His Overly Friendly Neighbor Won’t Give Him Space—Now He’s Thinking About Moving

Matthew Gilligan

14 minutes ago

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It’s important to be a good neighbor…but too much of a good thing can be a real pain in the neck.

And if you’ve ever had to deal with a neighbor who wouldn’t stay out of your business, you know how frustrating it can be.

Any routine trip outside your house turns into a long conversation that you’d rather avoid.

In today’s story, a man talked about why his neighbor, while friendly, is getting a little too close for comfort.

Take a look at what he had to say about this.

The Worst Friendliest Neighbor.

“I buy my first house, a small, 3bd 2 bath bungalow close by my parents so I can be near them in their “golden years.”

The house was a rental for a decade and needed a little TLC but a year in and I’m finally making it a home.

My younger brother (he is 25 and I’m 33) moved in last year in September and we couldn’t be better housemates.

Things, all-in-all, are fine.

Uh oh…here it comes…

Then enter my overly-friendly neighbors, a couple in their mid 50s with whom I share a chain link fence.

Our backyards are small and close by. Their yard is immaculate while mine needs some work (not dumpy by any means, just isn’t landscaped to the T like theirs is).

While the wife is friendly and kind, the husband (let’s call him “Jim”) thinks we are best friends. Literally. I can’t walk into my backyard without a 20 minute conversation. I can’t sit back there with my girlfriend without him trying to come over for a beer.

This is a bit aggravating…

He offers my brother and I plates of food and when I politely decline he gets “jokingly offended” until I take it.

The tables turn, however, when I’m grilling out cooking and he then asks me (“jokingly” of course) if he can have whatever I’m making.

It is a pure lack of social cues.

Furthermore, this dude has a pretty standard M-F gig where he works morning till early evening. His favorite hobbies are getting intoxicated and stoned in his garage while BLASTING classic rock.

At first I thought it was funny. Endearing, even. He was quirky and a microcosm of the Midwest, an area I tried so desperately to leave but found myself tied back into.

Dude, give it a rest…

He calls, he texts, he knocks on my door. He helped me when the power went out in my garage but he also offended my girlfriend one night (he saw me kiss her in the backyard and asked “Hey where is mine!?” as he leaned over my fence).

He blasts music constantly and, while this is already annoying, take into consideration that I work swing shifts and have a rotating schedule.

When I work nights on the weekend and have to come home on a Saturday or Sunday morning I know I only have a few hours of sleep before hearing Jimi Hendrix or The Doors blaring from his garage.

Here’s an example.

A perfect example of this:

I pull in from a 16 hour midnight shift. 5:30p-9:30a. He is in his backyard.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Just got home from work.”

“Wow. Did you work a 16?”

“Yep. And I gotta be back in 8 hours.”

“That’s crazy.”

“Yep. Goodnight man.”

“Okay. So hey, anyways, did you see the score of the game…”.

This is exhausting!

When I finally peel myself away from the convo to try and get some sleep, the music starts. I get no sleep. 16 hour swing shifts are hard enough but I work a pretty dangerous job where I need my rest. I cannot afford to go into work not being on my A game. It could be my life or the lives of my coworkers.

The solution to this that you’re probably thinking is “6 foot privacy fence”.

But here is my dilemma… when I moved in, I met his wife first and his wife said “all we ask is you don’t put up a privacy fence.”

They are nice people, but they are getting to me. So much so that I’ve been debating selling the place and looking elsewhere.

Now what’s he supposed to do?

I’m naturally a pretty quiet guy. I don’t mind “city sounds” but when I’m gardening or having a fire or reading I’d like to not be interrupted with a 20 minute conversation (which aren’t really conversations, they are wasted, incoherent ramblings that revolve around his life).

Again, I’m 33 and live with a 25 year old. We are two dudes. We both have friends and girlfriends. You’d think our house was a monestary based on the lack of noise, music and traffic here.

The couple next door is friendly. They aren’t bad people. I could have much worse neighbors (I realize this after reading this board for a bit). I’m just curious how anyone of y’all would approach this scenario.

I don’t want to cut ties with them completely as I don’t mind their company but I do need some privacy.”

Check out what folks had to say about this on Reddit.

This person offered some advice.