I’ve had my share of bad neighbours. In my previous life, my house had three panhandle lots behind it and two out of the three neighbours were assholes. One set never spoke to us, even when we said hi to them directly, and it was apparent that they hated our dogs. The other set started off okay but then they parked a beater of a car at the end of our driveway and left it there for months. When we politely complained, they blew a gasket and it got progressively worse after that.
When Greg and I first moved in together we didn’t have any issues with our neighbours, which was fine, but we didn’t really know anyone either, so we kind of lived in our own little space.
The first day we looked at this house, the neighbours on one side were outside doing yardwork, and as we pulled away after our viewing, they waved to us. Then the night we moved in, they came over with a tin of homemade cookies and an invitation to their Christmas Open House. They are a “blended” family. He has three boys, all in their late teens/early 20’s, and she has one daughter who is 12. The boys haven’t been around much, but the rest of them are outgoing (without being in your face) and have been very friendly to all of us, kids and dogs included.
It seems to be the best kind of relationship you can have with your neighbours. They watch our house when we’re away and vice versa. We have friendly conversations when we’re all outside together. We’ve talked about getting together for a bottle of wine, and that will happen at some point. But we never feel (and I hope they feel the same way) that they are infringing on our personal space.
It makes living here all the more pleasurable.