neighbours copying

[jazzactivist]

Hi all, I don't know if this is just happening to me, or if it is a common phenomenon. A youngish couple own the cottage next door to ours as their second home. At one time it would have been part of our house, but was sold off years ago. We have painted our house pale grey with white trim and it has mahogany stained wondws and a light blue front door. As we are about to sell it, I have spruced up the window boxes and put out some bright, more special plants. It seems that the woman of this couple wants everything that we have. She has planted the same sorts of plants in her garden in roughly the same locations as mine, has the same type of summer house, and today we came back from a day out shopping to see that they have painted the front of their house white, with grey trim, mahogany window frames and a slightly darker blue front door. The same colour plants have been put in tubs outside! Andy pointed out that she has had her hair cut in the same bobbed style as mine, which looks a bit old for her. They are OK, but not particularly friendly with us since when they first moved in they challenged the boundary of an area of land across the road to try to park their huge 4x4. However, we won this legal challenge, so they haven't spoken to us since. It is just very odd to see such copying going on, especially as they are much younger than us so you would think that their tastes would be different. has this type of thing ever happened to you?

[Ivy]

well it happened with friends of ours. When we got married and moved to our first home we started to collect antique pine furniture. This other couple moved in together and had very modern and all black and white furniture one day w went there and in the sitting room stood an old pine dresser the blacjk and white furniture was gradually replaced by pine furniture.... When we we had our son they must have gone home and made their own baby on the spot (their son was born 9 1/2 months after ours. They had the same pram the same cloths for him and I was surprised they actually bothered to choose a name and not copied the name we chose for our son . 2 1/2 years later we had an other child a girl and guess what little Max has a sister who is 2 1/2 years younger than himself. I was really tired of all this copying but fortunately they moved away and I never met them again.

[Crocus]

Hi Jazz, the funny thing here is that our house is also painted in a pale grey outside with mahogany window frames!! Sorry, I didn't copy you! Don't have the white trim though - will have to do something about that! ;) Oh and not a blue door either - a quite old double door which came from a very old house in Oudtshoorn!:D

I might add that after we painted our house this gray, quite a lot of houses in our village did the same! I think people never thought that pale grey would look acceptable, until they saw it.

I would just ignore this couple Jazz. It's either they like what you're doing, or they are rying to be funny because of what you explained above. I would just ignore it and carry on as usual. xx

[Oola]

Not really for us, as we and our neighbours have totally differing tastes!

However, when my Mum & Dad moved to Bedford a few years ago (they've moved since) they bought a town house that used to be a load of old flats. They changed the use and made it back into one house as it was originally. It was renovated inside and out, the garden was landscaped by Mum into a more cottage style garden, and they put Victorian-style railings back in the front. The front of the house looked really smart, as Mum being very greenfingered, planted up a really swanky front garden too. Gradually we noticed that more and more houses down the avenue started to spruce up their frontages, especially the ones near to Mum's house. Might have been a coincidence but I think it does tend to have a positive knock-on effect.

[Rose]

Imitation is a sincere form of flattery so don't be offended. Jazzactivist be positive! Your semi detached house will look so much better with a matching colour scheme next door.

[jazzactivist]

Thanks for your ideas and support, I was thinking for a moment that I was going a bit crazy. It can be true, as Oola said, that once you start to improve your own home others follow suit. Most of the houses here have a fair bit of land, but people complained constantly about the sheep and rabbits eating their gardens! No-one had ever bothered to fence theirs in but as soon as we did, leaving gaps and view points for the Rights of Way, others have started to do the same and the gardens look much healthier. Our neighbours, of course, put up exactly the same type of fence as ours!

[fife]

Hi Jazz,

We have had similar problems in the past with people over the road we now call them the jones'sas it seems to fit them perfectly. Take it as a compliment although i know it is annoying you obviousley have good taste.

[SummerSkye]

Hi Jazz, at least the neighbouring house compliments yours, it would be much worse if they had decorated in a style that detracted from yours. From all that you say though, it does seem odd to copy so exactly with plants etc.. and your hairstyle. Look on the bright side though at least you should be moving soon.
My sister always used to copy my paint schemes as she loved the way my rooms looked however she learnt that it did not necessarily suit her house; annoying for me at the time though!

[emjay53]

Do you think that neighbours are ever anything but a little bit annoying? I would also quote the old saying that '' Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery'', but isnt it aggravating to see everything you do reflected back. We had some neighbours like that once, they even changed their car to the same make tht we had.

However I wish our neighbours now would copy us a bit, it would make our lves a little more comfortable. As it is, they have torn down all the lovely trees and shrubs the previous owners had in their garden and which afforded both our houses much coveted privacy from each other. These new ppl seem to have to conduct their lives at fever pitch and full decibels so everyone cn hear them, and with the destruction of the shrubbery, all can see them and their garden toys too. Our patio used to be a lovely peaceful haven of calm, used to spend so much time out there in the summer from 7 in the morning to dusk in the evenings. The neighbours have repositioned their patio so that is it adjacent to ours,. That wouldnt be such a problem if the wife didnt conduct all her conversations by shouting.... at the husband, at the son, at the cats, at the dog.... you name it she shouts at it. So you cant sit on the patio and have a quiet lazy conversation over a drink anymore because of her.

Oh well, apparently the summer is going to be typically English this year, which means plenty of the wet stuff falling, so maybe sitting on the patio isnt going to be quite the thing.

[jazzactivist]

Hi emjay53, I remember you from CL. I agree with you that all neighbours are a little bt annoying sometimes. Luckily, we have 2 other sets who have similar values to us. However, I know exactly what you mean about neighbours who chop down the whole garden. There used to be a lovely garden with mature natural trees opposite our house, but the couple died and another couple of second homers bought the cottage and immediately ripped out all the trees saying that they made the house damp. Everyone in the street complained to them about it and they were quite shocked that people liked the trees, as they just viewed them as giant weeds. They then got in a bulldozer to dig out a huge section of the natural incline behind their house, and then just left it all and went back to Cambridge for the winter. There are now no plants whatsoever in their garden, and when I chatted to the woman about what grows best in this area and what their plans are for their garden she had the cheek to ask me to cut down a beautiful rowan tree in our garden so that they could see the road better from their window! They aren't noisy like your neighbours but, like yours, have absolutely no sense of the bigger picture of what they are doing. Apparently they intend to plant up the garden but like regimented rows and lots of hanging baskets. Their one concession is that they will put up a dry stone wall to match the others round about. I think that people buying a house should wait a year before doing anything to it or the garden to see how everything works together.

Is there any chance of planting up around your patio to create more privacy and create more of a sound barrier, or maybe get a conservatory? Or maybe you could try other tactics - I once read a really funny article where the writer moved to a new house and every night called in their cat, Minky. Then one night they heard distinct echos of his voice copying "Minky - m-i-n-k-y, minkyminkyminky", and realised that the neighbours were letting him know that they weren't too happy about it. Might be worth a try?

[Crocus]

I won't mind to have a neighbour lower down the street to copy anyone around them! The house hasn't seen a paint brush in the years we live here, not mentioning the 'garden'. It's old cars in the front garden, motorbikes on the porch, it really looks scruffy and bad.

[JacquiMcR]

Don't all the house programmes of the moment advise that when selling your house you want to sell your lifestyle. Perhaps all these copying neighbours think that they should have the same as those around them because it part of the "image". Console yourself with the fact that you have fabulous taste and that they are maybe just lacking in imagination.