Advice on living peacefully and being able to enjoy garden

[Anon55533]

Neighbours could be worse I suppose but I do dream (recently all I can think about) about one day having a new home where I can sit outside and read and have no football being kicked into our fence with constant thud thud and loud cheering and not fearing One of us will be kicked in the head with that bloody football coming over the fence at any time, not having to hear every conversation.

I’m sick of then constantly having work done which they then need access to our property, i really don’t care what work they get done but it feels I’m always a part of it! I really could go on.....

We can’t afford to live in a beautiful mansion in middle of no where so I can stop fantasising about that but seriously is this what new house will be like too? How do the rest of you manage to not let NDN annoy you? Please ignore my rantings, I know there are major problems in the world right now but looking for some useful advice on how to choose the next house a little more wisely and how to be able to live peacefully in this house right now, as doesn’t look like we can move anytime soon with job uncertainties.

I think it's worth getting up early to have a bit of peace in the garden. I find it makes it easier to accept neighbours' noisiness later on in the day.

Yeah I understand too, there's a house near us full of noisy horrible kids. So irritating and inconsiderate of the parents to allow that noise all day.

One day those kids will be older and in their rooms on screens all day.

Have you spoken to the neighbours and asked for them to stop kicking the ball against your fence? Maybe they don’t realise there’s a problem,

You can move in an area where you have mainly retired people. We are surrounded by them so no noise and some peace and quiet.

Downside is that we moved with young children and I’ve just spent 10 years not enjoying my garden for fear of disturbing the neigbourghs with our children playing in their own garden...

I hear you OP. Our neighbours are perfectly nice people but the son (early 20s) has an incredibly loud voice which makes it feel like he's in the garden with us. We literally know his whole life story.

To make things worse, they're replacing the fences at the moment and took down the old ones a few weeks ago leaving just our thin hedge between gardens which does nothing to muffle the sound.

Move to a bungalow, you'll be surrounded by over 55s.

I’m on rightmove all the time. I want a garden where all I can hear are the birds it’s like an echo chamber on my estate .

Just wait till your little darlings are older, bigger, louder, less compliant, more autonomous.
It doesn’t matter how many times I tell my younger two not to shout or shriek in the garden, they still do it. You might think you’ve got how-to-conduct-yourself-in-the-garden sewn up now. Your kids are wee and cute. They won’t always be.

Wherever you choose to live though ,you cannot escape all noise .Even if you buy a house with a fairly large garden "away from it all" There is often some kind of "work" going on .Think Building extensions ,HS2 and so on .I think PP idea of buying a foam ball is a good one .Hopefully this
Lockdown will be softened a little tomorrow ,and bit by bit should make it easier for you if the children are allowed to the park .Surely if NDN is pregnant again she would want some P and Q as well?!

You can't really help it. When we moved in our neighbours seemed nice but were really nasty people then they sold the house to people who were a chip off the block and probably met them too as they were like that and the house went to bids. They've had constant building work and are now having parties and all their family over all the time during lockdown. I hate them. Our neighbours on the other side are lovely though. I don't think I could really live without neighbours but I wish ours would move!

We're exactly the same. We live on a very nice street, mostly retired people, next to the woods, lovely birds singing and sometime wild animals, but we had two families moving one each side of us, both with too many children for the size of the houses, and it's an absolute nightmare. Street up, quiet, street down quiet and we are the lucky ones stuck between 7 kids under the age of 10! We hate it. They scream, shout, play loud games, with annoying toys and yes there's nothing we can do because we're the unreasonable ones.

We desperately want to move but where can we go to ensure we avoid the racket? It was so peaceful before these two families moved. One house had two children too, but they were raised to keep noise down and brought in when becoming boisterous, so we're no trouble. These families put their kids outside and close the door so they get some peace and quiet. Selfish people who can't cope with number of children they chose to have.

The same can happen anywhere sadly.

You can move in an area where you have mainly retired people.

Move to a bungalow, you'll be surrounded by over 55s.

That hasn't worked for us. They are up early doing (or often having done) home improvements, DIY etc.
Two of the elderly folk further along have chosen the last couple of weeks to have entire new driveways done, with attendant pneumatic
drilling from 8am and streams of big tipper lorries and diggers etc.

There is always some fucker with a chainsaw going too (or a petrol trimmer/hedgcutter - the kind that sound like an angry wasp).

It's the music. People seem unable to sit outside without it. So we have to listen to one playing chilled Ibiza sunset/ next neighbour likes Queen and another likes the radio. I could scream shutup to them all

Outdoor music is a particular hate of mine. Do they think their choice is do good that they're treating people to it? Or they don't realise it's loud enough for other people to hear? Or they don't care?

Yesterday, when out walking in the middle of nowhere, two cyclists passed me. They were together, but had really loud dance music pumping from a speaker, too loud to speak over. It didn't bother me, because it was gone as soon as they passed. But later on I came across them again at a little picnic spot. Since the lockdown it's mainly been very elderly people there, sitting on a picnic bench reading or with a flask. I suppose they shouldn't, but they're 2m apart. But there were the cyclists, shouting to each other over the blaring music, dismayed looking picnickers packing up and leaving. Just, why?

Why do you have to live in a Beautiful Mansion in the middle of nowhere?

Why not just a normal house in the middle of nowhere.

Since lockdown began we've had a lot more kids on the street in gardens.
Next door have moved their trampoline at my request as I felt overlooked, I also put balls over the fence at the end of the day.
Our next door neighbours are really good and will make sure the children keep the noise to a relatively decent level (I've not asked them to do this, I just think they don't like listening to screeming either?)

A bit further along is a family who have no respect for anyone else, they've positioned certain toys so the kids can climb on them and watch neighbours in the garden. The whole family communicate by screeching full volume at each other and since last week have had multiple other children visiting to join in. They kick the ball against the fence constantly too.
There's little I can do apart from tell the children to stop being rude when they start staring and turn my music on when they're screeching.

Outdoor music is a particular hate of mine. Do they think their choice is do good that they're treating people to it? Or they don't realise it's loud enough for other people to hear? Or they don't care?
I agree - and it's the last one, they don't give a fuck about anyone else.

I honestly think it's luck of the draw. We live on a big estate, our garden is not directly overlooked but we are surrounded on all sides.

We are so incredibly lucky that everyone who surrounds our house is quiet and respectful. We can be in our garden all day and the loudest thing is the birds singing.

There was an awful family who lived across the road, always shouting, swearing and playing awful music but they've moved on much to the delight of everyone.

I live in a cul de sac in Greater London- so quiet, just the odd lawn mower- helps that near on 70% of the homes are owned and occupied by pensioners. It’s great, they keep their gardens lovely, are peaceful, and always keep an eye out on what’s going on. A little community and I love it.

I feel your pain, my current neighbours have really loud teenagers, they can't do ANYTHING quietly and they smash the ball into the fence repeatedly, they've damaged property and plants, or they sit outside smoking and revving their car engines so I close my windows and stay inside. I've had enough, I've stayed polite until now but I feel like I might crack!

As others have suggested I try and get outside early or on the odd occasion they aren't around (which at the moment is never). I can't wait for them to go back to work or college or anywhere, I'm trying to be tolerant but this could go on for months

In my last place I had Sir Mega Amp Speaker and I moved from him to this. I honestly don't know if quiet neighbours exist...