Mephistophelian neighbor

A Danish friend is no longer good friends with her neighbours. Gone are the days when everyone used to know their neighbours.As my mom told me as a tween, anyone can hand pick friends or family and be frank with them but it’s not always so easy with a problematic neighbour as my Danish friend found out.But it’s not all bad. With a little bit of communication and healthy dose of understanding, the neighbour of her nightmares has become a pleasant acquaintance.It all stemmed from a 3am chainsaw work, the bloke was working on.In simple terms, close proximity living brings people closer but not the case with the two.We all know that noise has a knack for travelling through walls, around fences and often directly into the bedroom but the Danish female friend whom I consider a restless sleeper was left wondering how her son is possibly going to get through work tomorrow in his sleep deprived state.The first option that came to her mind was to communicate open and directly with the source of the problem, a bloke using a highly powered chainsaw. It was the case of her neighbour suddenly deciding to try his hand at carpentry late at night and she found out, the bloke normally was not even aware that he had become a nuisance to their neighbours.The majority of noise complaints in the neck of the woods can be resolved right at any moment and she applied the tactics of being friendly and went prepared with a few alternative options so that all involved can find an agreeable solution to the loud chainsaw.

Initially, her neighbor agreed to only use his power tools on appropriate time but he didn’t take it lightly that a female species can have the guts to walk to him at night and ask him to stop doing what he was handling.She politely went and spoken to her neighbour about the noise that has been keeping her up at night and they agreed to keep it down. Before that night event, there was silent bliss and everything seems great, then to her horror the noise came with vengeance and her follow up attempts to silence the chainsaw noise fell on deaf ears.They eventually came to an arrangement that benefits all involved. On average, almost all neighbours are completely fine, except for some very annoying thing that most people probably don’t know how to bring up such awkward conversation without causing a neighbour dispute.Talk to them is Dane’s advise because some people need a good talking to. Tell them what they’re doing is wrong.Most times someone is willing to listen when approached with dignity.What my Danish friend case taught me is that if concerned about dealing with vengeful, old school-style neighbours, the best way is to go and introduce yourself. Also addressing not to feed the situation as much as possible is important.There is also need to give a little with certain people, too like with her case. Sometimes you may have to rearrange your schedule slightly to accommodate your neighbour and in this case that is what chainsaw bloke did but not without being pampered.She knew the chainsaw bloke would like to feel he has won and it helped to have the attitude that she couldn’t expect it all to go her way and thats why she gave him a pack of beer following morning.As always, the best way to deal with such cases is to have a friendly chat. This article first appeared here