It may be a long, long night

[dcompton]

Living in an apartment complex, neighbors are the wild card.

About at hour ago, at 5:00, there was suddenly bone rattling music from the next apartment and loud laughter. Accckkkkkk! Not a party! Then it stopped. Just a random moment? Then about half an hour ago, it started again, at about half the volume, but still very annoying, and after a short while stopped. Party? I'm hoping not but --

I am in full scale Defensive Apartment Living mode and ready to hunker down after while if it happens.

Yellow alert - a Wind Machine, the noisiest floor van ever manufactured, on medium. I keep one just for these emergencies.

Orange alert, between the two sound system trials I've already heard - the fan cranked up to high.

Red alert - fan on high, adding my Rain on a Tin Roof CD with headphones, and sit as far from the shared wall possible.

And when it's finally over - ah, the quiet... Makes me appreciate it more. But I can't complain. This is a young Air Force couple, good neighbors who rarely make much noise. Everyone has to be allowed an occasional party, especially at the holidays. I'll survive.

Then again, it may not happen at all. But I Am Prepared.

[hotprincesscm]

Oh I hear you! I live in an apartment, and HATE it! I have bad neighbors all around me though, and most days I have to deal with blaring music, yelling screaming, banging, doors slamming, rude, unmanageable children, and some other worse things, but I report them to maintenance when I have had enough. I feel for you, I really do! I wish for you a quiet, non party evening!

[frugalwarrior2]

We have a pool behind us, a pool across the street, a pool next door. The house w/o a pool has a truck they let warm up for 20 min. everyday w/ open headers and a faulty exhaust. The sweety next door burns leaves that are wet and garbage. We all live together tightly. Apartments aren't the only wild card. I just bought Shure headphones for my DS for xmas. $69-$100. Just in case KWIM. Not even New Years yet either. Winter firecrackers anyone??

[dcompton]

I have really cheap headphones and have thought of investing in better ones. I am, for the present, pretty lucky with my neighbors, on both sides. Above is empty at the moment, I think. Also, working evenings, I avoid the biggest potential noise times. I'm rarely home Fri-Sun night.

I know house neighbors can be as bad. At least if my neighbors here become awful, I don't have to sell a house to get away. Also the manager here runs a pretty tight ship. She told me last week she just got rid of three tenants. It helps a lot to have that kind of management.

[frugalwarrior2]

Doesn't sound too bad then. A strong manager can make a lot of difference. My MIL was a property manager for the apt. we rented. I did not LOVE that she could have the apt manager enter when I was at work and report on my housekeeping and whatever else.

[shoiji]

I hear you and feel for you with the loud neighbors. Luckily this past year with moving in the same complex I have very quiet neighbors. Hardly every hear them. So glad I moved!

[dcompton]

It's a few minutes to 8 and the evening has remained peaceful, so maybe it was just a fluke. I haven't heard more music after the second sound explosion. So perhaps I've escaped.

Actually I may have accused the wrong neighbors. It might have been over them, with the sound traveling down the wall, not just through it. At any rate some time ago, there was a door slam up there that shook the building, an even greater rarity here. So perhaps it was just a visit that turned really sour.

At any rate, it's silent night here again. Thanks for sympathy. All my FV neighbors are good ones.

[NikoSan999]

Years ago we lived in an apartment and people above us would fight.
Our parking spots would always be taken.
Doors slamming on weekend nights
Don't miss it.

Fingers crossed for a peaceful night for you.

We have a Wind Tunnel also. Right it can be loud. I need it to sleep.

[Libby]

BF's apt is and end unit by the stairs. Neighbour across the hall always has a huge suitcase which they bang along the walls as they drag it to their door. Apt next door bangs cupboards at the oddest hours and during the evenings, people smoke in the stairwell and it each time they enter back into the hallway to go back to their apt, it wafts in and under the door into his apt. BLECH! Apparently there's been a lot of comings and goings of tenants in his bldg. BF put a weather strip at the top and bottom of his door and so far it's kept the smoke out. And yes, the bldg mgmt is fully aware of the smoking in the stairwell...huge NO NO.

I feel for y'all apt dwellers....I don't live there full time and it drives me batty!

[mombottoo]

Which is why I don't live in an apartment. It would drive me crazy hearing all the different sounds and wondering what the neighbors were up to. Not to mention having to worry about how much noise I might be making and bugging people with.

Hard enough living with my ds and his music...he has different music he listens to depending on his mood...sucks that I can tell his mood by his music, but at least I have it as a warning sign of what's to come.

[MaryCarney]

I work as a home health care nurse on the night shift, and my little baby-patient lives in an apartment. I am sorely tempted to leave the upstairs neighbor some helpful information on current treatment of prostate problems. That dude gets up to pee every half hour!

[Incognito]

Just wondering if maybe those 2 bursts of loud music was their alarm-clock-radio going off. That's happened to me. One time when I was dusting I accidentally turned up my radio-alarm really high, and when the alarm went off, the noise was awful. I'm sure the neighbours heard me that time, though I'm usually so quiet they don't know if I'm still alive.

I sure can relate to what the rest of you are saying, living in a townhouse, and with pools nearby, people warming up their cars for long periods of time, late-night parties.
One neighbour decided to use our parking lot to park his semi-trailer, and then would warm the engine early in the morning every day for about 30 minutes. One time he left it running for over 2 hours (aaagggh, the smog)!!!
(He has now moved away, and nobody waved good-bye...)

What's bugging me right now (and for the past year) is my next-door neighbour's rattling bathroom fan which is always ON and never OFF. My bed is on the other side of the wall, so my head is 1 foot
away from their bathroom interior, and that WHIrrrr......whirr....WHIrrr....whirr goes on and on and on.
But I do have a good batch of earplugs (the orange sponge ones you get at the Hardware store). These work well, if I remember to use them.

[valerian]

I remember once back in college when the people next to my roommate and I decided to have a party the night before she and I had to get up about 5 to go for clinical. They played their music really loudly and the really weird part was they played the same song over and over and over all night long. It was "In the evening" (I think that's the name) by Led Zeppelin. I like the song, but every time I hear it now, I have to cringe a little! Roommate got so fed up (her bedroom was on the wall next to them) that she left the apartment to bang on their door and she cursed and yelled at them. They kept it up and she finally called the police. The police came, the music stopped briefly, and then they turned it on again, but at a just barely deafening level this time. Ah, memories!

[HisDaisy]

I do not like apartment living. We just moved out an apartment and into a duplex this Fall. I just could not stand the noise anymore. I also have a hard time in high density housing.
Our place now is very quiet. I can have windows open with hear foul language and don't have to listen to my neighbor play video games all day and all night.

[jamie79]

I wont live in apts for alot of these reasons. I am too old to put up with other people. You can get it owning a home too but at least there is noone over my head or sharing a wall with me