We have pyracantha, lady banks, green hopseed, and a yellow flowered vine who's name escapes me now. The only one that grows fast and covers a big space is hopseed. The only mess it makes is from the female plant 1/year when it blooms and drops them all over the place. The lady banks grows reallyfast and long. It s not really hard to trim it to keep the tendrils on your side. You can kind of pull them back over to your side of the fence and tuck them in sideways to spread it out, or just cut them. Very forgiving in whatever you do to it. There is a yellow and a white, it sounds like you have room to try a lot of things. Oh yes, re: roses, remember that they drop their leaves in the winter so there would be some open space for a couple of months.

sam congrats on your project - we just finished 1/2 of our basement - I did research on soundproofing - and found a host of information - I ended up applying Roxul (brand name) which is a mineral wool used for firestopping & soundproofing btwn the joists - it now comes in batts similiar to the pink stuff Next applied MLV (mass loaded vinyl) 1/8" thick HEAVY stuff and difficult to work with overhead (see pic) THEN used grid system & Acoustical tiles - Not an easy application Depends what you are isolating - ?Foot fall on wood floors above - that is probably the most difficult - I still hear foot fall We did it now for kiddies - isolate the noise - later perhaps a real home theatre layers of sheetrock - of varying thickness is another proven soundproofer - homosote (basically what these ceiling tiles are) is another - Try over on the remodeling forum - you'll find threads there and also on home theatre type acoustical forums It does get confusing & adds $$$ up - any conduit for sound must be properly treated or you will continue w/same prob. I put a wood exterior door from finish/utility side of basement w/a sweep on the bottom walls btwn the 2 sides may need to have some application as well good luck Here is a link that might be useful: audioholics

The most expensive but best insulating process is closed cell spray foam. For a large space, with ten foot ceilings it might be no more costly than board insulation. XPS is more labour intensive. For NYC, I'd use t&g 4'x8' x1" boards; if you can't find those, then use 2'x8'x1" t&g. Seal all the joints with building tape--Tuck and Tyvek and two popular brands. I've not used sealers, but a building writer whose information I've always found to be sound, swears by Drylok. (I assume this is not a rubble or brick foundation.) The advantage of steel framing is it's neater to put up (no sawdust) and there are no subsequent nail or screw pops. However, as it's sensitive to moisture, I'd have the baseplate resting on strips of XPS not only to create a thermal break but to keep it away from any minor floods that may occur. Since one inch of XPS is R 5, I always add high density fg batts, adding another R 15. No vapour barrier is necessary, though if this is a permit job, the inspector may insist on one. It wont' hurt anything. (See Building Science links in my first post.) After two years, a number of tiles cracked at pressure points on a brand new home I built. And that's with the tile on top of at least 10" of reinforced concrete and power tamped gravel. Since then, I figure it's a lot cheaper in the long run to use an uncoupling substrate such as Ditra. (If you dont', be sure to keep a lot of extra tiles just in case.) Ditra and cement add maybe 3/8" extra to the flooring height. NYC labour. My condolences!

Your experience may be correct and it woud be hard for me to disagree without knowing the exact details of what you did. If you were to compare STC or OITC ratings of manufacture of the same window , one with dissimilar glass glass package in dual pane and one with triple pane. You would see virtuallly know difference in the numbers. In most cases with a window manufacturer that produces windows for sound control you would find no triple panes offfered. The science says otherwise But if what you do works , it works. I have triple paned unitsbin my house and I know when a car drives by when I’m awake at about 200 ‘.