MetaChat - Yes. Working from home is the *only* reason

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10 August 2006

Yes. Working from home is the *only* reason I might object to my neighbors blasting music at 2:30am. On a Wednesday. Directly over my bedroom.→[More:] When I complained about the music to the upstairs neighbors last night, she said, "Look, I know you work from home, so you're here all the time, but we work late, so you can't expect us to keep our music down all the time."

It was 2:30. In the morning. On a Wednesday. And I have only once, in the entire year I've lived here, complained about their music during the daylight hours (even though it's bothersome several times a week), and that was simply because I'd just moved in and thought they may not be aware there was anyone living underneath them.

Explaining that 2:30. In the morning. On a Wednesday. seemed a rather objectively bad time to be blasting music, regardless of one's work-at-home status, didn't seem to register. I'm wondering if starting to blast my own music in the hallway at 6:30am, because I can't be expected to keep the noise level down just because others aren't awake, right?, might register better.

Sigh. I'm cranky and sleep-deprived.

post by: occhiblu at: 13:12 | 37 comments

Retaliation won't work. Before you know it, the thing will escalate to eggings or worse. You could go the weasel route and bitch to the landlord. That won't make you any friends in the building, but it doesn't sound like you're too cozy with the neighbors as it is.

posted by pieisexactlythree 10 August | 13:17

occhi, you has my sympathy. In Miami, I used to live downstairs from a guy who liked playing his guitar. The only song he knew apparently was Metallica's 'Unforgiven,' so he played it all the time.

I used to like that song.

posted by jonmc 10 August | 13:17

I live across the street from a telecom exchange building, with some large shrubberies. These tend to attract hobos in the warm months. Last summer I woke up at three AM to hear them arguing about whether or not Eric Clapton is an asshole.

posted by pieisexactlythree 10 August | 13:19

I've already bitched about the noise and smoke and general bad-neighborliness of the across-the-hallway neighbors (which the landlord has gone to heroic lengths to fix), so... I don't know. I feel like I'll get labelled the complainy tenant if I start another complaint trail.

Oh, also? She said that they weren't home often, so I couldn't complain about them being extra loud when they were home. Because apparently we have a noise ration, that we're allowed to save up.

I just need to move. I swear, though, I have never had so many neighbor noise problems as I've had in San Francisco. Either this city attracts very loud freaks, or ... this city attracts very loud freaks.

posted by occhiblu 10 August | 13:20

Actually, I guess the other option is that I'm now officially a cranky old woman.

/shakes fist in the air, yells at the kids to get off her lawn.

posted by occhiblu 10 August | 13:22

and when we lived in Bridgeport, our bedroom was on the opposite side of the wall from the couple next door, and most nights we'd hear springs creaking, boards banging against the wall and a woman squealing 'Ayyy, Ramon!'

I assume they were either having sex or bullfighting on a trampoline.

/you forgot to tell them to get haircuts and jobs

posted by jonmc 10 August | 13:25

People like that put me into a rage like nothing else.

I would kill for you if I could, occhiblu.

posted by Specklet 10 August | 13:28

I hate neighbors almost as much as I hate roommates. Sorry for your troubles, occhi.

posted by mike9322 10 August | 13:29

These kids today have no respect.

posted by JanetLand 10 August | 13:30

occhiblu, I'm not sure about San Francisco, but I know in Atlanta you can call the cops on neighbors like that, and they'll show up and demand the music be turned down. If your problem continues, you might consider that.

(A long time ago, I had a habit of being at parties that got shut down this way... but they were never at my place.)

posted by BoringPostcards 10 August | 13:35

Ya' want me to come over and lean on them a little and let them know who's boss? - I'll tell them to get off your lawn for you.

posted by getoffmylawn 10 August | 13:41

The problem is it's not loud enough to bother anyone outside the building. It's just that their speakers are in their living room, which is the room directly above my bedroom. And it's not a *huge* deal when I'm awake (though I do think it's disrepectful), but it's an insanely huge deal at 2am or 4am (which is actually their preferred "Let's play loud bass-heavy music!" time).

It's more that I was astounded by her leaps of logic last night, and her insistence that most people wouldn't be bothered by being woken up at 2:30am, only those who work at home, therefore it was my unreasonable work situation that was the problem here. WTF???

posted by occhiblu 10 August | 14:04

She also made some weird throwaway comment about my being too cheap (though she didn't use those words) to pay for an office. Which was obviously the reason I was at home at 2:30 on a weekday night. Because all those people who work outside the home? They're always in their expensive offices at 2:30am on Wednesdays.

And given that she seems to be a hairdressing student, I'm confused at the middle-class bourgeois judgment inherent in the comment.

posted by occhiblu 10 August | 14:08

occhiblu, I feel your pain. My old upstairs neighbors had pet wheelbarrows* that they would race across the living room at all hours of the night. My new upstairs neighbor enjoys stomping across the floor in lead-lined boots until 3:00 in the morning.

*the only explanation I can think of that would explain the noise.

posted by lekvar 10 August | 14:17

You could go the weasel route and bitch to the landlord. That won't make you any friends in the building, but it doesn't sound like you're too cozy with the neighbors as it is.

It's not a weasel route. It's asserting your rights as a tenant to be able to sleep in the apartment for which you are paying San Francisco rents. If San Francisco is anything like New York, it has a set of laws spelling out the rights and obligations of tenants and landlords.

I feel like I'll get labelled the complainy tenant if I start another complaint trail.

Don't personalize it so much. Think of it as a business matter. You pay your landlord a certain amount of money every month and in return, you get a living space. That living space has to conform to a certain standard, which most certainly includes protection from unreasonable noise coming from other tenants. If you're being awakened at 2:30 a.m., your landlord is not fulfilling his contractual obligations. If a tenant's acting like a bonehead, it's his job as a landlord to crack down.

posted by jason's_planet 10 August | 14:33

My old upstairs neighbors had pet wheelbarrows* that they would race across the living room at all hours of the night.

Ha! Oh yes, the stomping. Oh, the stomping. I suspect they're wrestling drunk elephants in heels while teaching kangaroos to polka, but I'm unable to confirm.

posted by occhiblu 10 August | 14:36

If you don't feel like complaining, try to get in the habit of wearing earplugs. They really help cut down on the impacts that the behaviour of others has on your sleep cycle.

posted by cmonkey 10 August | 14:56

Maybe you could ask them to put their speakers on stands or put some foam between the subwoofer and the floor. That often makes a huge difference.

posted by matildaben 10 August | 15:04

It's more that I was astounded by her leaps of logic last night,

And given that she seems to be a hairdressing student, I'm confused at the middle-class bourgeois judgment inherent in the comment.

Occhiblu, you're a smart woman. You're also wasting too much time and intellectual energy on someone who is just a inconsiderate pain in the ass. Nothing more. Nothing less. Don't waste time on her class background, her tortured twists of "logic," the interpersonal dynamics of it all. She's violating your rights. She babbles some b*llsh*t justification. Don't waste time on her. Just talk to the landlord and tell him to straighten her out.

Signed,

Learned the hard way.

posted by jason's_planet 10 August | 15:05

Your lease almost certainly has a clause giving you "quiet enjoyment" of the propery.

Or skip the legal fripperies and do a little common law:

Go to the utilty room. Cut the seal on the electric meter for their apartment. Wearing heavy leather gloves, pull the meter from socket (it may arc a little.) Throw the meter out into the street. Go back to bed.

posted by warbaby 10 August | 15:06

From experience I can tell you that even good earplugs don't work against a bass beat.

The Bay Area has a bunch of things that lend to the noise problem. For instance it has an immensely individualistic culture and a climate that permits zero insulation.

I also have a theory that earthquake-friendly building materials don't insulate against noise as well as other materials, but that one I'm making up.

posted by small_ruminant 10 August | 15:06

I had this problem with a person I shared a wall with once. Repeated discussions with my neighbour and complaints to the landlord did nothing. So I directed the speaker of my stereo directly at our common wall and then blasted classical every time I was being bothered by his metal. Only took three times to solve the problem.

Classical is great for this because of it's dynamic range but you should try to tailor or physiological warfare to their preferences

posted by Mitheral 10 August | 15:06

p.s. Call the cops first. If that doesn't work, call the landlady.

I mean, what's the point of being on the straight and narrow if you can't call the cops when you need them?

posted by small_ruminant 10 August | 15:08

There are very few situations that can't be made worse by adding a few cops.

posted by warbaby 10 August | 15:10

So I directed the speaker of my stereo directly at our common wall and then blasted classical every time I was being bothered by his metal. Only took three times to solve the problem.

That worked on Manuel Noriega. It didn't work on David Koresh and the Branch Davidians. So what we need to determine is, is the neighbor more like a drug-trafficking dictator or a pedophiliac cult leader?

posted by mudpuppie 10 August | 15:12

In both cases occhiblu is golden. The neighbour either gives up and turns the music down or they go out in a suicidal blaze of glory.

posted by Mitheral 10 August | 15:24

I don't think I've ever had neighbor noise problems. One neighbor I had would yell, "Turn it Up!" whenever I played "Hunted Down" by Soundgarden.

My current roommate sometimes wakes me up when he gets up at 5AM, due to the squeaky wood floors we have, but I usually just go back to sleep.

posted by black8 10 August | 15:25

In both cases occhiblu is golden. The neighbour either gives up and turns the music down or they go out in a suicidal blaze of glory.

Unless of course they are like the BDs and the new nieghbours have pet wheelbarrows.

posted by Mitheral 10 August | 15:25

I wonder if the pet wheelbarrow family is related to the pogo stick family I used to live downstairs from. I would always visualize their interactions:

Hi BOING honey BOING I'm home BOING!
Hi sweetie BOING *kiss*
Hey, here BOING comes my little BOING girl!
BOING! Daddy! BOING!

posted by matildaben 10 August | 15:30

We'll also have to build some sort of tower, since I have 14" foot ceilings. Speakers get too heavy to hold up against them.

posted by occhiblu 10 August | 15:37

I'm not exactly innocent of being a noisy neighbor myself. I like to crank my tunes. When we were just about the only caucasian residents of a neighborhood in Bridgeport, a Puerto Rican friend of mine walked to the door of our three-decker and asked the black kids on the porch "Where the white people at?" and they answered "Oh, you mean Rock & Roll Jon? Third Floor."

Turns out they liked to jump on the bed when I cranked the tunes.

posted by jonmc 10 August | 15:38

At 2:30 am on a Wednesday?

warbaby, that depends on the cops, the town, and the issue.

posted by small_ruminant 10 August | 16:06

My goal is to not have neighbors someday.

And I don't mean by having my remains cremated and then shot into space. I mean while I'm still alive.

If I can't do an insomniac drum solo at 4 AM, it's not living.

posted by Eideteker 10 August | 16:11

We had major issues with the downstairs neighbors in an apartment a few years back. We actually swapped our bedroom and our office, but it turned out the parents were just as loud as the kids. I'd knocked a couple times and asked them to keep it down, which they usually did (without ever answering the door), but one evening at 2am after I'd made my usual knocking, the cops showed up at our door: the neighbors had called them to complain about our harrassment. After we explained the situation, the police told us that we should never try handling situations like this ourselves, and that we should always call the police first. "In this neighborhood," Officer Friendly warned, "Your neighbor's probably got a gun. Don't risk knocking on the wrong door." We followed procedure a week later and called the police: no one showed.

We gave up and moved. It was a craphole anyway.

posted by eamondaly 10 August | 17:06

When I was single parent, my apartment shared a wall with two early-20's girls. Shortly after moving in, one girl's boyfriend moved in and the other girl moved out. Let's just say that they were very passionate in their arguing. Luckily my kids could sleep through anything. It got so bad one night while I was on the phone talking to a friend that I told her I had to get off the phone and call the cops. Just before I hung up, I heard furniture overturning. Peeking out my window, I discovered the cops were already there, and apparantly in the room when she tossed the coffeetable (or something). They both got taken away that night.
Oh, and there was the neighbor next to them, who tried to blow up the apartment by turning the gas on. He also spray-painted the living room walls and windows. Quiet guy, but facing eviction.
Now I have across the street neighbors who let their 15 year old daughter smoke in front of them, their sons blast music at 1 am, and their dog bark incessantly at 4 am. Not to mention the kids smoke pot in their booming car for half an hour before school. Lovely people.

posted by redvixen 10 August | 20:04

Right now I am wasting time until the rooftop nightclub directly across from my bedroom window shuts down the music. At least it isn't the night they play incredibly bad Eurodisco.

posted by cali 11 August | 00:49

Hi cali!

posted by mudpuppie 11 August | 00:59

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