Someone bought the house next door.

seadoug

seadoug

Well-known Member
Location
Texas
Big deal, right? Not necessarily. I live in a neighborhood where very few houses come up for sale. When one does go on the market it is usually well cared-for or the new owner sinks a boatload of money into upgrading it. The previous owner never took care of his house. At one point, his gutter was hanging to the ground on my side and I had to go next door and tell him. He said he knew but he took his sweet time repairing it. The reason it was important to me is that his side wall encloses my courtyard per the attached picture. There is just a little walking space between the two houses.

Being nosy, I looked at the pics on the realtor's site. The house had a bad floor plan and everything needed work. We couldn't believe what they asked originally, but the price was substantially lowered 3 times before the house sold.

Apparently, the new owners are renovating it because I woke this morning to hammering and saw guys putting on a new roof. I opened the gate for them so they could access my side. No one even gave me a head's up so I could unlock the gate. Without doing that, they would have been unable to clean up the debris and old shingles in my courtyard. With a house this close in proximity, you can see how most renovations would be intrusive, but in the end I'm just happy to see the new owners are sprucing it up.

I plan on introducing myself when they move in and letting them know they can have access to my side of their house anytime they need it.

patio.jpg
 
seadoug said:
Big deal, right? Not necessarily. I live in a neighborhood where very few houses come up for sale. When one does go on the market it is usually well cared-for or the new owner sinks a boatload of money into upgrading it. The previous owner never took care of his house. At one point, his gutter was hanging to the ground on my side and I had to go next door and tell him. He said he knew but he took his sweet time repairing it. The reason it was important to me is that his side wall encloses my courtyard per the attached picture. There is just a little walking space between the two houses.

Being nosy, I looked at the pics on the realtor's site. The house had a bad floor plan and everything needed work. We couldn't believe what they asked originally, but the price was substantially lowered 3 times before the house sold.

Apparently, the new owners are renovating it because I woke this morning to hammering and saw guys putting on a new roof. I opened the gate for them so they could access my side. No one even gave me a head's up so I could unlock the gate. Without doing that, they would have been unable to clean up the debris and old shingles in my courtyard. With a house this close in proximity, you can see how most renovations would be intrusive, but in the end I'm just happy to see the new owners are sprucing it up.

I plan on introducing myself when they move in and letting them know they can have access to my side of their house anytime they need it.

View attachment 489628
Click to expand...
That was thoughtful of you Doug. On the other hand, had you not unlocked and opened that gate, you might have had to do the cleaning up yourself. Looks great, though.
 
seadoug said:
Big deal, right? Not necessarily. I live in a neighborhood where very few houses come up for sale. When one does go on the market it is usually well cared-for or the new owner sinks a boatload of money into upgrading it. The previous owner never took care of his house. At one point, his gutter was hanging to the ground on my side and I had to go next door and tell him. He said he knew but he took his sweet time repairing it. The reason it was important to me is that his side wall encloses my courtyard per the attached picture. There is just a little walking space between the two houses.

Being nosy, I looked at the pics on the realtor's site. The house had a bad floor plan and everything needed work. We couldn't believe what they asked originally, but the price was substantially lowered 3 times before the house sold.

Apparently, the new owners are renovating it because I woke this morning to hammering and saw guys putting on a new roof. I opened the gate for them so they could access my side. No one even gave me a head's up so I could unlock the gate. Without doing that, they would have been unable to clean up the debris and old shingles in my courtyard. With a house this close in proximity, you can see how most renovations would be intrusive, but in the end I'm just happy to see the new owners are sprucing it up.

I plan on introducing myself when they move in and letting them know they can have access to my side of their house anytime they need it.

View attachment 489628
Click to expand...
is that two separate houses with a court yard garden seperating?
 
Rakaia said:
+1.
I too would qualify how you plan to give them access, maybe for renovation purposes. Alternatively you could let them know that if they need access to let you know.
What is the population density in your area?
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There are 136 homes between our neighborhood and the one next door. I'm guessing ours has 60 homes.
 
Actually, our neighbor on the other side leaves her gate open all the time and has let me know I'm free to access her side at any time. I wouldn't do the same, but fortunately we have very low crime in our neighborhood.
 
I hope all goes well.
Within the last two years had new neighbors move in some it was an improvement, some not.
At first, I let neighbor stage things on my lawn while working on their place. Homes are very close together also, but now they think they can do whatever in my yard.... I do not yet find a nice way to tell them I was being polite at first but now stay in your lane.
 
seadoug said:
I plan on introducing myself when they move in and letting them know they can have access to my side of their house anytime they need it.
Click to expand...
I think that an introduction is fine but I wouldn’t rush over with a pie or volunteer anything until I had a bit of time to size them up and see how compatible we are going to be as neighbors.

Hopefully they will love their home as much as you and hubs love yours.

“Good fences make good neighbors.”
- Robert Frost
 
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