At what point is a neighbor's hobby officially a neighborhood nuisance?
By @avakay · Who's in the Wrong
Our new neighbor took up woodworking, and the noise is constant. My boyfriend says I need to be more tolerant, but I work from home and I'm losing my mind.
The full story
My boyfriend and I moved into our duplex about six months ago, and it's been great. The walls are a little thin, but it was never a problem until our new neighbor moved in next door about two months ago. He's a guy in his late 20s, seemed nice enough at first. But then he discovered his passion: woodworking. In his garage, which is directly under our bedroom. At first, it was just a weekend thing. A bit of sanding here, some sawing there. Annoying, but manageable. Now, it's an every-day-all-hours event. I work from home, and my desk is in our spare room, which is also on top of the garage. I'll be on a Zoom call, and all you can hear is the high-pitched whine of a power saw. He starts sometimes as early as 7 AM and I've heard him out there as late as 11 PM during the week. The sawdust is another issue. It gets *everywhere*. He just blows it out of his garage and it settles on our porch, our windowsills, my car. I can't even open my windows on a nice day. I want to be a reasonable person. I get that people have hobbies. But I feel like there should be some common courtesy. I tried to talk to him once. I just casually said, "Hey, getting really into the woodworking, huh? It's a little loud during the day sometimes." He basically just shrugged and said, "Yeah, gotta practice," and that was it. My boyfriend is completely on his side. they says I'm being a 'Karen' and that we should just let the guy live his life. He thinks confronting him again will just create bad blood and make things awkward and tense forever. He argues that since we share a building, we have to be more accommodating than in a single-family home. I think that's exactly why he should be *more* considerate. I'm not asking him to stop. I just want him to stick to reasonable hours, like maybe not before 9 AM and not after 9 PM, and maybe do something about the sawdust cloud. My boyfriend thinks sending him a text or leaving a note is way too aggressive. But I'm going crazy, and I don't know what else to do.
How people voted
- OP Is Right — 27% (12 votes)
- Both Messy — 39% (17 votes)
- OP Is Wrong — 34% (15 votes)
Readers are split: “Both Messy” leads with 39% — 44 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@vinceee — I'd start leaving little piles of his sawdust on his doorstep every morning.
@niasorta — I'm not convinced we're getting the full story on the noise levels here.
@drew — crying
@lanelol — soft.
@danasorta — A man's hobby is his business, not the neighborhood's.
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