensitized people about any kind of environmental noise, so I figure my neighbors and I will get along just fine as along as we can't hear (or maybe even SEE) one another. And I want to raise chickens again with a couple of noisy roosters, too.
Great tips so far about checking with police reports and talking to potential neighbors, who will usually give you the scoop about what drives them crazy about disturbances of the peace.
Please keep the ideas coming! (And, by the way for Silverfall, whose posts I have admired and learned from since January, are you a buyer's agent familiar with little ol' Dallas???)
Thanks! This is just a superior forum for education and real-world experience!
I am familiar with little ol' Dallas. On acreage, the biggest issue to worry about is the water table out there. They are having some problems with wells running dry and they need to be redug. We have the same problem here in South Salem.
New wells down south salem are heading to 350' or so and I think in Dallas the new ones are heading into 250' or so (I'd have to double check), but you'll want to really check out the well.
... then it certainly makes sense to track down a remote house, doesn't it?
You need not spend a fortune or get a far more acreage than you want. Just about every town has SOME places that ""you take the county highway out to the old gravel road, then you turn down the road with no sign just that ol' church sayings billboard, go two miles and the third driveway goes to the old house with no barn"...
That would be perfect for you and the roosters!
Quote:
Originally Posted by stonecypher5413
A bedroom community of Salem, Oregon called Dallas (as opposed to the city with longhorns). Hubby works in Salem and has a company truck so we don't have to worry about stroking out when we sit down every month with our Excel budget sheet and enter gas commute bills. With my rural background, I'm just one of those overly-sensitized people about any kind of environmental noise, so I figure my neighbors and I will get along just fine as along as we can't hear (or maybe even SEE) one another. And I want to raise chickens again with a couple of noisy roosters, too.
Great tips so far about checking with police reports and talking to potential neighbors, who will usually give you the scoop about what drives them crazy about disturbances of the peace.
Please keep the ideas coming! (And, by the way for Silverfall, whose posts I have admired and learned from since January, are you a buyer's agent familiar with little ol' Dallas???)
Thanks! This is just a superior forum for education and real-world experience!
Thank you, Silverfall, for the heads-up on well depths around Dallas! Where I grew up in South Eugene, the wells were shallow and contaminated with trace metals, sulfur, and arsenic. We had to truck in water and poor Mom had to wash clothes in town or the sheets all turned orange. The property was terrific in all other ways, but the water table realities RULE. I'd never buy a property without LOTS of good, clean water.
And thanks to you, too, Chet, for keeping my dream alive of finding that "last house on the road." (Guess I'm just a loner at heart--me and my chickens!)
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but, now that I'm near retirement age and have endured decades of environmental noise pollution from traffic and neighbors-from-hell at each of the homes my husband and I have rented or leased:
If you don't want to see or hear neighbors...
