Any apt dwellers have somewhat annoying neighbors?

[rainbow4321]

:( Guess I have just had a long day, but this guy rubbed me the wrong way...

I went out on my apt patio with my dog at midnight..while we were out there a big ol' dog barked in the courtyard area, my dog responded with two barks and then shut up. Two barks.

Minutes after I hear a whiny, nasal sounding "excuse me, upstairs?" from the patio below me. "Your dog barks loud and our bedroom window is right there". I apologize and say I will take her in. He then starts to ask me twice "does she need to go out or something"...no, she was just barking in response to the other dog.
He again asks if she needs to go out...OMG, what did I just tell you...she was barking twice at the other dog. I could see if she was barking nonstop and I let her go on and on but it was two barks! He then points to his window and says "my bedroom window is right there"
He tells me that "this is not the first time"...yet I've never heard from him before in the six months I've been here?
Ok, guy, the time it took you to ask me twice do I need to take the dog out and that her two barks were too loud, and pointing your window out to me, you could have already been back in bed and me/my dog could have already been back inside my apt.

To think this is the guy that I didn't say anything to when he and his friend (?) were talking loud enough on their patio that I could hear them thru my whole apartment upstairs a few weeks ago. I didn't say anything that night cuz I didn't wanna be the "bitchy neighbor".
No more Ms Nice Lady after this.

I can just see him complaining to the apt manager over the two barks. Given this is the first time he has ever said anything to me, I'm thinking/hoping I can just say "had I been told prior to the night that her two barks bothered him, I would have kept the dog off the patio..."

[theNotoriousP.I.G.]

1. Oh yeah

I'm surrounded by them. Crabby old guy with the aggressive German Shepherd that barks at the drop of a pin but if my dog barks he runs out on his balcony and starts yelling at me in Bayerish. He doesn't understand English but he knew enough to quit harassing me when I said to him in very slow and loud English "LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!" Now he just ignores me :)

Loud newlyweds in the apartment below me. Sounds like we're on the set of a porno movie.

Loud old hippy couple who like to play the guitar and sing ZZ-Top late into the night. They have been known to engage in loud fucking on the balcony too.

With the exception of the first guy, I really don't care. I don't complain about anything. It's kind of funny and gives me something to talk about with my family back home.

Your neighbor sounds like he needs to get a life. All that over two barks? Even if he complains to the management, it was two barks, what are they going to do?

[TorchTheWitch]

2. almost everywhere I've lived

I really lucked out the place that I lived before where I am now. I had just one neighbor and he was great. Every other place I lived I had whackadoodle neighbors, a nutjob landlord or both.

I live in a rowhouse now, and the crazies next door drive me up the wall. I'm so done with the nice neighbor lady thing with these people, too. Their kids are out of control, their dog (though thankfully a fat lazy lump) barks his brains out at NOTHING in the yard for hours on end and the couple are just plain nuts. They CONSTANTLY ask to borrow this or that, and I'm far more broke than they are and they know it! They NEVER do anything to make up for all the stuff I've given them including letting them stick an extension cord into my outside outlet so they could run the cord into their house for a couple of days because they decided they didn't need to pay the electric bill. All the past 4 years they've been living next door I thought it was because they really were broke, but it's really that they're moochers and have zero priority when it comes to finances.

The first year they lived there, hubby went to jail 3 times for domestic violence. Wife cried and whined and swore by all that's holy to dump him yet he's always back the day he gets out of jail and is still there. The police have to come to their house for a domestic call roughly once a month, and that doesn't include all the fights they've had that no one got pissed off enough to call the cops. They've already had their kids taken away once, so you'd think they learned their lesson, but noooooo. Right back to the drugs and the drinking and the fighting. Quite frankly, the domestic violence they're both at fault for and pretty evenly matched. At this point, I don't even care if they end up killing each other. It's the kids that worry me, though. They had another absolute blowout last week, and I'm still toying with the idea of calling the cops or CPS or whoever.

They're friendly people and really nice on the surface. It's the perpetual mooching, the domestic crap and the out of control kids and wildly barking dog that drive me nuts. Ok, I don't like the drinking or the drugs but at least they're pretty much just weekend warriors since they had the kids taken away before and tend to do it in the house rather than in the yard with their obnoxious boozing and drugging friends but it's not THAT bad.

What really annoys me about the mooching in particular is that I always thought that they had bad money troubles. Ok, they do have some of that, but wife works full time and hubby works piece meal when he can find work and they do have two kids to raise, but I found out recently that wife has a trust fund and they think it's more important to buy the youngest kid a $600 plastic outdoor play house than pay the electric bill or to go to a really nice hotel for a weekend get-away trip instead of paying the mortgage. Here I am all this time thinking I've been helping out broke people in need even though I'm worse broke myself because I sure as hell know what it's like to not have enough money to buy a roll of toilet paper, but now I recently find out they aren't really so broke at all despite all their boo-hooing about it, and just think that frivolous stuff is more important to spend money on then keeping the lights on or the toilet flushing.

Somewhere around mid September they were crying the blues to me that they were about to get their water shut off when they had just come back from one of their fancy hotel weekends. And I know from personal experience that the water company lets you go about five or six months without paying a dime before they send out a shut off notice. And they have the gall to ask me if they can use my garden hose hooked up to my outside spigot to run through their house in case their water gets turned off after just telling me about their fun fancy hotel get-a-way weekend. And for something like that I hate to refuse because it's not fair to the kids that they have no water wash with or drink or flush the toilet. But DAMMIT, they KNOW I'm way worse off financially then they are, but I use the small bit of funds I have to pay the damn BILLS. I can't even remember the last time I bought something nice for myself like a DVD movie on half price sale while they're buying their kids expensive toys, drugs and booze for themselves, mini expensive vacations, etc. but don't pay their bills and expect that broke as I am that I'll help them.

NO MORE! I wouldn't mind so much if just once in awhile they did something nice for me like picked up a loaf of bread for me at the market or bought me a few packs of smokes for all the cartons worth they've bummed off me or SOMETHING for all I've done for them when they know I'm in a far worse financial position than they are. It's almost become a daily thing anymore where they need to bum something off of me, and especially after finding out that they really aren't so broke at all, and I'm DONE with this crap.

Well. That felt good to get that out.

[Gormy Cuss]

3. Your dog barked on the patio at midnight and you're complaining about the neighbor?

Sorry, but the neighbor had every right to complain as long as it was done in a civil manner, just as you had the right to complain a few weeks ago when noise from his unit disturbed you.

Your neighbor telling you that he was bothered by her barks on an earlier occasion was his way of saying that he has been tolerant. Rather than getting your feathers ruffled about it, acknowledge that you weren't aware of the earlier problem and apologize to him.

[Arugula Latte]

4. He was probalby asleep, so a dog barking under his window was probably very startling.

I have a low tolerance for dog barking; there is something very agitating about that sound to me.

on edit: I realize it was just two barks, so he probably did overreact, but still ...