Grandpa’s Basement House • Hacker News Board

Re: Grandpa’s Basement House

#241

Post by tomrod » Mon, May 23, 2022, 2:54 PM UTC

hamburglar wrote: post #147

quesera wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind that some HOAs are cooperative organizations, and some are run by very damaged people. Also keep in mind that getting together to organize a set of common standards and restrictions is the basis for all exclusive communities. That's OK if you are on the casual compliance side of the rules, or if you get to write them to suit your preferences. But it is discriminatory. Similar covenants have been used to…

> An HOA can morph from tolerable into unconscionable. A friend of mine lived in an unconscionable one and managed to turn it tolerable by running for President on a platform of vowing not to enforce any rules. Stayed in “power” for quite a while.

My neighborhood voted to abolish the HOA in 2002, about 5 years after being established. The developer has their finger in the HOA pie as a permanent seat; instead upon abolishment they were relegated to upkeeping the entryways per their sales contract and city agreements, only through voluntary funding by people in the neighborhood.

It's had mixed results. The neighborhood is surrounded by a brick wall that had a gap below (why??). The mortar is failing in several places. But the entry ways are kept pristine (developer is a big one in the area and has been slapped by lawsuits for not holding up their end before).

Re: Grandpa’s Basement House

#242

Post by tomrod » Mon, May 23, 2022, 2:55 PM UTC

lelanthran wrote: post #216

lelanthran wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Would you be ok if I moved next door to you and hung nazi flags (this has happened to me as well)? Restricting nazi flags also restricts pride flags. The question is "Would you be okay if I hung flags?" What about other forms of displaying support? Are posters just a cheaper flag?

If you're going to restrict flags, restrict all flags. Otherwise all you're doing is saying "this neighbourhood only allows support for these politics". Are you sure you want to go that way?

Yes, I would be okay with restricting Nazi flags and other known hate paraphernalia.

Pride is not hate, despite modern recasting of homosexuality in scripture by conservative religions.

Re: Grandpa’s Basement House

#243

Post by rayiner » Mon, May 23, 2022, 3:16 PM UTC

jessaustin wrote: post #238

samatman wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, my boss, whom I live next to, and vote for or against on a yearly basis. I guess you don't like your HOA and you're projecting.

Wow, meta-projection. 'rayiner has been very clear ITT that he isn't subject to any HOA.

I have a quasi-HOA that has something to do with the county extending public sewer/water here a few years ago. But it's like the federal government during the wild west era. They keep to the "nice" side of the neighborhood, and don't hassle us out here on the frontier. The house in front of mine hasn't had siding up for the better part of a year.

My parents live in a real HOA and it's miserable. Lawyers had to get involved recently when they got into a fight with the HOA over cutting down trees on their own property.

Re: Grandpa’s Basement House

#244

Post by hamburglar » Mon, May 23, 2022, 3:22 PM UTC

OJFord wrote: post #232

hamburglar wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> An HOA can morph from tolerable into unconscionable. A friend of mine lived in an unconscionable one and managed to turn it tolerable by running for President on a platform of vowing not to enforce any rules. Stayed in “power” for quite a while.

I don't think it's quite what you're describing (sorry if it is) - but 'we [deliberately] have rules, we just don't enforce them' would probably be a pretty effective & pleasant one. I suppose essentially that's just living in a society, i.e. as anywhere without a 'HOA', but codified.

It’s exactly as I described. He said he wouldn’t go after anyone for rules violations, and he didn’t. The previous busybody HOA President was quite bothered, but it seemed most people just wanted to be left alone.

Re: Grandpa’s Basement House

#245

Post by mmh0000 » Mon, May 23, 2022, 3:32 PM UTC

betwixthewires wrote: post #168

mmh0000 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I bought my first house, I purposefully avoided any neighborhood with an HOA because of all the internet scare mongering I had heard over the years. After ten years of one neighbor parking cars on their lawn, another growing more weeds than blades of grass, and another with 8 vehicles parked along the street I was done. When I bought my second house I specifically wanted an HOA. After another 6 years, I couldn’t…

Let me ask you, why were you concerned about your neighbors parking in their yard or not weeding their lawn?

Let me answer you with snark:

Yeah, it's totally ridiculous that I would want to live in a neighborhood of like-minded people who would want to maintain and improve their most valuable possession.

I should be totally happy putting time, money and effort into the upkeep and improvement of my plot of land while my nextdoor neighbor adds to their collection of front-yard beer cans and beater cars.

Re: Grandpa’s Basement House

#246

Post by samatman » Mon, May 23, 2022, 3:48 PM UTC

jessaustin wrote: post #238

samatman wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, my boss, whom I live next to, and vote for or against on a yearly basis. I guess you don't like your HOA and you're projecting.

Wow, meta-projection. 'rayiner has been very clear ITT that he isn't subject to any HOA.

para-projection as it turns out.

I do understand hating your parents' HOA, I don't get lacking the perspective to imagine a world where someone gets along with it. Sending a Christmas card to your neighbors isn't bootlicking if you like them.

Re: Grandpa’s Basement House

#247

Post by Ichthypresbyter » Mon, May 23, 2022, 3:51 PM UTC

I live in one of the earliest post-WW2 planned suburbs (in Maryland). Many of the houses here are two-storey and were built as such, but with the second floor unfinished (in other words just an attic with no interior walls, decoration, etc) until the owners needed the space and had the money.

On some other streets, people have added a floor to what were originally built as one-level homes.

Re: Grandpa’s Basement House

#248

Post by c22 » Mon, May 23, 2022, 4:01 PM UTC

whatshisface wrote: post #105

lupire wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are all already torts or illegal under municipal law.

Unfortunately, the court system is not friction-less enough for "your weeds got in my yard" to be a remotely workable reason to go to court. It would be nice to live in a society where justice flowed as freely as municipal water and common law obviated the need for all other forms of organization or regulation, but in the real world going to court is so expensive and time-consuming that we need a lot of other forms o…

You don't need to go to court. Most cities will be happy to fine your neighbors for "harboring pests".

Re: Grandpa’s Basement House

#249

Post by rdtwo » Mon, May 23, 2022, 4:14 PM UTC

kortilla wrote: post #178

rdtwo wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

I don’t think you realize how incredibly racist your comment is against black people. Read it and parse the implication.

For clarity I mean white puritan ideas of what property lawns etc should look like. If you travel the world you will find that other cultures choose a different look to their houses. White picket fences and green lawns are a mostly colonial construct

Re: Grandpa’s Basement House

#250

Post by OJFord » Mon, May 23, 2022, 4:21 PM UTC

dr_spicy wrote: post #236

OJFord wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> like having the audacity to fly a [doesn't matter] flag. I don't live in the US, and at best the concept is very rare here, and I don't like the idea of it, but that sort of thing is exactly what I would like. Flying a flag (why?!) has much more impact (probably negative) on your neighbours than it does (presumably positive) you.

I think flying [let's say current nation's] flag, can very a bunch depending on the country, I know in Denmark as well as the US it appears much more common than in other parts of the world. And personally, once I'm used to a flag being flown, I don't really care which

I don't care which either, that's why I elided the example in the comment I replied to - just to be clear I wasn't objecting to that in particular.

In the UK flying a union flag (residentially) would be extremely unusual - I'm aware of one, not where I live, and indeed it attracts scoffs and eyerolls - you do see England flags (St George crosses) more, particularly at certain times of year or certain years; that's more a signal that 'I am a football fan' than of patriotism, though.

Maybe that biases me against them in general. But even for things I do 'support' in some sense (I noticed a Ukraine flag covering a garage door recently, for example) I don't want a flag waved at me, and I wouldn't want a neighbour that did that.