Faith in humanity...

Ya, so they are not living in your house with both of you at this time.

The neighbors are not asking 50 questions?
Can they hear you playing, practicing music?
I need no answers just something for you perhaps to ponder.
Do the neighbors expect something in return for what they did?
Do you need a battleaxe to do battle with any of them?
 
 

bapu
We thought that stuff only happened in Canada.

Not where I am from. You mostly only talk to the people you already know.
 
It's one of the things that struck us when we moved to the US. Here, you make eye contact with someone, you say "hi". Back home, you don't acknowledge, until you know the person.
 
We're lucky that this lady and her husband love cats just as much as we do. In fact, she used to be a vet technician. Me and my wife refer to her as Gisèle's granny. She's a very sweet lady.
 
Wish I could say as much about our other neighbour - who's Canadian too, incidentally. He must come from a place similar as us as he barely ever acknowledge us. On the other hand, he has no problem intruding in our life w/ all the noise he makes.
 
From what I gather, he earns a living building props, mainly fake pianos. Only problem is that he operates his business in his garage, so it's power tools all year round. Not constantly, but all through the day, you'll hear the bench saw. He also has a tendency to renovate his bathroom at 2 am. 
 
He also likes to help out friends and keep their dog when they're on vacation. Problem is that he leaves them in his backyard, unsupervised, barking for hours. 
 
He's an absolutely inconsiderate fellow.

bapu
Sounds like a phone call to the police is in order (at 2 AM).

We tolerate, mostly because we live at night and rarely go to bed before 4, anyway. Maybe he knows that. I doubt that his other neighbour has the same schedule though.
 
I have no problem with people operating business at home, but only as long as they don't disturb me in my house.
 
At that point, either you rent a space to accommodate your commercial activities in an appropriate location, either you can't afford it because that business isn't lucrative enough. Therefore, your one option is to find a real job.
 
That's if you happen to have any notion that the world doesn't revolve around you. Which clearly isn't the case with that guy.
 
As I always say, responsibilities don't just vanish. If you don't take them, someone else is going to have to deal with the consequences. 

Rain
Imagine the damage a Plexi could do... :P

Fire juan up and sea?

bapu

Rain
Imagine the damage a Plexi could do... :P

Fire juan up and sea?

Not sure this'd work.
 

My ex-wife is from Romania - she grew up in a Communist regime, and everybody turned everybody else in to the secret police, so there wasn't too much neighboring going on.
 
On the bright side of that, she doesn't talk to me much these days.
 
Isn't Canada a suburb of Detroit?  hee hee
 
I played basketball in a bunch of different countries, and was fortunate to experience a bunch of different cultures.  In some places, when folks ask how you are doing, it's because they really want to know, and if you ask them in passing how THEY are doing, you will get picture of the grand kids and an invitation to grab a switch and take a steam.  Other places, they seem to get annoyed and sometimes frightened when you approach them and talk or make eye contact.
 
It's a big planet.
 
Bob Bone
 

Rain
As for Quebec, where we supposedly are the warmest folks, you usually do your best not to be forced into acknowledging a stranger. 

That's the French component making itself known. 
 
I've met quite a few Canadians that come down from that "other" Vancouver (I'm now back to living in the Washington state one) and they have pretty much all been very easy going and engaging.  I've had some stay at my house when they came for a tournament (and I still had a house  ) and my roommate is currently dating a lass from there now.  I guess the west coast of the Great White North is less stand-offish.

jbow
Isn't Canada a suburb of Detroit?  hee hee
 
When I was someone else, in 1971, we went to Ontario. Through downtown Detroit, under the lake and out into Windsor, Ontario.. it was like going from a dump into a garden. Everything in Detroit was literally brown or gray. We came out into Windsor and there were really wide sidewalks with trees planted in little places, flowers, it was beautiful. Detroit literally had trash on the sidewalks. I have never seen such a difference in such a short span time or space. 

I still sort-of remember seeing the Niagara Falls from both sides of the border back in the 60's (in fact, the last time I was anywhere east of Colorado inside the U.S. was in 1969).
 
But I also had a very similar contrast in cities in 1981 when I went from Rothenburg West Germany into East Germany (at Checkpoint Charlie).  Talk about going from paradise into the bleakest city I've ever seen!