We love our neighborhood because on the whole everyone is friendly, respectful and quiet.
One of the mistakes we made when we did the renovation on our house before moving back to Hawaii was to have our master bedroom facing the street. Since we don't have much traffic here, we didn't think it would be a problem.
As I said, the neighbors are really wonderful.... buuuut... we do have one neighbor almost across from us with young people who sometimes (not often) throw parties late into the night. It wouldn't be bad if they had their party inside the house, but they always have them outside under their carport, probably because it gets hot in the house or because they have young children that might not be able to sleep. And yes, we do close ALL our windows when they have their parties.
A couple of weeks ago, they had a party last until 2:30 in the morning. In my delirium, I almost threw on a robe to go out and ask them if they could keep the noise down. Would you believe Art slept through the whole thing? There have been times, it's kept him awake, but not that night. If their conversation was a low consistent rumble it wouldn't affect us (I think). But it's the occasional loud laughter that would jar us awake.
Art was planning to go over and ask the parents if they could plan on ending the parties before midnight.
Then we remembered how our kids had white noise machines at their homes for our grandkids.
We decided to try this one. I thought the ocean waves would be soothing, but it has too much dead space where laughter could come through. There was wind but that might remind me of hurricanes. I haven't heard the stream yet. The bird tweets didn't quite soothe me. Neither did the camp fire. (I might feel like I have to stay awake to make sure it doesn't spread.) So I settled on rain. We get lots of rain in our area so that might do it.
We'll see. (I wonder if it'll mask snoring... not that anyone I know snores a lot...)
What would you choose?
POSTSCRIPT: Well, it happened again. The neighbors' kids were having a talk fest out under their carport last night. I turned on the white noise machine. It didn't drown them out completely, but it garbled their conversation and laughter amidst a white noise rainstorm.
We fell asleep.
One of the mistakes we made when we did the renovation on our house before moving back to Hawaii was to have our master bedroom facing the street. Since we don't have much traffic here, we didn't think it would be a problem.
As I said, the neighbors are really wonderful.... buuuut... we do have one neighbor almost across from us with young people who sometimes (not often) throw parties late into the night. It wouldn't be bad if they had their party inside the house, but they always have them outside under their carport, probably because it gets hot in the house or because they have young children that might not be able to sleep. And yes, we do close ALL our windows when they have their parties.
A couple of weeks ago, they had a party last until 2:30 in the morning. In my delirium, I almost threw on a robe to go out and ask them if they could keep the noise down. Would you believe Art slept through the whole thing? There have been times, it's kept him awake, but not that night. If their conversation was a low consistent rumble it wouldn't affect us (I think). But it's the occasional loud laughter that would jar us awake.
Art was planning to go over and ask the parents if they could plan on ending the parties before midnight.
Then we remembered how our kids had white noise machines at their homes for our grandkids.
We decided to try this one. I thought the ocean waves would be soothing, but it has too much dead space where laughter could come through. There was wind but that might remind me of hurricanes. I haven't heard the stream yet. The bird tweets didn't quite soothe me. Neither did the camp fire. (I might feel like I have to stay awake to make sure it doesn't spread.) So I settled on rain. We get lots of rain in our area so that might do it.
We'll see. (I wonder if it'll mask snoring... not that anyone I know snores a lot...)
What would you choose?
POSTSCRIPT: Well, it happened again. The neighbors' kids were having a talk fest out under their carport last night. I turned on the white noise machine. It didn't drown them out completely, but it garbled their conversation and laughter amidst a white noise rainstorm.
We fell asleep.
One of my granddaughter's has white noise in her bedroom. She's 2 1/2! I thought kids could sleep through everything.
ReplyDeleteI imagine the kids across the street will be leaving home at some point.
You might possibly find something on your cell phone with white noise, and then you'd have ear buds to also help cancel out the noise. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good idea. I use these as my hubby snores, and I have insomnia.
Deletewell we are bothered by the noise of the nearby freeway 24-7...I like soft new age music but hubby doesn't...so we listed to the noise and eventually go to sleep not as bad as noisy young neighbors but we live in an retirement community and our neighbors are very quiet.
ReplyDeleterain sounds good, or ocean waves.
ReplyDeleteMy mental health office has white noise machines in the halls, to mask any residual sound from offices. They are completely unobtrusive and mask sound. I'll have to ask next time I'm there.
ReplyDeleteHope it helps. I might try one. I think I'd pick the rain version too.
ReplyDeleteWe live under the flight path here. When our double paned windows were installed, we were really surprised at how quiet our lives became. You might change out just that one window.
ReplyDeletei was up all of last night do to noise. this is one of the reasons i hate warm weather, our area becomes instantly noisy. i've tried everything. i just pray for any kind of bad weather.
ReplyDeleteAnother step to consider, like the ear buds, is to put cotton in your ears! They even have silicone ear plugs, usually at the drug store. If a patient complained of noise or their roommate's TV, a bit of cotton solved the problem. (Being very hard of hearing, where I take out my hearing aids at night, has it's advantages....) Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteIt is inconsiderate on their part to have their party continue past a normal person's bedtime, and it's unfortunate that you're the one that had to incur an expense to try and drown out their noise. Fortunately, we don't (as yet) have neighbors like that, so (so far) it's all good. If only the wild pigs would stop digging up our yard, though . . .
ReplyDeleteWhat a good idea. I must remember that if we every get in that situation!! I do think there may be noise ordinances that these folks are breaking???
ReplyDeleteYou could call the police if they are making noise after 10:30 pm, but you probably don't want to do that. And I can see your hesitation about talking to them because it may cause friction between neighbors.
ReplyDeleteWe have 5 single girls from Boston renting the house next to us and they are very loud - seemingly always talking in the "outside" voices and having a good time, day and night. The saving grace for me is that my bedroom is on the other side of the house. I also have a split unit air conditioner that I can put on Dry mode, so that acts as white noise and circulates the air quite nicely for me.
Time will make the neighbors get older, and hopefully quieter.
Think the rain or the stream might make me go to the bathroom. Maybe you should get earplugs but only for you. Art doesn't need them since he can sleep through the parties and you wouldn't have to worry about possibly not hearing the smoke detector if it went off. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteIt's the same here: all winter long it's nice and quiet, and then when we open the windows the noise of our neighbors comes in. I think I'll invest in one of those white noise machines. I have one that only makes sounds of different fans, and it bothers my husband. Nice sounds of rain would be soothing to me. Thanks for the tip, and I hope it works for you. :-)
ReplyDeleteOutside parties suck.
ReplyDeleteI hope you have found a solution. It's hard enough to get a good night's sleep at my age without noisy partying going on.
ReplyDeleteYour lucky these parties do not involve alcohol or drugs.
ReplyDeleteI'll look into that machine. I remember being at a beach house long ago and falling asleep to the sounds of the waves lapping on the shore.
ReplyDelete