Fire Marshall - Part 2

We've only been here 4 months. We moved in just as the snow was starting to melt. I agree, this is far from finished. Since we didn't see the yard last year, we are going by our nice neighbors description. He told us that the yard was just as bad the last two years and that is why the weeds are everywhere now. According to him and the two landscaper bids, apparently the weeds have been there a long time and they are almost impossible to remove in one summer. Hence, there are root systems everywhere.

These weeds grow in the space of a week to about 2 feet tall. Their roots are really into the soil. I can't pull out most of them. At first, it was little blips here and there. We removed what we could, but by then they were huge in other places. Even when I cleared that small portion of my yard, yes the grass died. It took a lot of work, but at least the kids have a very small area to play in.

Only 1 neighbor introduced themself to us, and they happen to be ex-military - they live on the left. We've had troubles since we moved in. During the "winter" (was about March when we moved in), we introduced ourselves to 4 of our neighbors. Three were fake nice, one was real. We talk to the one neighbor almost everyday. He also prewarned us that these people spend most of their time gossiping and talking trash about us, pretty much since we moved in.

The neighbors on the right are complete trash. They seem friendly enough, but they don't watch their kids (it seems to be a common attribute in this neighborhood). Their kids are constantly in our yard, even with the state of the weeds. I've been trying to get their kids to stop climbing over the side of our pool since we moved in. Talked to them about 6 times about watching their kids (we've been nice about it), and nothing has changed. We didn't buy a fence because we can't afford it till next year. We didn't even know they had kids until last month, when the monsters kept coming over into our yard. I've been turned into a glorified babysitter by them. I wouldn't mind watching their kids if I actually had prewarning and they were actually NICE to us.

So far we've had one BBQ and invited almost the entire neighborhood to come (first week of April). Everyone said they would come, so we bought all this stuff and then no one showed. I'm not surprised. About a week later we were mowing the yard (very little weeds then), they were gathered like roaches. My husband was mowing in his fatigues and he heard someone call him a terrorist. We stopped trying to get to know them then.

We had one person introduce themself to us without us actually going to their house. She was about 50 years old, pure LDS, and really rude. She walked right into my backyard, and kept making comments about our stuff in the garage (she had walked thru the garage) like /sarcasm /stinkface "You seem to have nice stuff." My husband - who is generally the nicer of the two of us - told her we wouldn't be attending church and eventually to get off our property. The only reason she had stopped by was to recruit us to church, we're both LDS but can't even think of attending church. But her overall attitude towards us, was n-o-t friendly. It was borderline hateful.

Last night our power went out, and I called the electricity company because our nice neighbor's was out too. A fuse had blown at the end of the block, but since they were parked outside of my house (checked my box just in case) - the roaches were gathered again making comments. One of them actually got up the nerve to approach me and the city worker. Basically said, "So they ARE to cause for this". Poor guy. He said no, and the woman walked away back to her friends to gossip more. They left when the city worker left. No one even bothered to say hi, or ask what was REALLY going on. They just kept pointing at us and blaming us. It's not hard to hear them when they are gathered less then 5 feet away from me.

Last night, I made the decision to stop caring about these people. We used to live on a military base about 10 years ago, and it seems to be about the same demeanor here. We've seen them gossip and point at us. We've tried being nice, and even used to walk the kids around the block just to say hi to people. (They called the city twice to fine us for the front yard being out of sorts) But, it seems like no matter what we do, it will never get better with them. Let's not even forget the fact that I keep seeing the PARENTS throw trash into our yard. I'm constantly picking up after them, while we attempt to clear. They have little respect for us, and haven't since we moved in.

I don't consider being part of the neighborhood my job anymore. We tried quite a few times, and these people (about 9 parents), have made our life hell. We talk nicely to people still - as much as possible - even with the nasty comments. We apologize for our yard and explain how we are working on it, but it doesn't seem to matter. Our nice neighbor told us to just stop trying to get to know them (he said this last night after he heard their comments). He said he tried for about 20 years and some of them still talk crap about him, even though his brother lives across the street from him.

I can honestly say the inside of the house was a walk in the park compared to outside. Few moldings weren't finished painting, a toilet kept running, toilet seat was broken, needed a new dishwasher since the old one was broken...small things. Our AC unit died last week, we had it replaced, apparently the filter hadn't of been changed in at least a year (had no idea) and it caused dust to collect in the vents and kill the unit. When the snow finally melted and we could actually SEE what they did to the ground, our hearts dropped. Any grass that we DO have, we planted. That includes the front yard. The gravel and mulch take up almost the entire backyard (there was some in the front too). There is even an unfinished brick path on one side of the house. The front of the house has grass now, but it used to be all gravel. We're not really sure what their fetish is with the gravel or why they would put it out front.

There are a few people who are moving. Most of them seem to be attempting to sell their houses themselves. One of the people about 3 houses down moved away about 2 weeks ago. They were really nice to us. Told us that most of the people out here bought their houses in a perfect state, and they hired landscapers for the rest. She told me that she's not surprised the yard is that difficult to fix. It looks like a jungle. LOL She also told me that she dreaded when our house was bought, because she KNEW how much work it was going to take. She said she wasn't surprised, and that she knew the old owners pretty well. She called the previous owners retarded. LOL

The neighbors here don't care about the work we have done. They just want it instantly fixed. I talked to the nice neighbor about it a few times. The entire neighborhood knows my yard is an eyesore (it used to be a rock prison, now it's a jungle), and a lot of people are unhappy with US because of it. They seem to think that we can instantly fix this or we should just fork up the cash to get someone to do it. I've had "surprise" notes left on my front door a few times. Most of them are about hiring someone. The latest one call us lazy and left a lanscaper's number. We had already called them, and they refused to work on the yard at all.

Ugh, this is a mess. Fireball hit the nail on the head. I've been working on smaller sections at a time, but slowly removing the taller weeds before they germinate/sprout seeds. We managed two areas that look somewhat decent now. The front middle of the yard, and the back middle of the yard (near the house). Both about the same length/width, and both have very little grass that is left alive. Any grass that is there, is because of us and not the previous owners. I'm honestly surprised these people are blaming us and expecting us to fix it so fast. I figured with the comments from the people that we do talk to, that these neighbors would be more understanding about it. Apparently, I was wrong.

What is a rototiller? I've never used nor seen one before. We bought this house because we thought there would be little work, and it seems that is NOT the case when you buy a house. We have enough rocks to build a huge wall, but we're so sick of the rocks (took about 3 months to gather them all) that we wouldn't prefer never to see rocks again. Any other ideas for them besides making a rock wall?

So far right now, I'm calling landscapers again and seeing if I can get a newer bid. It was $30,000 before we pushed up our sleeves and got dirty. Now, I'm wondering if it will be much lower. We can only afford to spend $2,000. We used up almost all of our savings fixing the AC unit.