Neighbor Wars

One of the many joys of being a military family, is getting to live in military housing. For the most part they are pretty decent, but we really got the short end of the stick this go around. Don't get me wrong... since our weekend of redecorating I'm loving our house 100x more, but it isn't the ideal set up for anyone!

Let me give you a quick look at our living arrangements...

We live in what is called a 4-plex. It is a large building which is actually pretty similar to an apartment building. There are 2 houses on the 1st floor, and 2 on the 2nd floor- but all within the same building. There is a deck on each side of the house, which is shared between the upstairs/downstairs units on that particular side. There is a "back" entrance, which is located on the deck. When you walk through this door, you are immediately met by a door to your left (the back door to the downstairs unit) and a flight of stairs that leads to the upstairs unit. It really is a tight squeeze and a pain to get in/out with dogs, groceries, etc. There is also a large front entrance, which is much larger. When you walk through this door, you have both front doors to the downstairs units on either side of you, and then a much larger/wider flight of stairs which leads to the 2 upstairs units.

And let me say...these buildings were built in the 40's so you really do hear everything!

So onto my war stories:

Since we have been here, we haven't really met any of our neighbors within our building. This past week, the neighbor across the hall from us (we will call them the "bullies") called the housing office to complain about our dogs barking while we are at work. The reason they were barking was because we moved their kennel next to the front door, which apparently wasn't a very good idea. The housing office actually called Kevin at work to discuss the matter with him... so needless to say, he was not very happy with our neighbors. It is understood that if there is an issue among neighbors, you are to first try to talk and resolve things between yourselves, and if it is not fixed, then you call the housing office. These people never tried to talk to us, and since we have moved the kennel back into the guest bedroom, there have not been any issues with barking. It was an easy fix, and if they had come and discussed the problem with us, we would have been more than willing to work on the issue.

Well, last weekend we had a new set of neighbors move in above us. They are actually very awesome, and I'm so thankful we got good neighbors! They have 2 medium/large dogs, so it is easier for them to use their front door and use the wider set of stairs to take their dogs out, but their second day here the "bullies" asked them if they could not use their front door after 8 pm because it is too loud when they walk down the stairs... ummm, really?!? Technically, "quite" hours don't begin until 10 pm, but regardless, who in their right mind even thinks it is ok to ask someone to not use their FRONT door!!

Then on top of that, this morning the "bullies" told the new neighbor that she is not allowed to walk her dogs on "their" yard. Pretty sure we don't have designated yards. On both occasions, the has been the "bullies" husband that has confronted the newbies, and it is always the newbies wife. She is so sweet and has come to me to vent on both occasions, and it has made me so mad it makes my skin crawl! She feels like he is trying to intimidate her when he talks to her, and is obviously not going about things in a "neighborly" manor. I have been shocked that they haven't complained to us more after hearing about their nastiness. Oh, and did I mention the "bullies" husband plays drums!! I don't think you have any right to complain about noise when you are banging on a set of drums every afternoon... I'm just saying.

I have a feeling the neighbor wars are beginning to get underway. We have heard many horror stories about neighbors within the 4-plexes, and I guess we are beginning to see the "bullies" true colors now.