Rural life has gone to pot

'Just' move?
As in, one of the most stressful life experiences?
Just because the neighbour's being an arse?

Sod that for a game of soldiers.

agree, it is luck of the draw and the most distressing thing is the impact that horrible neighbours have on your quality of life. I was always sympathetic towards people with neighbours from hell but until i had some myself I truly did not understand the ongoing and often daily stress they can cause

Report the old fucker to the council for noise nuisance.

Am I the only one who doesn’t know what a ‘semi-rural village’ is?

And, OP, in the nicest possible way, did you really think that buying a near-unmortgageable bungalow painted black gloss and blood red, with burnt-out furniture in the garden, no hot water and a condemned gas fire was likely to mean (a) the vendors were going to clean everything up and leave you a bottle of champagne before they left (b) that you were moving into a Joanna Trollope Aga saga full of birdsong and scones or (c) that your next door neighbour was any less likely to be a noisy tv watcher and porn consumer than in London?

And I'd do that before I involved the council as well.

I'd spend the money on soundproofing.
It's £1000 but if it solves the problem, it will be £1000 well spent.

I moved, 23 years ago, to a “rural ideal” for 6 years. It was like that then. Over-nosey neighbours, with not enough to do.

I couldn’t wait to get back to a London suburb. 🙄

I vote for black magic + soundproofing.

I opened the thread expecting to read about out of control hare coursing and vast new housing estates popping up like mushrooms to overwhelm local services...

We have neighbours a little like this. Make a tonne of noise and let their kids and their makes run feral, I’ve tried to be kind. They will scurry from their cars to inside that would leave Usain Bolt impressed.

I guess you could say you moved in and made a fair bit of noise yourself in diy etc, although only to improve the value of your house and therefor his. So overall it’s positive.
If you want to stay I would stop with the tit for tat although I really DO know why you do. Tell him you will be speaking to the council should it continue, and carry on through with it. Keep a list handy and write everything down, date, time and what the noise is. Enter on a spreadsheet and if you can record some of the noises and keep a very healthy log.

There is no excuse for his behaviour, his wife may have been a calming influence or he could be depressed, but he needs to be snapped out of it for everyone’s sake.

good luck.

Put the gin in the bin. You might find it solves a lot of your problems.

Sounds challenging OP! As others have said, comparative to other rural issues, that's not too bad. Our neighbour used to run his tractor for hours on end while he worked on it, with diesel fumes going into our house, while the other side had bonfires every other day throughout the night in summer...

I'd avoid retaliating. He's put up with your DIY noise, and fighting fire with fire won't help you. Draw a line in the sand, go round for a discussion about it all, and if that doesn't work involve thr council.

Sympathies - neighbour noise is the worst.

You have been making a lot of improvements to your home. With theses improvements comes a hell of a lot of noise , upheaval, annoyance and his wife was dying
I can understand where he's coming from. I had to listen to neigjbours construction noise all summer and beyond. The following summer my son was learning the drums. I felt no guilt and embraced it. He was in attic with sky light open I was downstairs and heard very little. One comment was made but I just thought dont you even dare complain...! The next summer he'd given up the drums and went to uni

Sound proofing doesn’t work. Speaking from (costly) experience.

I’d just move.

Agreed

My Nan, bless Her, she used to say "Just because somebody is old and miserable and horrible, it doesn't come with age. They were likely young and miserable and horrible too"

This is unfortunately the perils of attached properties. Just because it’s in the country doesn’t mean it will be quiet.

The walls must be very thin?

“He knew I was home alone, woman, 40’s, unhealthy gin addiction.”. You must have mad a lot of noise clearing the garden, skips, renovating the house and then you drop in that you are alcoholic. Often people who are gin fuelled can make rather a lot of noise and be a little unusual. At a time when perhaps his wife was dying. It could very much be tit for tat

Hell yes they are great, I had one of these and I could turn my last neighbours tv off through the wall. I'd totally forgotten about these haha.

This is something that struck me too.

If you took the property back to brick there must have been lots of renovation noise for quite a while.

Can you see his TV from his front window? If so:

Buy One For All URC1210 Contour Universal TV Remote Control | TV remote controls | Argos

These wankers are everywhere, my neighbour smokes 60 a day and my house smells like they smoke in my living room.
I'm also rural. Report this fool to the council, he is disgusting.

Maybe he's deaf.

Depends if you want to stay.
If yes, get the sound proofing and shame him relentlessly on WA, report to the local police for stalking and consider a harassment order.

If no, I would sell up asap and leave. Unless you have the funds for a new patio…..

I am not good in these situations and would go over there and tell him unless he packs it in immediately, you will retaliate and make HIS life a living hell, his choice, and mean it.

Only on MN do we hear about living rurally. It’s living IN THE COUNTRY.