What a jerk! Let it roll off you back. Let us know what happens if you do decide to show the R’s the letter.
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My next-door neighbour is also having work done today. From the day she moved here (maybe 5 years ago) she’s never informed us in advance about any work she was planning to do or have done, when she moved in she had all sorts of contractors over for weeks before she even came to introduce herself. We’ve always kept her informed about everything we planned, and she’s been difficult about so many little things, while at the same time describing us as her favourite neighbours to others. I just really, really hope she’s not the one who filed the formal complaint, but I wouldn’t put it past her either. We live in terraced homes so we all hear each other, it’s give and take, but it’s considered good manners to inform neighbours ahead of time.
I think we’re good on the formal complaint btw, because the inspector said that if anything were to come of this we’d hear it within X days and that time has passed.
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Definitely report any such notes to the HOA. Don’t try to blame anyone without proof, but make sure there is a record of every such interaction. Then stay calm and go about your business. Don’t try to match other neighbors level of yard care, just do what you can. It’s likely one person and I wouldn’t be surprised if the HOA knows who it is. There is always one busybody policing all the others.
Rise above, be courteous to all neighbors, especially those you suspect…it’s the best revenge!
And good luck on all the improvements, the neighborhood should be happy that you are rescuing a previous eye sore. Silly people.
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At least here in the South, when we see a neighbor is struggling, someone takes care of it. The churches are really great at helping people with yard work and home repairs. The younger guy next door helps trim our bushes along our mutual fence line. I keep the communal mailboxes neat and tidy.
Jim, our elderly next door neighbor, has his yard done by the neighbor woman next to him. It is such an odd coupling as he is a black veteran and she is a white person who hangs out the Confederate and Don’t tread on me flags…neighbors need to get along no matter what, I guess!
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Living somewhere where HOAs are not a thing, all this is so mind boggling. Local governments here will sometimes issue notices if a yard is a fire hazard or you are keeping junk in a visible area (eg 6 broken down washing machine on the front lawn), but no one can make you do gardening or paint your house.
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Looking good!!!
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The last week has been a relative flurry of activity with the new, dual fuel range project! The plumber was here last Thursday to get the propane piping done, our neighbor with the big machines dug the trench for the propane over the weekend, and the range and all the downdraft parts were delivered yesterday!
Here’s the whole family out admiring the range which was unboxed by the delivery people and put into our mudroom right outside the kitchen. TheMisterT is very excited to get cookin’ and had to share pics and such with his food nerd friends. Delia had to remind us that it was past fetch time. And here is the back door where we exit for fetch. Ahem.
Propane is scheduled for installation today! Then we call our neighbor back to fill the trench. The appliance installation contractor is scheduled for Monday afternoon. 
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Exciting day for all (except Delia!)!
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Delia LOVES packages - shipping and gift - so I realized too late that she was denied that part that she would have loved. Doubly, now that I think about it - she loves people, especially menfolk, AND packages, so getting to at least check out the delivery folks un-boxing would’ve been a treat for her.
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So exciting! Delia looks so adorably sullen.
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Haha! Sullen is exactly it! Poor, poor puppoh.
This is happening! EEP!
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Welp, we have a setback. There are some leaks in the plumbing for the propane in the house. We knew it was a possibility and the propane guy was able to isolate where they were (the plumber was not), so hopefully the plumber can come fix it before Monday afternoon when our appliance installer is scheduled to come. We did get the go-ahead to backfill the trench, though! And it seems likely that the propane guy can come back to retest at short notice. It’s always something!
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Annnnnd we may be on track again! Plumber coming at 10:00 to fix leaks. Trench should be getting refilled starting 8:30 or 9:00.
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Today I have to figure out if I can replace the lid lock on my washing machine. Oh Joy!
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We had the funniest experience at the furniture store! We went there on Saturday, picked out a sofa we liked, and asked for a quote, which we got. The salesman was friendly, even if he was dressed up much more than we were in a name-brand polo and an expensive watch.
Mr. Imma was in a bandshirt and denim shorts. He picked a pretty “normal” looking band shirt and the shorts were almost new. For him, that’s a fairly neat Saturday outift already, he prefers to spend his weekends in paint-stained, cut-off jeans, but he wouldn’t walk into a store dressed like that. I wore the type of short-sleeved button-down dress that’s appropriate for almost all summer occasions, and low heels. So we felt “dressed up” but in reality, compared to a lot of people, we were probably dressed casually.
The salesperson recognized our address and knew we were in a working-class neighbourhood, he grew up there so we talked about it for a bit. He had fond memories of his time there and talked about which shops are still there and which ones have gone. He asked why we wanted a quote and didn’t want to purchase immediately, we just said we needed a bit of time to decide. You’d think that’s not out of the ordinary.
Well, today is Monday, we had some extra questions, so I e-mailed customer service, and it turned out our salesperson had already deleted our quote from the system 
His super friendly coworker called us immediately, made a new quote in her name, answered all our questions and is going to call us back later this week after she “talks to the boss” to see if they can do something about the price. In all likelihood this lady is going to score a good sale this week! And I hope she’s going to rub it in when she sees him again.
This is why we don’t make assumptions about customers based on appearances. It’s not even such a fancy store or such an expensive sofa, and even if it was, you can’t assume anything about someone’s financial situation until you’re at the till and they’re making a payment (or fail to).
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Ugh…that was very presumptuous of him…I hope you got a good deal and that the salesperson who helped you will get a nice commission!
I purposely do not carry or wear designer stuff when I am shopping to see how I am treated. You would think by now that most people would not assume anything by appearance, but it still happens.
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Ugh I hate sales people. My favorite is whenever I go to a jewelry store, I can never get anyone to help me (I usually have to stand there for like 10 minutes before anyone will even walk over to me). So as soon as I do get someone, I always ask them to clean my engagement ring and when they come back (after cleaning and looking at my ring) they are always magically in a much more helpful mood and then I leave because I don’t want to give them any business at that point. Lol
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lol–yep, definitely treated differently if I wear my everyday Timex watch…
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When I was in college, I worked part time at a fancy department store called Neiman-Marcus in Dallas, Texas. This was in the late 80’s. As part of our orientation and customer service training, we had to read Minding the Store written by one of the former owners. Along with the history of the store and funny anecdotes, there was also discussion about not judging customers by their outward appearance. Most of my plainly dressed clients were the ones who spent the most money and were regulars. After I quit working there, I went back as a customer once and was ignored by the salesperson. I thought, “I guess they don’t make them read the book anymore”.
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