I have also suffered from noisy neighbors, one who plays an electric guitar and several others who allow their dogs to bark all day while they are at work (I work from home). I fixed the electric guitar man by calling the city noise officer. He measured the sound with a sophisticated machine and told the guy he was double the legal volume. I had tried and tried to talk to him and he was always nice but never turned it down. Played at all hours and not very well, I might add. Not a kid playing Rock but a man in his mid to late 30's not even playing whole songs, lots of exercises and such and singing way off key into a microphone. When he didn't know the words he sang lah lah lah. It was ridiculous. Could hear it in my office with doors and windows closed, even my clients could hear it over the phone sometimes. Anyway, no more from him since the noise officer visited him several times. We also put new siding on our house and bought new windows. There was little insulation so that was all done too. The windows are double paned. The house needed this badly. New roof too. DH had to repair a bunch of broken rafters and all sheeting was replaced on roof and walls. The house is much, much quieter now. Wind, rain, dogs, booming bass in cars driving by, all much less bothersome. Whole house used to shake in the wind, no more. Got tax credits too. Still have barking dog problems and also have to look at ugly yards and street full of cars. IF DH would let me I would have built a masonry wall around the front yard to create a courtyard a long time ago. I grew up in the Southwest where many homes have such courtyards. You do plant on the outside of the walls and on the inside most have patios with fountains and it extends your private garden area. If done correctly it does not look like your house is a fortress. I believe a front courtyard could be adapted to almost any house/yard. You can use formal hedges or wood fencing or whatever goes with the style of your house. I hate feeling like I am in a fishbowl when I garden in front but my front yard is bigger than my back. I have no choice if I want to collect plants and I do. DH refuses to let me remove the lawn and he refuses to let me plant tall shrubs to block all the bad views. I went on a tour of private gardens recently and this man had blocked his house from view from the street using plants and a berm and it was absolutely gorgeous on both sides. You could not see neighboring houses much from his front or back yards. You might as well have been miles away from anyone else. He is about a block from a major freeway too but all I could hear was birds singing. He did have fountains front and back too. This is view from his tiny front lawn towards the street: Street side views: I know this is more plants than many want to deal with, this guy is a professional landscape designer and plant geek but thought you could see that planting out your neighbors doesn't have to look like a stockade.

I have to chuckle, because I heard that phrase for the first time only a couple months ago, so it's not old and hackneyed to me. I want to use it a few times until I get tired of it......puleeze! I like it because it's brief and succinct and implies you may as well not palaver about how or why something is, but just get over it and deal with it. "Get over it". Now, that one I'm tired of. "He owns it". I'm tired of that one as well. And for I'm really tired of an emcee saying "put your hands together for...." Not a biggie, any of them. Oh gosh, where would we be without cliches? I suppose they fill a need because they are instantly understood.

I disagree. We do not need a forum that is full of rants and complaints. What a bad vibe that would be. We've all had bad neighbor experiences. It's best to let them go and move on. Gardeners are supposed to be positive, not whiney.

Paint your house haze gray, put a bunch of large ship models in the front yard and tell your neighbor you've joined the Navy and have been assigned to a battle group. Have weekly cookouts on the front lawn and invite everyone from the local shelter. Put aluminum foil on your windows and tell your neighbor it's to keep the government spies from finding out about the chicken farm in your basement(this one is especially effective if you don't have a basement). Go out with a tape measure, pencil and pad and measure everything in sight, including your grass, circumference of your trees, distance from house to car, house to tire, house to steering wheel, top of the windshield, etc. Put foil "antennas" on all your tree banches to repel alien invasions. Go outside in the evenings with a couple cases of beer and one of those hats that holds two cans and has hoses that you can suck on to drink. Sing a lot of bar songs. Go up on the roof occasionally and pretend to be an airplane. Write "wash me" in the dust on your own car. Water your garden in an evening gown and tiara. Wear lots of makeup and rat your hair. Paint your hands and feet green. Erect a duck blind in your back yard and camp out there frequently, quacking often to attract prey. Your neighbors will either move away or you'll be so busy acting crazy you won't care anymore what he does. And that's the answer-don't worry about what your nieghbor does! I doubt he's trying to annoy you. There are lot's worse things in life than a spotty car. Cheryl