15 Old House Features that we were wrong to abandon...

[sheeplady]

Exactly. If you like Westchester so frigging much, do us a favor and stay there.

These people weren't even from Westchester. I don't think they would have survived Westchester, real upper class people would have chewed them up and spit them out like leftover coffee grinds. They certainly didn't survive in the rural county, either, most of them ran back to the suburbs of the small city near there.

When my husband and I bought our new property which is unabashedly rural, we went to look at it one Sunday. The neighbor next door whom is a native (and country person through and through) drove past, slowed down, and took a good look at us. My husband and I likely looked like yuppies- young, white, decently dressed, obviously not from around there (everyone knows everyone there). And in some ways, my husband and I *are* yuppies- we are well educated, have good white-collared jobs, and have considerably increased our class standing in life compared to our parents (myself moreso than my husband).

The neighbor then pulled into his driveway, went into his backyard, and emptied a shotgun into a target. Bang, bang, bang.

Obviously trying to scare us away if hearing shots fired would do that. Never has happened since and I work there a couple days a week.

The real estate agent asked if it bothered me. I turned to her and said, "Do you think any idiot is going to break into our house with a neighbor that shoots like that?"

 

[LizzieMaine]

More likely he wanted to see if you were the kind of neighbor who would complain about his shooting. You passed the test.

 

[tonyb]

I always appreciated it when the hostile-looking young men we're hanging out on the street corner when a real estate agent drove through with a would-be house buyer. But the fellas couldn't hold back the sea. They gave it a gallant effort, though.

 

[sheeplady]

More likely he wanted to see if you were the kind of neighbor who would complain about his shooting. You passed the test.

It was obviously either a test or a scare tactic. The way he fired the gun is not the way you'd fire one if you were shooting at something live or a target, unless you are a poor marksman and totally inexperienced. You have to actually appraise if you made the first shot or not if you want to hit something reliably, so there is at least a slight pause between the first and second shot, no matter how many shots you end up firing.

It also didn't have the rhythm of firing at pigeons or a series of targets, either. I'd expect a short second pause between targets and pigeons launch in a definite pattern that is more spread out. He was firing his weapon as fast as his finger could move, which keyed me in that it had something to do with us and wasn't regular behavior.

And given the fact it's been two years and he's never done it again in all the times we've been there also bodes well for us passing the test. (We do frequently hear hunters firing in the area, but that isn't right next door, and it is obviously hunters. Given the fact we're on the edge of a 1,200 acre forest preserve that allows hunting, we kind of expected that.)

 

[Stearmen]

I got lucky on my property taxes this year. On the Victorian, I got to use the senior discount of the previous owner, $432.67! Good thing, since I had to pay on two houses. Unfortunately, they realized their mistake and next year will be $909. I do feel fortunate to have such low taxes! Oh, my trash is just $45.00 for two months. That's two cans, curb side pick up, plus branches and an extra bag if you have it.

 

[VintageEveryday]

I live in an older home, which still has many of these details.....including the sketchy Roosevelt era wiring.