I look forward to the day when I can afford to pay someone else to work on my car.

I rather sail, golf, or relax on my days off. I really need to work on my golf game.:o

BTW I hate HOA with a passion. You couldn't pay me to live in an area with one.

Lived in one of them "evil" places for a few years. One neighbor was a gearhead with a Nova, so I could relate to him. The others, though, were nice to me when they needed to borrow things. Other than that, some were nothing but backstabbing beeotches. Problem was, I could only tell one that was slime, never figured out the others. Wasn't there long enough. Now I'm on 4.5 acres, with non complaining (heck, I never see them) neighbors, and feeling much better.

.
I have learned the secret to living peacefully in a HOA.

You fix little things for the neighbors.

Some carburetor cleaner and Sea Foam for one neighbor, and becoming the guy that cuts the lawn for the other neighbor has done the trick for me.

And I get paid for doing it !!

I feel sad for some of the people in the gated communities.
They seem so fearful.

Have Fun
RichC
:joker:

Neighbor of the Year" in two neighboods to "Cynical Neighbor"..
 

Its kind of funny I went from "Neighbor of the Year" in two neighboods to "Cynical Neighbor"...in one neighborhood an eldery lady from India begged me not to leave because she was widowed and knew I would always help her in jam and I would shovel snow for the older people....in another neighborhood, I set my car on fire but I was still liked, there were a few single mothers around and my whacking and hammering on cars at wierd hours gave them a sense of security...I guess its just a chemistry thing

But what happens when the friendly neighbor moves, and is replaced by someone that can't be bribed with cutting grass or carburetor cleaner?
In my case, due to a nearly-dead real-estate market, I'm trying to keep my place relatively tidy. For now, this prevents me from dragging home that '80 300D another neighbor down the block wants to give me.
Even though there's no HOA here, and my nextdoor neighbor claims he wouldn't call the county on me, who knows what his hungry realtor might do?

Happy Motoring, Mark

I had one of those. He did something to piss me off and I returned the favor in spades. Even cost him a potential buyer when he was trying to sell. Made sure others knew that it wasn't aimed at them. Moral of the story is you can be friends with me and reap some benefits, not associate with me and be neutral or piss me off and I'll find a way to screw with you on a daily basis.

Well, you will always have something to worry about as far as that goes. However, I don't bother to get upset with the HOA. After all, if I am trying to sell and your place is a mess, won't that affect me?

Both of them work, are mortgaged to the hilt, have 2 car payments, or even more likely 2 car lease payments, and probably in credit card debt from hell. How do I know? I was one of them. Until I saw the light (ie. had kids) and figured out where my priorities should be.

Now, I'm not unlike yourself. I live in the largest historic district in CT. In a neighborhood of half-million dollar+ restored colonials and victorians and $300K bungalows. While there is no HOA, the town is very strict with their policies regarding vehicles under repair and unregistered vehicles.

I am somewhat fortunate that on one side is a practically deaf woman in her mid-80's (the worrisome part is that in the not-so-distant future there will be a new owner there) and on the otherside is a guy who specializes in restoration of old houses and has a 3 car garage right along our property line that he uses (technically illegally but I couldn't care less) as his workshop. So any work I'm doing is practically invisible from the street even though it's not that far from it.

I had my Scout project parked behind my garage, wrapped tightly under a blue tarp and invisible from the street. One day I had a notice posted on my front door from the local building instructor telling me that I had two weeks to remove my unregistered vehicle from my property or get it into my garage. Unfortunately, I now lost my 1 car garage space (and why a new 2 car garage is in the planning stage). The only reason I won't move out is because we do have a very good school system and that's the bottom line for me.

For now, here in Fairfax County, I'm allowed some unregistered vehicles, so long as they're 'hidden from veiw' by a fence, hedge or garage. In late '96, during the last real-estate slump around here, a desperate home-seller called the county on every homeowner in the neighborhood with an unregistered vehicle. 23, including myself. I had to build a privacy fence around the back half of my driveway to enclose 3 vehicles.
More recentky, when the house next door went on the market, I had my junk Dodge storage-van, and a dead Honda Civic hauled away, and moved my second 240D to Mom's garage in Virginia Beach. I also bought one of those $250 tube & tarp 'garages-in-a-box' to hide my '67 Sunbeam Alpine, and shelter some of the stuff that used to be in my storage-van.
So far as I know there's no county restriction against an 8' x 20' steel shipping container. (It's not a vehicle or permanent structure)
Maybe one of those will be my next storage-shed!

Happy Motoring, Mark

You live in the wrong part of suburbia :)

I also live in suburbia, but where I live, some of us fix their own cars. A guy across the street in the apartment complex has undertaken some pretty serious reapirs in the parking lot, and another was replacing a crushed radiator on the curb one day. Ny neighbor always has a friend over working on their car, and then there's me out in my carport working on mine.

There's a lot of people who live like you describe too, but there's some who believe in fixing and repairing. We're in unincorporated county and therefore lower rent, maybe that has something to do with it. No good free junk out on the curb through :)

I live in a duplex with a railway running behind our house. There is an alley behind the detached garage, and on the other side of the alley there is just enough land to park a car before the ditch beside the railway. The railway owns that land, so the town ca't really complain. And the railway seems to have been really good about people storing things there.

However....I DO feel the need to get out of town and onto an acreage. I can understand how some people would feel about me having my "junk" parked there, but right now I am one of a few. I live in a cottage area a block from the lake, and recently property values have soared here in Alberta with the gas and oil prices. The average price for lakefront property, 1 block away, is $1million. Acreages are extremely hard to find in the area for under $450,000 (size does not matter, availability is the key here). Our town has gone from something like 5,000 people to 11,000 in five years. The cottages nearby are all being torn down and replaced with modest houses like the one up the street, currently going for $398,000.

I don't feel the pressure now, but when more of these homes go up, I'm sure they will start the pressure on us gearheads to move. :(

dunl, bear this in mind as well, anything that happens to your vehicle stored on that land will not be prosecutable... it's technically not yours anymore... so don't push your luck too much.

Velcome to the new Amerika:P they can't afford their lifestlye, over thier heads in credit card debt. But don't worry, soon you'll have the last laugh. This country will fall on it's *** shortly and you will be the only one able to survive. I would move to the country though. The people your living next to are worthless spoiled brats and would rob you blind or kill your mother for $0.25.

Well, I just learned that this past summer, the Peoples Republic of Fairfax County passed a new ordinance outlawing the use of storage containers anywhere on residential property for any period longer than 30 days!

Wrenchheads unite! i suggest we start our own country! now can you imagine? a classic benz in every driveway:D

My wife and i still have the same maytag washer we bought 15 years ago and we were bummed out that it cost us 300 bucks.:D I have never bought or needed the best of anything except food. I bought a Monark boat instead of a Lund and saved 25k. Does the same job as the Lund only its got a seamless welded hull compared to a pop rivited lund. A friend and his wife came to dinner to our 100 year old home, they kept saying we had to see thier (new) house. Well to each thier own but I rather like my 100 year old oak trim and handmade 5 panel doors and cabinets compared to plastic trim and such:scream: I couldn't go for sub living with people telling me what I can or can't do on my own property. Our friends coudn't paint thier fence without the hoa approving the color. I have restored my home to practicley original with my own two hands and nothing feels better to me. Just don't turn a wrench too good:o


Jim