Neighbors Make A Difference

If you watch any TV sitcoms, you’ve seen annoying neighbors characterized: Mr. Roper from “Three's Company”; Ned Flanders from “The Simpsons”; and Kimmie Gibbler from “Full House” to name just a few. Many of us can relate to these sitcom neighbors because we’ve had at least one annoying neighbor in our lives. An annoying neighbor may be nosy, inappropriate or just always around. I’m sure some people think my wife and I are annoying neighbors because our chocolate Labrador Dawson has a bark that can be heard from space.

- Derek James

I’m lucky that in the 11 years of home ownership in the Charlotte-Matthews area, I’ve had incredible neighbors. When my wife and I moved into our first house, we were pretty quiet. We were busy fixing up the place. In fact, the same day we signed the closing papers, I was out mowing the yard because it was in pretty rough shape. Over the course of eight years in that first house, we got to know many of our neighbors, especially those who have kids. By “know them,” I mean we actually spent time with them as opposed to simply borrowing clippers or sugar — even though we did that too.