This is my new view of my neighbor's house! I took this from inside (no flash) so they wouldn't see me. lol Hmmm...what would you think?? I guess it could be worse. At least it does sort of highlight my flowers. I've kind of considered my garden colors as "whimsical" anyways. This could be the time to paint the lattice/trellis that goes on top of my fence purple. (both sides) lol
Wow! You are describing the paint, right?
Ewwww, well, at least it contrasts nicely with your mw and other orangy flowers.
I'll be right back...I have a craving for orange juice..... ha
Paige, I can't believe that the Home Owners Association where you live will allow that!! LOL!! Your neighborhood is so new and most are brick, is it just the backyard side that is painted? The paint doesn't look that bad since you have the georgeous flowers to compliment it on your side. But just think what the neighbors on each side of them are thinking!! Look on the bright side, you will have a very colorful winter this year! I do like purple!!
Paige, that is just a little too bright, I wonder what they were thinking.
Maybe the color turned out brighter than it appeared on the sample?
Oh yes, it's the paint color that's new. It was cream. I came home and pulled my blinds all the way open and was a little shocked!
Sheila, this is one of the drawbacks of not having a HOA. lol I don't think a HOA would like me and my yard much either, since it's not very "formal". Only the backs, and a little on the sides, of our "cookie-cutter" houses have siding. I can't imagine them continuing this color around to the brick because it's a red tone! yuck!!
They are very nice people (and have veggie beds) but I just wonder if they ever considered that WE have to look at that color all day!? And since that side faces SW, I'm afraid we're going to have to wear sunglasses indoors from the reflection!
...I don't know Josephine! I'm afraid that they like it since they didn't stop when they opened the paint can!
This message was edited Nov 15, 2007 10:53 PM
I thought almost all subdivisions had HOA's now. Guess you will need to pull out the purple then! That with red tone brick!! Yuck! But if it faces SW, hopefully it's a cheap paint and will fade! LOL!
They must have forgot to do the chimney! You should recommend a blue color for the trim. Then you could just imagine that you are in Cancun or Jamaica. You'll need some palm trees.
I was wondering about the chimney, too.
Some high lattice on the fence with climbing flowers would hide the yellow - at least until they realize they forgot the chimney. I wouldn't tell them - just see how long it takes.
On the plus side, yellow is a HAPPY color.
you say they have a veggie garden? maybe they are trying to trick it into thinking that the sun ALWAYS shines!!!!
My house is yellow, but not THAT yellow, LOL
Well at least it's a bright and cheerful color! :-) And it does contrast beautifully with your flowers.
Carla
It is definitely bright and could be worse but when I look at it I feel like it's sort of like a cartoon. It's just soooo unnatural. I sure hope Sheila is right and it will fade! I saw the chimney but figure they'll leave it, and I'm not telling them. ...does this lower my house value?
This message was edited Nov 16, 2007 4:37 PM
Show your house to potential buyers at night - LOL.
ROFL! I'm not planning on moving any time soon so maybe they'll get tired of it before then, or maybe they'll move and their realtor will tell them to paint it! Don't people watch DIY and HGTV??
The ones that need to watch don't!! LOL! I doubt that they will do the chimmey unless they plan on painting the brick also. I had red brick and wood in the back of mine and had siding put up, and then the brick painted to match....but hello!!!....not mustard yellow!! I opted for a taupe color that wouldn't upset my neighbors! LOL!
A very long time ago when my house sat out in the area almost all by itself, I went to the Kelly-Moore paint store. I was all of 25 and a new home owner. My brick is three-toned tan. Looked really dull to me. The house sat in the middle of what had been a hay field with no shrubbery of trees at all. As I carried one baby one my hip and held onto the other, I was terribly excited about painting my house. There were always paint contractors hanging around hoping to work that day. Well put two guys together with a ditzy blonde and cans of yellow paint.
You got it. For the next three years you could see my house for two miles away.
I look back and laugh now. At the same time I painted everything inside yellow and made curtains yellow, all to go with the brandnew avacado green, shag carpet. Now let me tell you, we were uptown. Strangely, I also had a huge vegetable garden in the back yard of which I was so proud. Before I had never grown a seed of anything in my entire life. My husband said at the time, if he had stood still long enough, I would have painted him yellow. If yellow is a happy color, I was more than happy. Truly understand your distress. We now have neighbors from Puerto Rico 4-5 doors down. They have painted their brick in random colors of red, green and white. Not all of it just here and there. At first I was horrified. After I met them they have lived in Miami for awhile and color is traditional there. The yard is spotless. They work all the time. The color of the random bricks no longer matters. Their hearts are clean and pure and they are thrilled to be here. I am fortunate to have them for my neighbors. BTW, we are in the same house and the trim is carefully matched to one of the tans in the 3-toned bricks. I have learned a lot about inside and out. Paint is only temporary.
Well, I sort of like it myself, but I think it would look better it they trimmed it in blue.
We do live and learn....to watch HGTV!! LOL!! I love your story, it was in the early 70's in a new Houston subdivision that my first son's dad and I purchased a new track home. We got to make choices that I am sure the next homeowner didn't appreciate! We had the orange and gold shag carpet, harvest gold appliances, and a touch of orange flocked wall paper in the formal dining room. I seem to remember some avacado green in the bedroom drapes and carpet! The outside was multi-color Spanish brick and the total of my plantings back then was a Sago Palm or two with the white rock! LOL!! But I wasn't alone, my friend and neighbor had the black & red shag in their house!
I can't say I like or dislike the house paint but must say the world would be a dull place if we all liked the same ~ colors, plants, pets, cars, people... This is what makes life interesting. Those people may be very proud of their color choice on their home.
I dearly loved LouCs' story, my SIL had the same with an older Hispanic couple but their yard is immaculate and they repaint the white tire planters annually. Far better upkeep than some of the other neighborhood.
That is the price we pay when we have nearby neighbors.
Oh, I do appreciate that they are good neighbors, which is why I'm not saying anything to them. I do think that it's just common courtesy tho (or at least should be) to consider what everyone else has to look at. If that color yellow was a color that everyone could appreciate then it would be seen on more houses. Unfortunately tho, it's the color of that occassional truck or Corvette you see.
I can't actually say that I hate it, I'm just not sure what I think about it. It's a good thing I like color and it matches my garden! It takes away from my flowers tho because all you can see is that house. I might eventually grow to even love it and play off of it. Once I do that tho they'll probably tire of it and paint over it! lol
The price of having close neighbors and no HOA is my wonderfully sweet neighbor, that has served our country in Iraq, but fears getting rid of anything he could possibly need in the future so he has a broken down small truck parked in front of his house just waiting for his 7 year old son to drive it.
Those are the kind of things that code enforcement addresses. Takes the burden off of the homeowner being the bad guy. That is definitely a downer for the entire neighborhood. 40 years ago when I was in pre-school PTA we had a policeman address our group. He said the first sign of a neighborhood decay is a non-operating auto. That hasn't changed. I understand your love of your neighbor and his sacrifice. This truck is of far more problem than the yellow paint. Will say, when I chose the paint for my house, the painters and the salesman kept saying "Don't worry, you know it dries out two shades darker". Ha!
He said the first sign of a neighborhood decay is a non-operating auto. That hasn't changed.
My first thought was "we all live in a yellow submarine", with the chimney as periscope; but, the more I look, the better it appears. This color would look great on the beach (I think). There are neighborhoods in Austin where this seems to be a popular hue. My roommate at UT painted houses one summer (early 90s), and yellow was a common request.
I think I would like to have this view out my back yard, it's not that bad.
Someone did that to a house on the golf course in Quail Valley - Yellow with Black trim. Really looks out of place, especially since the house was solid brick.
I've often wondered why someone would create a perpetual maintenance project (painting every few years), when there was so little maintenance required on brick.
I spray off the mold every year or so, but nothing more.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right Bubba?
I've got enough "on my plate do do" without intentionally adding more.
Actually I like yellow as a color, and I really like a neighboorhood with a mix of colors and textures. And LOUD colors are excellent for businesses to announce their presence. Just like flowers, lol.
+Seems to me that brightly colored flowers and brightly colored houses go together!!! Why go to all the trouble of creating a beautifully, brightly multicoloted garden and then drag it down with an old drab colored house?!?!!
LOL I'd paint the back of my house the same color and share it with them! They only get to see it when they are in their back yard and looking back at their own home. Not often enough. At least it is not bright pink, purple, or lime green.
The problem is that the brightly colored flowers are mine and the house is not. They can't see my flowers OR the back of their house! They can see the back of my house tho, which is not that colorful but it's not an eyesore.
I have thought that I should paint mine some color that they could see but I am out in my backyard all the time and don't want to annoy myself. lol
About 2 years ago the neighbor beside them built a deck around his above ground pool. The problem was that he perched himself in his lawn chair on it and could see into my backyard. The city said he could have his deck as high as he liked but I could only have my fence 8 ft tall. It's 6 feet so I made a trellis out of lattice and attached it making it 8 ft and blocking most of his view. The problem tho is that the north wind comes directly toward that fence (even knocked it down last year) so I already had to cut some of my passionvine off and take it down. I'm going to just fix up the lattice and put it up along the back fence now. Next spring I'll have to make another piece to block the Peeping Tom. It won't totally block the view but it will hide some of it.
ps...oh yes Patrob, I agree that it could be much worse! I'm still in shock but hopefully I'll stop noticing it.
This message was edited Nov 19, 2007 9:25 PM
lol konkrete, you have a great attitude!
woah I hate when a neighbor has a clear view of your yard.
you could put some thuja green giants in!
A dense, tall row of shrubs sounds like it might do the trick!
Paige, there is something I have been meaning to try that may be an answer to your fence extension need / problem.
I saw a while back, where someone made three sided obiesk (sp) for Clematis, and etc. A group of three or four spaced along the "peep" area of a fence would really fill in with passion vine. And you could extend them past the fence since they aren't a fence. Oh I didn't say what they were made of. They used the cattle panels, they are super strong wire. You can find them at the farm / ranch stores for about $20 each and are 16' long, I forget how wide. I haven't gotten around to looking for them yet, but plan on doing so by spring.
Finally, I found it!!! I have been searching the forums for a cattle panel thread for about an hour now. Here it is:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/684265/#top
The picture that shows the 3 sided one best is this one. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=3091545
Hi konkrete blond... Interesting post. Sorry to see this happen to you. Both good and bad episodes with neighbors are normally going to come our way at some time or the other. And believe me... nice neighbors with a taste for the unusual, are much better than rude, unfriendly neighbors. If you plan to put your trellis back up, I wouldn't be a bit concerned about extending it a little more than two feet if you already have approval from the City for an 8 foot fence. A permit is usually required for fences taller than 6 feet, and a special exemption for fences taller than 8 ft. If your neighbors are friendly, it's not likely the City would ever know, or really care, since your place looks so nice and clean. If you're having trouble with the wind taking your fence down, add a few more posts, metal posts would be ideal, and cement them in about 30 to 36 inches deep. A little more effort, but well worth it.
The thing that would really drive me nuts is the guy with the "observation deck" looking into your yard. Privacy fences make good neighbors, and allow us to enjoy our space in a bit of seclusion. I find it quite odd that the City of Burleson would allow a deck of "any height". So, why not design a tasteful looking deck just big enough to serve some useful purpose. That "useful purpose" could be just to block out the birdwatcher next door. Of course this guys deck height was determined by his pool, so he may be a super nice guy caught up in a bad situation. If you know him well enough to approach him, he may be willing to help with a solution. Otherwise, I'm building a deck, that is, unless the City has minimum size deck requirements, which could get a bit costly. I'm thinking about a 4 ft. wide deck by whatever length or shape needed. Build it tall enough so that when you add the railing to the back of the deck, along with a solid section of tightly spaced lattice panels, you regain your privacy. The City probably requires a 5 ft. setback from the property line for building the deck. You need to be sure before you start, if you decide to do this. You could grow your vines up the posts and along the railings. Use hanging baskets from the bottom of the deck, or just line it with some nice potted plants, garden figurines or what ever. Space the deck boards safely, but wide enough to allow flitered light in so that you can grow some shade tolerant plants under the deck. Lord knows how our summers can burn almost any plant in full sun. Or, come up with some other creative uses for the space beneath the deck. If you have small children, or grandchildren, it would be a perfect place for a sandbox and play area.
Back to the yellow paint... We have a house about a half mile from us, and it's been that same color for quite a while. So the hopes of them deciding they made a mistake may be fruitless. The neighbor directly across ths street at the home we owned before moving here painted all of his trim bright purple. The rest of the house was red brick. It looked a bit strange, but we got used to it, and it actually brought more humor into our lives than aggravation.
Best of Luck, Dan
Edited because I just remembered that you never know who's reading here. :)
Oh, well. If my neighbor built a deck to look into my back yard, I would put up a permanent, code-compliant wall of poplars or something. I mean, I don't like poplars. But if city codes don't otherwise protect you, they do grow a lot higher than 8 feet, and they do make good privacy walls.
This message was edited Nov 24, 2007 11:54 AM
Obviously 'it takes all kinds' because I think the color looks great with your garden! I thought the 'eyesore' was the 'ugly' chimney with the 'Dish'! As someone said the world would indeed be dull if we all had the same taste!
lol....I think I've actually gotten used to it! It certainly makes my view...different. What I've noticed now tho is that they've planted some sort of Cedar bushes next to the fence. Ugh...cedar causes such allergy problems!!! (I'm hoping their dogs take care of those tho)
As for the deck, it would be wonderful to build something of my own but not possible right now. This year he didn't park himself up there like he did the previous year. (I guess we all bored him!) The monster Weeping Willow next door has blocked some of his view too. The panels that were knocked down last year had a wooden post that had rotted. I just assumed that my dh would be replacing it with a metal one but forgot about it until it was done so we'll tackle that in the future.
Sheila, I've been thinking about those cattle panels since Cat showed them to us! I know that I don't have any GF cats eating my vine because those horrid ants are taking all the eggs so I'm thinking I've got to get rid of them and maybe try to pull the vine off the fence some so I'll look into this.
