Shared Backyards: Brilliant or Bad Idea?
SodaHead Living
2012/06/17 00:06:42
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Robert Frost said that good fences make good neighbors. But these days a growing number of homeowners are knocking them down in order to create larger communal backyards.
Joining your backyard with your neighbor’s means there is more room for gardening and entertaining, children and pets and can run around more freely, and you may even be able to build that swimming pool or tennis court you’ve always dreamed of. But the extra space doesn’t come without added difficulties.
“Gardening expenses can be split evenly, but who pulls the weeds and who gets to pick the fruit? Post a sign-up sheet for use of the communal table? Or is there an always-room-to-share policy? What happens when one neighbor wants to sell?” asked Anne Marie Chaker of The Wall Street Journal.
Many of the individuals who have opted for shared backyards explain that they are are hammering these details out in monthly decision-making meetings and in legal documents. The potential risks are evident, but if you actually like your neighbors and are willing to give up some of your privacy, yard-sharing seems like a fantastic option. (That is if you live in a neighborhood that hasn’t prohibited the practice.)
So, what do you think SodaHeads? Is yard-sharing brilliant or a bad idea?
Joining your backyard with your neighbor’s means there is more room for gardening and entertaining, children and pets and can run around more freely, and you may even be able to build that swimming pool or tennis court you’ve always dreamed of. But the extra space doesn’t come without added difficulties.
“Gardening expenses can be split evenly, but who pulls the weeds and who gets to pick the fruit? Post a sign-up sheet for use of the communal table? Or is there an always-room-to-share policy? What happens when one neighbor wants to sell?” asked Anne Marie Chaker of The Wall Street Journal.
Many of the individuals who have opted for shared backyards explain that they are are hammering these details out in monthly decision-making meetings and in legal documents. The potential risks are evident, but if you actually like your neighbors and are willing to give up some of your privacy, yard-sharing seems like a fantastic option. (That is if you live in a neighborhood that hasn’t prohibited the practice.)
So, what do you think SodaHeads? Is yard-sharing brilliant or a bad idea?
Read More: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240527023037...
Top Opinion
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Sayer Stewart 2012/06/17 05:09:21
Y= you
n: "what are you doing!?"
Y: "im picking my tomatos"
N: "more like MY tomatos"
Y: "no there not yours!"
N: "look around how many food plants do you have?"
Y: "three"
N: "i have 9 so there mine"
Y: "that doesn't mean anything!"
N:"yea it does"
Y: "no it doesn't"
(the end of neighbors as we know it)
If you and your neighbors get along and chose that they don't need fences between them, then that sounds great to me.
We all already see the failure of "communal property" in the lack of respect people have for public areas.
But even more important, I paid for my home (not the entire town) and I'll be damned if I am going to negotiate my property rights and privacy away.
I paid for what I have through hard work and there can be only be one owner, Me.
Oh, by the way, the "good fences make good neighbors" so often attributed to Robert Frost was not at ALL what he was saying in his poem, "Mending Wall." His point of the poem is that 'something there is that doesn't love a wall...' Frost absolutely hated the fact that people latched onto a phrase he used in the poem without understanding what he was trying to say.
The *fact* is people really don't know their neighbors and you only need to read the paper or watch the nightly news to hear about the neighbor who everyone thought was an angel, turn out to be a child predator.