Re: Does it bother you when...

I actually think there are two extremes, and both are problems to me - the people who are obsessed with their perfect green lawns that dump all kind of noxious chemicals on it... and the people who do nothing.

Most of my neighborhood is in between these extremes, as am I. We do our own landscaping and I'm out every week gardening. That doesn't mean I have the perfect black mulched, edged beds and no weeds - quite the contrary. I'm a realist gardener. I'm focusing on a natural environment and that doesn't include a sterile landscape. I'm not striving for perfection.

I think my house/yard is middle of the road or slightly above average, as do my neighbors. I do have one neighbor that has all the 'bad' stuff... Rotting roof/gutters, all manner of rundown vehicles stranded in the driveways, poison ivy as landscape edging, garbage in the yard, a dog that is permitted poop on the sidewalks of the neighborhood and then left there... I'm not a fan of them, can you tell? They're not next door so it doesn't bother me that much. But it would be nice if they took an interest.

Re: Does it bother you when...

Re: Does it bother you when...

If my neighbors had out of control landscaping it would bother me very much, only if they were physically able to maintain it. I am fortunate that I dont have anyone on my block like this. Most of the homes in my town are very well maintained.

I do hire someone to cut the lawn but if I couldnt afford it I would do it myself. I am out of my house at least 13 hours Mon-Fri for work and I am always watering my plants when I get home and doing the sprinklers. If I have the time to do it I would expect others to do it as well.

If there is a piece of litter in the curb I make sure to pick it up. I always put my garbage cans away ASAP in the rare instances I am home. I dont understand how people who are home leave them out there all day if it it not raining or 10 below!!

Re: Does it bother you when...

Yes it bothers me....

It actually bothers me more that my yard is one of the yards that you just described...

I could go into a long winded explanation as to why my yard has looked the way that it does. But it would be far to long of a post...

For us, finding a landscaper hasnt been the piece of cake that you described. Being on the end of a dead end apparently puts us at a disadvantage. We have hired 6 different landscapers in the past 3 years and none of them have EVER arrived to cut our grass. We have contact over 10 different landscaping companies and several of them said that they wont do our home due to it's location. (dead end)

I could bore you with our dirt and excavating issue earlier this summer....

Or how over grown with "mature" plantings my yard was when we bought it 5 years ago...

I wont even get into my DH's distaste for yard work....

After 5 years we FINALLY are starting to put some $$$ into the stupid yard. But $3000 later it still doesnt amount to much....

Re: Does it bother you when...

I think that I am that neighbor.

We do mow our lawn but aside from that, don't do much more. Our neighbor finally cut some our overgrown shrubs bc he was probably sick of looking at them. Our flower beds need to be weeded and there are other things that need to be done too.

We are completely broke and cannot afford a landscaper. My DH works a lot (and I am now too) and with 2 infants, we simply to not have time to do much yardwork. We constantly have maintenance problems in our home so any spare money or time go to correctly those types of issues.

In all honesty, our yard is low on our list of priorities at the moment.

Re: Does it bother you when...

We don't have anyone on our block that has out of control landscaping. I do think when it's way overgrown (I mean when you can't see the windows) it doesn't make the block very appealing.

I pass a house on my way to the train station every morning and it is completely overgrown. I thought for the longest time that the house was vacant, but DH said people live there. They aren't old either. It could be they just don't have the money. He did say that our town would landscape it but the homeowners would get charged a lot of money if they ended up doing it. I want to take my lopes and just go crazy on the bushes!

Re: Does it bother you when...

Part of me think you need to conform to the norms of the neighborhood, but another part of me thinks you should be able to do whatever you want with your home.

I'm lucky to live in a pretty low maintenance neighborhood. No one here waters the lawn or installs fancy landscaping or goes crazy with fertilizer. I don't do any of those either, so it suits me fine.

I just focus on the yards that are tidy, and not on those that aren't.

Re: Does it bother you when...

Eh, I try not to get too hung up on stuff like that. Just because someone appears to be able bodied does not mean that they are, and not everyone has the little bit extra each week to afford a landscaper.

I am totally grossed out by a house on my mom's block that is WAY overgrown and there are 2 trees down from that big storm earlier this year. The homeowner was arrested in the late winter/early spring for robbing a bunch of banks in Nassau and he's been in jail ever since. I keep thinking that it's a prime location for rats to build a nest.

Re: Does it bother you when...

We were this house. Sometimes we still are.

DH travels for business and with 2 small kids at home it can get crazy.

I told DH we needed to hire someone to come an mow/edge 1x a week and just deal with the expense. However, he insists that we don't need it.

There is a point where I am just going to hire them and let the chips fall where they may.

Re: Does it bother you when...

im embarrassed to say my house is the crappy one on the block.. we moved in at the end of may.. and did a TON of work on the inside that needed to be done my husband works 6 14 hour days a week and we have a toddler and the landscaping is $$ and we just didnt have it.. so the ouside is coming last.. and it looks like a dump we are fully aware.. BUT we have all intentions to do it once the weather gets cooler now since we have completed the inside for the most part. so if my neighbors said anything i woud appoligize and explain that the inside comes first and that we will be tending to the dump outside ASAP!

Re: Does it bother you when...

EVERY SECOND! if i have to look at it whether opening up my blinds, or simply walking past a gross house with my dog...

it makes my blood boil.

i understand illness / sickness ... but laziness.. i can't. i just can't.


can you feel my blood boiling now just thinking of a house around the block.

Re: Does it bother you when...

It bothers me b/c I AM that house. Our lawn wasn't in great shape when we moved in 2 years ago. DH is the one who does the fertilizing, mowing, edging, etc. Our lawn looks terrible right now. We have never been able to get it nice and green and weed-free. Luckily, most of the time, we have neatly trimmed weeds, but if we are gone for the weekend, it can get unruly. DH gets home late from work, so he rarely gets to the lawn during the week, and we don't have the $$ for landscapers right now.

Our plan for next year is to resod and have IGS put in. At this point, we need to start from scratch!

We also want to take out all of the huge bushes in front of our house and redo the landscaping completely, but it all takes time and money, which we don't have. Everything in our house is getting done little by little, and unfortunately, this has not been the top priority. We want the house to look nice on the outside, but it just hasn't happened yet.

Re: Does it bother you when...

Posted by Jax430

It bothers me b/c I AM that house. Our lawn wasn't in great shape when we moved in 2 years ago. DH is the one who does the fertilizing, mowing, edging, etc. Our lawn looks terrible right now. We have never been able to get it nice and green and weed-free. Luckily, most of the time, we have neatly trimmed weeds, but if we are gone for the weekend, it can get unruly. DH gets home late from work, so he rarely gets to the lawn during the week, and we don't have the $$ for landscapers right now.

Our plan for next year is to resod and have IGS put in. At this point, we need to start from scratch!

We also want to take out all of the huge bushes in front of our house and redo the landscaping completely, but it all takes time and money, which we don't have. Everything in our house is getting done little by little, and unfortunately, this has not been the top priority. We want the house to look nice on the outside, but it just hasn't happened yet.

Re: Does it bother you when...

totally. we are also in the process of sprucing up our front and the neighbor to our right who is a rent does NOTHING with the upkeep of his front nor does the owner. Frustrating that this is what people will see when they come see our house but i guess it's just something I/we have to live with.

Re: Does it bother you when...

at the moment we feel like we are the Outcasts in our new neighborhood. from what our house first looked like when we first moved in , we have DONE SOOOOO much work to it, but it just isn't enough compared to everyone around us. We mow our lawn and make sure the grass is green and we make sure it looks good for the eyes but we haven't gone crazy with landscaping or making it really home yet. The inside needed lots of work and the only thing big we did this summer was put up a new fence which cost us an arm and a leg.

we still get compliments from the neighbors saying what a wonderful job we are doing, to keep up the good work, but we know deep down inside they are itching us to keep spending money to make it look like theres lol , across the street nieghbor even offered to help plant trees and shrubs and stuff....next summer...

this was our first summer and im pretty impressed! lol

Re: Does it bother you when...

We used to be that house when we first moved it . In the beginning it was all a bit overwhelming. My DH wanted to mow the lawn and take care of his land He seemed to forget that doing all that takes time. He worked very long hours and on his day off didn't want to do it and if it rained....well then it didn't get done until the following week.

So the next year we hired landscapers. They mow, edge etc. We still sometimes have weeds that grow out of control in our flower beds. Sometimes they get pulled, sometimes they don't. With both of us working full time with 2 kids it generally isn't our priority. For the most part our property is "neat" but it is not house people walk by and comment on either way.

Re: Does it bother you when...

YES!

I know when we looked at homes we put a few blocks on our no way list because it looked like not enough people took pride in their properties.

Not every house needs to look like Martha lives there but at least try to show a little pride in your piece of the earth.

Re: Does it bother you when...

we used to be that house and yes it bothers me. It took us a while to get it all together, but now it's the way we want it for the most part. Just little things to do now. Most of the houses on our block are very nice, but there are a couple and one is across the street from us. They just don't keep up on it and they are able people. There house also needs work, so it's a lot and I guess they just don't want to fix it up. but it's not completely out of control. There are one or two other houses on the block that are just out of control.

Neighbors still thank us for fixing up our house and it makes us feel great. Even people from down or around the block walk by and compliment us on the work we have done......because they remember the old owners and how they didn't take care of anything on the house. We still have things to do, but it will come in time.

Re: Does it bother you when...

When we first bought our home in NC in 2007, we did alot of landscaping and it looked to pretty. Since the twins have been born, things have been overgrown and definitely not up to par with MY standards. DH mows and edges every other week and for now, that's all he has time for. I have ZERO time and energy to plant or weed. I barely can keep the inside of my house together, let alone the outside. Things will be better next year when the boys are a little older (I hope).

Re: Does it bother you when...

Posted by Otherme

Posted by Jax430

It bothers me b/c I AM that house. Our lawn wasn't in great shape when we moved in 2 years ago. DH is the one who does the fertilizing, mowing, edging, etc. Our lawn looks terrible right now. We have never been able to get it nice and green and weed-free. Luckily, most of the time, we have neatly trimmed weeds, but if we are gone for the weekend, it can get unruly. DH gets home late from work, so he rarely gets to the lawn during the week, and we don't have the $$ for landscapers right now.

Our plan for next year is to resod and have IGS put in. At this point, we need to start from scratch!

We also want to take out all of the huge bushes in front of our house and redo the landscaping completely, but it all takes time and money, which we don't have. Everything in our house is getting done little by little, and unfortunately, this has not been the top priority. We want the house to look nice on the outside, but it just hasn't happened yet.

your house is not bad at all!!!

please don't think that.
your grass is cut, you don't have piles of garbage or weeds or dirt on your front lawn (except for the pesky blowing garbage that gets stuck on the fence ) and you guys have been working on the inside a lot as well!
Just because the grass is brown, doesn't mean you have a bad house! everyone's grass is brown this summer.
i'd hate for you guys to feel badly about your house, it's definitely not bad!

Re: Does it bother you when...

i should clarify myself, i sounded pretty nutty there.

i hate when there are rental homes and able bodied people that allow their homes to be completely overgrown. (ie: bushes, grass, trees) a $20.00 hedgeclipper can work wonders.

alot of previous posters are saying their lawn is brown... well, it's august. it happens. happens to us just about every year. starts out gorgeous and ends up gorgeous, just that darn month of august is bad.

that, i don't think, qualifies you as having the worst house on the block.

i should take a picture of the house i am refering to. i actually saw the homeowner out front with no shirt on, watering the weeds / overgrown trees. i couldn't believe my eyes.

Re: Does it bother you when...

it doesn't because I've BTDT. even if everyone is well, you really have no idea what their life is like unless you know them, and I mean know them well.

thank God I didn't have a house to take care of when my mom was very ill. I was taking care of her (cooking, cleaning her house, grocery shopping, doing her laundry and showering her EVERY DAY) ontop of going to school part time at night and working a full time job. I was also engaged and living with DH and had a dog and a place to keep up with on my own. It was tough! I also had little $. if her lawn was a disaster, or mine, I would not have been able to afford to pay someone to do it. thankfully my grandpa was able to keep hers neat, but it by all means wasn't the nicest thing.

this could apply with nearly anything. its very easy to say, they should hire someone to do it

So really, unless you know them very well, I would not let it get under my skin, because you really never know.

Re: Does it bother you when...

I know grass gets brown. My grass is brown. No trees in the front. Major morning heat exposure. Neglect from previous owners who did not run their IGS regularly. We have thousands of dollars worth of time and labor to put into our outside just to make it to minimum. When I say "minimum," I mean simply green and neat. Not manicured with flowers and rock gardens.

Right now I am in ZERO position to do anything myself. I'm 8.5 months pregnant. DH doesn't get home until close to 7pm and unless I want him all bitten up, he aint doing it.

Before we bought the house and moved in almost 2 months ago, he contemplated doing the work himself. I know him. Come fall, I lose him to football. He plays, watches, does fantasy man crap (which I personally think is dumb but its his thing). I know that means he isn't pushing a lawn mower or clipping/trimming anything.

I'd also prefer him spend the time with his children. I'm going to need help. We had to decide, was it worth $25/week for a landscaper or do I want Daddy outside losing at least 2-4 hours of his Sunday outside instead of spending what little time he has with his family.


The point of my OP was not to judge what happens in other people's lives. Crap happens. Shoot I had both of my parents in the hospital at the same time for over a month just before I got engaged (some of the 06 brides might remember). But in order to make sure that the house was safe and kempt, at least one of us kids was monitoring the outside maintenance of their home.

I guess my bottom line is that I really was excited to be part of a community and take pride in my investment. I still am. I just wish I could do more physically, financially and time management wise.

Re: Does it bother you when...

Re: Does it bother you when...

Posted by Bops


I want the # of that $25 landscaper

Mine charged us $75 a week and it was my BIL's company