Our neighbors happen to run up and down their stairs like elephants and then have a teenager/young-adult who really likes loud bass. The stairs have made me jump when I thought someone was running down behind me.
As for Carrie, Carrie and bass do not get along. It annoys and gives her a headache.
When Carrie was pregnant, the bass made her nauseous, too. She wouldn't sit in the church because the music was too loud. She, also, sent me to knock on doors whenever she could hear bass through the walls.
When we moved into our own house, it ended our bass conflicts. Shane and I got to cut loose, as well. We run around and we're really noisy ourselves.
Carrie's move to Charlottesville introduced us to shared walls and noise again.
Now, Carrie and I understand that noise flows both ways through the wall. If we ask for less noise, we have to watch our own decibels.
Shane doesn't. He still wants to stomp up and down the stairs and yell at the top of his lungs like we do at home! I think we've done a fair job, so far.
Before Carrie moved in, our unit sat vacant. Our neighbors probably got used to not needing to worry about who was next door. We have had to knock twice, since.
The first time was Carrie's first weekend in the house.She knocked and said no one answered until after she knocked for close to ten minutes.
The second time was my turn. No one answered the door for me at first, either. Eventually, someone shouted through the door. The voice asked who I was and what I wanted. I was polite. I told them their treble was fine, but the bass was coming through. The voice said they'd turn it down, and then didn't change a thing.
Carrie called the landlord and there's been a truce since. I offered them our snow shovel unasked during the snow storm as an olive branch. They thanked me and left it outside our door when they were done. It didn't open up a conversation like it hoped it would. I shoveled their sidewalk the next snowfall, but they don't normally come out or shovel unless they get stuck (like the time I loaned the shovel).
I'm only down on weekends, so I don't have many opportunities to meet them. Carrie says she doesn't see much of them during the week, either. They keep their blinds closed and don't always use their one car, so it's not easy to tell when they're home unless it's when we hear them through the walls. I am not hunting for conflict, so that's not when I want to go over and say "hi."
Hopefully, we'll get to know them better as time goes on. We have been praying about it. If not, we're only in the townhouse until July (short-timers). I think the lesson learned here is we value peace and quiet, so we'll probably look for a house with a little more space around it even if it's further out of town.
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