Am I a bad neighbor?

[Spencer]

It might just be me but I think me neighbors are a little unhappy with me lately. I was talking to my wife about it and I think I may have figured out why. They have known since I moved in last fall that I would be building a pole barn on my property. Their 10 year old son even helped me move a bunch of logs and brush from the area that I was clearing for the pole barn. I think now that they actually see it going up it is bothering them. It is quite close to property line but I could have gone closer. I had two different areas that I thought were suitable building sites. The other area is away from everything, I can't see it from my house and they can't see it from their house either. The reason that I did not choose that site is because I want to save that site in case I decide to build a new house over there. The site I chose is right next to their pole barn and I certainly would never want to build a new house in that spot. The other reason that I chose to build next to them is that the barn will block a good portion of the view between our houses giving both of us more privacy. I have six acres out here in the woods and for the life of me I don't know why these two houses were built with a straight line of sight between them. My driveway goes straight from my house to their house (for now).

Anyway, should I have just carved out a different spot in the woods so as not to offend my neighbors?

I'll show you three pictures. This first picture is about half way down my driveway. The house and pole barn and van and truck all belong to my neighbors.

 

[Spencer]

This second picture is taken from the roof of my house. You can see that the pole barn is quite a distance from my house.

 

[Spencer]

In this third picture I have drawn a black line indicating the property line. My driveway is shown on the right. They actually use my property to access their pole barn. Everything you see on the right hand side of that black line is my property.

 

[Chuck52]

Spencer,

First, I don't think you're a bad neighbor because a bad neighbor wouldn't care one way or t'other. That said, if I was your neighbor, I would be thinking you're going to be spending a fair amount of time right down there near the property line at your new pole barn. For me, it wouldn't so much be the barn itself, because they have their own pole barn there too, but that you and your family will be more likely to be right down there near their house, where you haven't had much reason to be before.

Don't know what you can reasonably do about it now. Looks like you're fairly well into the building.

Chuck

 

[DUMBDOG]

Well Spencer, it is kind of close to their house and garage, and if it was my place I guess I would be kind of peeved to. But it is your property and you have the right to build wherever you want. I personally would have built it closer to the house./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[gerard]

I gotta agree with the last post, if all things are equal and you need a "tiebreaker" to decide between two spots it wouldn't have hurt to take their feelings into consideration but if you have a preference for the spot you picked that's life. If I were them I wouldn't be thrilled either but would realize you have every right to build. My arena blocks a lot of the view for my neighbor (who I am good friends with) and we laugh about it what a great view he would have if not for ourt arena. (course the arena was there when we bought the place, I didn't build it but WOULD have had there not been one there /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Boone]

You could try talking to them and explain how you decided to place the barn just like you posted here, but they might not be to happy to hear you want to build another house in the nieghborhood.

I would plant some evergreen trees (like a white pine if it will grow in your area,) between you and your nieghbor.

 

[cowboydoc]

On six acres it's pretty hard to please everyone. I think first of all you have to build where you want it. You are the one that has to live with it and you are the one putting up the building. Sure I think it's nice to be a good neighbor but if they aren't happy about the barn going up they probably wouldn't have been happy with it anywhere. When you live that close to people and only have a few acres those kinds of things are to be expected. The only thing you could have done was to ask them where they would want your barn but I think first and foremost it has to work for you.

I have been around a few of these deals and it usually didn't matter where the building was it was just the idea that there were more buildings going up. I was helping a friend one time and his neighbor came over and said I really wish you wouldn't build there. My friend said ok where would it work for you then. He showed us and so we went to this place and started staking it out. After awhile he came back and said that wouldn't work either. They got into a litte spat and finally my friend said just tell where to put it that would make you happy. The guy said what would make me happy is if you just didn't build it at all. I don't want another building around here. Well that was pretty much it. We went back and put it in the original place.

 

[wasabi]

Spencer,

I'm going to offer a different perspective, not to make you feel better, but to at least recognize there are other ways of looking at these things. You have never appeared to me as calloused (at least here on TBN) and I would agree that if you actually were (or wanted to be) a "bad" neighbor, consideration for their feelings would be absent altogether.

If I am reading the evolution of your decision and lay of the land correctly, it seems to me you have at least tried to make a well thought out decision and that you have considered the view aspect (naturally more from your vantage than theirs) by placing the barn fairly close to theirs so one will screen the other to some degree.

The raw impact of a building under construction may produce some short term feelings (disappointment). Placing your construction materials or other items (is that a property line stake there) very close to or on the property line might exacerbate those feelings. It appears that your activities, while not really intended to be "in their face", do occur at their "approach", whether on your land or theirs. It may well be within your right to do all that you are doing, but they may take a dim view of some of those choices, especially when they are feeling powerless to change any of it. You or I might feel the same way in their shoes.

All of that said, you might consider shouldering the cost for aggressive evergreen plantings between the two "barn" buildings and along your drive edge to screen their view of your barn in the long run (doesn't look like they have much room on their side). I would do so as soon as possible to send the message that you are aware of the impact on their view. Sounds like you may be neighbors for a long time, so whatever positives you can work into the equation for them, given that the building site is now determined, might be worth considering. Could turn out to be be cheap "olive branches" in the long run.

Just my .02 on how to try and make a touchy situation a bit better. Good luck.

 

[BillG_in_TX]

Bad Neighbor?!?

Whose property are they using to access their barn?

You've got to be kidding.