Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

The joys of living in a terraced house

55 replies

NoEffingWay · 08/10/2023 21:07

We have lived on our street for nearly four years. Our neighbours are generally alright however, some leave a bit to be desired:

Neighbour 1: has bought traffic cones to block off room outside his house-someone challenged him as it's just your bog-standard road-he shouted at them and said he was told by his landlord that the public road would be his . He now takes the cones in to his house when he's parked there (they belong the council who left them there by mistake!) so I can't hide them/bin them/take them to the tip.
Neighbour 2: quietly running a car refurb business by cover of darkness. They have a big dog which barks alll the time and keeps us all awake.
Neighbour 3: shouts at her kids but then is as nice as pie in public
Neighbour 4: is a lady of the night with a verry explicit website.

For reference: I live in a small naice village with a seemingly odd underbelly. I thought i was moving somewhere quaint after years in urban city living

OP posts:

shivawn · 08/10/2023 22:03

I live in a 1940's mid terrace and have never heard a single sound from my next door neighbours. I honestly have no idea what's going on on my street, people are friendly but mostly keep to themselves and I don't really care enough to pay attention.

Original poster

NoEffingWay · 08/10/2023 22:05

For three of the four years nothing happened, and it was all peace etc etc but then all of sudden there was lots of movement and changes, barking dogs and cones.

I'm not sure why, I don't think it's us!

OP posts:

tootiredtoocare · 08/10/2023 22:08

Get an old terraced house. We lived in one built around 1910 for 20 years and only had a problem for about 1 year with the couple next door who would go out once a week separately, then come home and fight about it. Even then, we could only hear them in the kitchen. They split up and it all went back to normal.

Illbebythesea · 08/10/2023 22:09

& neighbour 5 (you) I wonder what they say about you? 😁

Original poster

NoEffingWay · 08/10/2023 22:13

@Illbebythesea good question! I WFH, so they probably hear me grumbling about work a bit .

We are probably the most boring family-no pets or loud hobbies, we don't argue, don't play loud music, do drugs and keep the house tidy!

OP posts:

Illbebythesea · 08/10/2023 22:17

@NoEffingWay ahh they’re the ones you have to watch though! 👀

EverySporkIsSacred · 08/10/2023 22:33

I lived next door to the DIYer from hell on one side who was so slow doing his house up he was doing the same "renovations" 5 years in as he was when we moved in.
He used to carry on until 10.30 "working on the house" when our kids were trying to sleep, and every time we would have to knock and ask him to please stop.
He wasn't rude about it and he did stop, but if would have been nice just to be able to put the kids to bed and then be able to sleep.
The house on the other side were end terrace and a succession of them thought it was us that was doing the DIY.
We had some that played music every weekend into the small hours which was, we found out later, to punish us. We ended up pointing out that it wasn't us when we got a very angry letter through the door telling us to "stop your banging because I've got a baby". Never mind that we had two little DC who would obviously not sleep through it. Idiots.
I still have pains in my chest hearing music blasting from a house, even if it's not my neighbours!

SheerLucks · 08/10/2023 22:35

Not immediately helpful, but PICK YOUR VILLAGE CAREFULLY!!

Last year I had an appointment in Rye, a beautiful coastal village in East Sussex. We live in Brighton, so I took the inland route which took me through a lot of villages.

It was a real eye opener. Some were very beautiful but some, literally next door, seemed absolutely feral with some very strange people wandering around.

We go to the countryside a lot and I'm now very alert to it. You drive through one idyllic village, and then the next one is like something from Deliverance.

The East Sussex countryside is a veritable no man's land in places (but it all costs a fortune!).

Original poster

NoEffingWay · 08/10/2023 22:39

I do sometimes feel like I'm in Hot Fuzz and someone's filming this for kicks

OP posts:

arcadiamadia · 08/10/2023 22:42

New builds get a bad rap on MN but I'm in a new build terrace in central London, mix of private and social housing. Have never heard a pin drop from any of the neighbours. Actually never hear anything from anywhere - we ar in low tragic neighbourhood. I wonder if it's new building materials or regs? Anyone know?

Original poster

NoEffingWay · 08/10/2023 22:46

Victorian terrace walls are made of bedsheets and plaster of paris

OP posts:

honkersbonkers38 · 08/10/2023 22:46

Sorry - but "low tragic" just made me laugh

SheerLucks · 08/10/2023 22:50

NoEffingWay · 08/10/2023 22:39

I do sometimes feel like I'm in Hot Fuzz and someone's filming this for kicks

Oh gosh yes!! I forgot the name of that brilliant film but that's totally how I felt about some of those places (albeit in a rather more down-market way!).

arcadiamadia · 08/10/2023 22:52

Hahah! Low tragic is amazing - love auto correct sometimes

ReeseWitherfork · 08/10/2023 22:53

we don't argue, don't play loud music, do drugs and keep the house tidy!
Which drugs are you doing?!

I shout at my kids pretty constantly some day… don’t we all?! 😅

Medusaismyhero · 08/10/2023 22:53

I used to live in a 1940s end terrace. I loved it. Best neighbours ever. They'd all lived there forever.

The only noise I ever heard was when next door DH came home just after last orders on a Friday night. In summer, I'd hear him coming down the street and the snick of his gate and door, then him climbing the stairs to bed. Their stairs ran along the back wall of my bedroom. I found it oddly comforting as a (then) single parent living alone with my DC.

Original poster

NoEffingWay · 08/10/2023 22:59

@ReeseWitherfork maybe the odd paracetamol?!

DS is the most chilled child on the planet, he unnervingly just gets on with it. I suspect he can't be bothered to moan and would rather just be left in peace

OP posts:

Lanneederniere · 08/10/2023 23:00

Despite our house being detached, it is only two metres from the next door neighbours, utter arrogant morons who are determined to impinge on us in every way possible i.e. their idiot parents park across our drive, they keep their sh*t-filled bins right next to our house, leave their bins right behind our cars on bin day, their back garden is a rancid tip full of unused toy detritus and their plastic grass reeks. The thought of being attached to them would definitely drive me over the edge. Interestingly, this is a small, rural village too.

PyongyangKipperbang · 08/10/2023 23:10

There was a bit of a "parking/wheelie bin" off in our road a couple of years ago. We all thought that someone was "bagsying" their space with their wheelie bin. But their NDN spotted that as they never bought their bin in properly, and live on a walking to school route, someone would always shove it into the road. It wasnt them doing it, but it worked out well for them! They would come home, put the bing back on the v narrow pavement and park. So we started putting the bin on their path. They couldnt park so easily and still put their bin the pavement. So we started putting in front of their front door (we did actually make a rota!!! ) Eventually the got the hint and brought their bin in but started parking like a dick on purpose....taking 2 spaces instead of one for example. They moved not long after.

Isnt it funny how little things drive neighbours up the wall?!

Escapefromhell · 08/10/2023 23:10

I live in a mid terrace house. The neighbours each side must heat their houses to ‘tropical’ temperatures. I didn’t turn the heating on at all last winter and the temperature in my house never dropped below 17 C.

PyongyangKipperbang · 08/10/2023 23:12

Escapefromhell · 08/10/2023 23:10

Oh I wish mine did! One of my "pro's" for buying a terrace was lower heating bills....think they are housing polar bear or something!

Doratheexplore · 08/10/2023 23:13

I lived in a terraced for years and used to hear the 80 old lady next door get sloshed and have loud sex with her boyfriend. He also used to talk dirty loudly to her when they were in the garden having a drink and was very suggestive. One day I went into the garden to find them hammered, sitting in plastic chairs and she had her top round her waist and her bra on full show (I imagine for sunbathing purposes). He just disappeared eventually. No idea if he died or if they broke up.

Spendysis · 08/10/2023 23:19

I thought you were talking about my road for a minute op but we are semi detached we have next door who screams at her kids every morning her fella has loud out bursts they go out and leave the dogs out barking pretends she’s perfect to everyone but hammers my door down saying my dog has barked all night disturbing her when he’s flat out on my bed no my dog isn’t perfect but nobody in our house has heard him the times she’s complained She blasts out music in her bedroom in the afternoon knowing my dh works permanent nights we have never complained

we have car man opposite the only rented house on the street although he is now swatting as been given notice as they want to sell and he’s waiting for the courts to evict him who has a valeting business from home not sure if that’s allowed has 2 big dogs who bark but he’s better than the previous tenant the gardener who got raided for growing weed in the loft

the local drug dealer family nice enough round the corner have split up so sold and moved

not what you expect in a small village in Cheshire

anon0007 · 08/10/2023 23:32

Sounds like you live in my old street op

Startingagainandagain · 08/10/2023 23:44

One of the positive things about my crumbling 1930 terraced money pit is that the neighbours on either side are quiet, friendly older women living on their own. The whole street in fact, and the town in general, is quiet and safe.

I have to try to remember that next time I have to open wallet to fix yet another issue with that house.

In fact I am the one making all the noise because of all the maintenance work I have been doing in the past few weeks...

Flip

1 2 3

Swipe left for the next trending thread