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I live in Paducah, KY. My neighborhood was relatively quiet with an old woman and her old husband living next door in a small house on a postage stamp sized lot. For some reason, one of her daughters moved in with her and brought a gaggle of children (to live in a two bedroom house). This gaggle of children has a gaggle of friends who come over every single day. It's spring break now, so I'm getting a taste of what I'm in for this summer, and I'm literally tearing my hair out. No. Really.
There is a portable basketball goal in the neighbor's yard. It is four feet away from my yard. Our houses are VERY close together--only about five feet separates one of my walls from one of the neighbor's walls. The portable basketball goal is, at any given time, the favorite hangout spot for up to 15 children at a time.
I understand that kids play..I really do...and I would be absolutely fine if they played basketball for 1 or 2 hours a day...but...
On days when they're not in school, they play basketball (and I'm not exaggerating) from about ten a.m. until 9 p.m. There are brief breaks for food/drink. The ONLY TIME I get any peace, ever, is if it rains. As soon as the rain stops, they are back outside.
My bedroom and tv room are both in the back of the house, near the source of the noise. I am losing my mind. The noise is not only stressing my boyfriend and I out, it's also putting a huge strain on our relationship. The dribbling and yelling and ball hitting the backboard can be plainly heard through the walls/windows.
I find myself having nightmares about it every night. I'm so stressed out, I've lost 10 pounds from not eating anything. Every time there is a moment of silence, I wait on edge for the dribbling to start again, so I can't even enjoy the quiet moments.
The mother of these children is HATEFUL, and the few times I've (nicely) said something to the kids about not riding their bikes on my driveway while screaming at the top of their lungs, I have been glared at with contempt.
I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO. There is an ordinance in our town that says any noise that can be consistently heard within one's residence and impedes one's ability to live peacefully in their own home is prohibited...but...can someone really tell kids to stop playing basketball?
I won't get into the other crap that goes on over there...guns being pulled on people in the front yard over petty crap, the mother/grandmother screaming at the kids all hours of the day, etc...those things are all temporary (and sometimes taken care of by the cops). The basketball game is eternal.
I'm not an intolerant person...but I've been putting up with this for six months now with no end in sight. I am a college teacher, and much of the work I do is online, so I am home a lot. Unfortunately, I am unable to grade papers or write lectures in the comfort of my own home. I have to drive to a local coffeeshop or other location so that I can think.
Other than moving, which I really can't afford to do (I own my home, and would like to get some more equity out of it...and the market is terrible..and would anyone want my house anyway seeing what's next door??)...what would you do? Would you say something to the old lady/her daughter? File a noise complaint? IS there anything that can be done? I can't take it anymore.
What really gets me is that HALF A BLOCK AWAY there is a public basketball court with a really, really nice goal and paved playing area. These kids are playing on a half-broken portable goal set on a dirt patch. Every once in awhile they'll decide to walk to the park and my life will be wonderful...but mostly, they just stay right there on their dirt patch with their broken goal...and I have no clue why.
At least these children are doing something physical and are not just laying in the house all day in front of the tv or playing video games. Maybe they play at home, because their mother can keep a better eye on them. You don't say how old they are. I understand that for someone with no children, they can be distracting, to say the least and noisy. I would say that after a certain hour at night and before a certain time in the morning, it would be appropriate to ask that they not play outside and make so much noise. Other than that, I don't know much you can do about it in the daytime. They are just playing basketball and are not doing anything unusually noise or loud. When we were kids, our yard and driveway was always full of kids from all over the neighborhood playing some sort of game or another. I am sure we were loud also and we stayed out there all day and even after dark in the summer.
I think it's just odd to see children outside playing all day long nowdays and I find that sad. I would love to see more kids play like that and being physical. We wouldn't have so many overweight children and an epidemic of Type II diabetes.
Other than moving or just learning to tune it out, I don't know what you can really do about it.
Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
26,700 posts, read 41,723,992 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KelsieG
Hi everyone...
I live in Paducah, KY. My neighborhood was relatively quiet with an old woman and her old husband living next door in a small house on a postage stamp sized lot. For some reason, one of her daughters moved in with her and brought a gaggle of children (to live in a two bedroom house). This gaggle of children has a gaggle of friends who come over every single day. It's spring break now, so I'm getting a taste of what I'm in for this summer, and I'm literally tearing my hair out. No. Really.
There is a portable basketball goal in the neighbor's yard. It is four feet away from my yard. Our houses are VERY close together--only about five feet separates one of my walls from one of the neighbor's walls. The portable basketball goal is, at any given time, the favorite hangout spot for up to 15 children at a time.
I understand that kids play..I really do...and I would be absolutely fine if they played basketball for 1 or 2 hours a day...but...
On days when they're not in school, they play basketball (and I'm not exaggerating) from about ten a.m. until 9 p.m. There are brief breaks for food/drink. The ONLY TIME I get any peace, ever, is if it rains. As soon as the rain stops, they are back outside.
My bedroom and tv room are both in the back of the house, near the source of the noise. I am losing my mind. The noise is not only stressing my boyfriend and I out, it's also putting a huge strain on our relationship. The dribbling and yelling and ball hitting the backboard can be plainly heard through the walls/windows.
I find myself having nightmares about it every night. I'm so stressed out, I've lost 10 pounds from not eating anything. Every time there is a moment of silence, I wait on edge for the dribbling to start again, so I can't even enjoy the quiet moments.
The mother of these children is HATEFUL, and the few times I've (nicely) said something to the kids about not riding their bikes on my driveway while screaming at the top of their lungs, I have been glared at with contempt.
I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO. There is an ordinance in our town that says any noise that can be consistently heard within one's residence and impedes one's ability to live peacefully in their own home is prohibited...but...can someone really tell kids to stop playing basketball?
I won't get into the other crap that goes on over there...guns being pulled on people in the front yard over petty crap, the mother/grandmother screaming at the kids all hours of the day, etc...those things are all temporary (and sometimes taken care of by the cops). The basketball game is eternal.
I'm not an intolerant person...but I've been putting up with this for six months now with no end in sight. I am a college teacher, and much of the work I do is online, so I am home a lot. Unfortunately, I am unable to grade papers or write lectures in the comfort of my own home. I have to drive to a local coffeeshop or other location so that I can think.
Other than moving, which I really can't afford to do (I own my home, and would like to get some more equity out of it...and the market is terrible..and would anyone want my house anyway seeing what's next door??)...what would you do? Would you say something to the old lady/her daughter? File a noise complaint? IS there anything that can be done? I can't take it anymore.
What really gets me is that HALF A BLOCK AWAY there is a public basketball court with a really, really nice goal and paved playing area. These kids are playing on a half-broken portable goal set on a dirt patch. Every once in awhile they'll decide to walk to the park and my life will be wonderful...but mostly, they just stay right there on their dirt patch with their broken goal...and I have no clue why.
I'd take a shot at the noise complaint since dealing with the folk directly hasn't yielded anything. Technically by rule you mentioned that would be a violation.
If the children are being screamed at continually by their mother and grandmother, and guns are appearing regularly in the front yard, perhaps a call to child protective services might be in order, especially if these people have had visits from the police previously.
However, make very clear to CPS that your own anonymity MUST be protected! Otherwise, you might find those guns being put to threatening use towards you.
Check with your county code enforcement they can tell you how many people are allowed to live in a small house.....I would think for a 2 bedroom house it would be 4 adults or 2 adults and 2 kids.
Call the police everytime you see a gun, tell the 911 operator that you do not wished to be contacted by the police because you fear the people living there will get revenge.....
Also, is the house owned by the parents? If it's a rental, complain to the landlord of that house.
Might also want to check about a HOA in the neighborhood.....
i have dealt with the same exact thing for years. it makes you a prisoner in your own home and i've really found nothing i can legally do about it. i do have a privacy fence and whenever balls wind up in my yard they get the knife. before you all judge me harshly, these neighbors show myself nor anyone else any respect whatsoever. the kids play ball till midnight some nights right outside my bedroom window. my wife and i have taken to falling asleep on the couch untill after midnight then going to bed. not to mention the motorcycles and sub-woofers. i'll slash every ball i get my hands on and am at the point of vandalizing the motorcycles. the cops won't/can't do anything, and it's made our lives HELL for years. We are listing our house in the next few weeks and when/if it sells, i will NEVER live within a block of a basketball goal for the rest of my life.
don't really have a solution for you, just wanted to let you know that I completely empathize with your situation.
I have very nice neighbors next door, however, their driveway is right under my bedroom window and their basketball garage door court is right by my back door and can be clearly heard all over the house. Every dribble of the ball, every thwack of the ball against the back-board, can be heard here--LOUDLY. Nearly every morning when they start their cars with slamming doors and often loud good-byes, I am wakened. I have to sleep in my living room since I work second shift and they are departing at 6 or 7 am. Still the proximity of the driveway means that I'm wakened from time to time by their early morning departures, anyway. Never mind that they have a garage where all of this car starting and car door noise could be carried out quietly. For some reason, they do not use the garage--I guess for ease of access. Like the professor above, I work in the field of academia from home with most of my work online. It is impossible to concentrate when the game is in play. The basketball playing sounds like pounding on the walls of my house! Like the post above, the best park in the city, the Park of Roses with all sorts of indoor and outdoor courts is a block away. The other fun they like to have is to whack a skateboard onto the driveway while training to be some sort of skate dog pro. So far, just the whacking has been mastered. What should I do? It's really hard for me to imagine that they do not understand how much of a disturbance this is. I have looked out of my windows and back door at them, which to considerate people would certainly be enough of a hint. I'm assuming that they just don't care so why bother to say anything? So far I've just done the 'grin and bear it', but it's hell on me. They mentioned that a person who lived in this house before me was disturbed by noise, so they must know it's a problem. In my experience neighbors either get it about noise or they don't. If you have to say something, they are not the type of people who will care to correct their behaviour.
Last edited by Zalex1313; 07-28-2013 at 01:51 PM..
Reason: forgot to add something else which is relevant
You know, I just had an idea. It would take some cheek to do it but it might be fun and effective. As often as is practically possible, stay suited up with tennis shoes on when in your home. When you hear the THWACK of the basketball, go out, like a clueless sort of Michael Keaton in Gung Ho and say "Wow, awesome! This is going to be great, guys! Thanks for having me over!". The kids friends will be so turned off by the nerdy neighbor that they will not feel it is 'cool' to hang out there any more. Then the participants in the noisemaking will start to drop off. This won't work with a situation that has already soured but it could be a good first move that will lead them to the idea that it's more fun to play basketball elsewhere. Advanced hint: plan to play the excited nerd game play crasher more than once for best effect!
I was thinking about bringing the boombox outside and playing whatever type of music the kids would hate (classical, country, 50's, whatever). Do a little gardening, Drink some lemonade in a lawn chair, wash the car,etc. Make the music so obnoxious the kids will find another house to hang out at.
Enough visits from CPS should do the trick. Guns and screaming guardians makes for very involved CPS agents.
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