10 Top Reasons You Might Not “Love thy Neighbor”

By Bill Primavera

The Home Guru

God tells us to “love thy neighbor” without offering any good reasons not to. But your local code enforcement officer can tell you right off the bat and with some authority.

To confirm my suspicions about the top issues that turn neighbor against neighbor, I checked with Joe Hughes, a soft-spoken former cop who enforces codes in my home town of Yorktown. I thought he should know about this because, with 40,000 residents in town, as many as 500 complaints come to him annually.

“Most people want to make their complaints anonymously,” he said, “although most times the people they complain about guess who they are. It would be better if I could know definitely who is complaining, because then I could report back to them and tell them what has been accomplished or ask more questions.”

Whether the caller is anonymous or identified, here are the top ten complaints, listed in order of frequency.  

Complaint #1:  Trash.  Surprised? I was. The complaints deal with how trash is handled, bundled, where it is placed or whether it blows on to other neighbors’ properties. Also figuring heavily is bulk pick up, when people pile their throwaway junk at the curb to be picked up by the town.  If it is placed out too early before pick-up, there are complaints from neighbors. Or, worse yet, if the dates get mixed up and the junk is on the street after the scheduled date, it can be very testy with neighbors if it’s left there for the next month’s pick-up. Yes, it happens

Complaint #2:  Fences. There can be trouble when a fence is constructed with the “ugly” side facing a neighbor, when town codes usually specify that the decorative side must face away from the house.  This complaint is so endemic that fence manufacturers have invented the fence where both sides are decorative.

Or, the complaint may be about a “spite” fence. You might remember that Martha Stewart was accused of pinning a fence contractor against a gate with her SUV at her East Hampton home when he attempted to construct a fence between her and a neighbor who was not among her legions of fans.  

Complaint # 3 and #4. Trees.  Part A of the complaint is when a tree on one person’s property is hanging over a neighbor’s yard, casting shade or dropping leaves or limbs.  Part B is removing mature trees when they significantly change the landscape. Most towns have tree ordinances to prevent this, but it happens anyway.

Complaint #5:  Visual Blight. This is a broad category and can involve anything from excessive numbers of vehicles in driveways to non-repair of a home’s exterior or any pile of stuff that is covered with that horrible shade of blue plastic.

Complaint #6: Noise.  This covers several categories. There is noise from loud music, mostly yard parties with amplifiers, which by the way, can go on forever and as loud as one likes as long as it doesn’t last past 11 pm. By that time, however, you may start to have fantasies of engaging the Exterminator to visit the party. Lawnmowers or leaf blowers used after dinner time are particularly challenging to neighbors staying friendly.

Complaint #7: Signs.  So you really don’t want to learn about kickboxing? Or losing weight? One of the world’s worst inventions are those commercial Styrofoam signs on wire holders that litter our landscape.

Then, there are the ubiquitous “tag sale” signs attached to telephone poles, which is a patently illegal place to place them. The double dip of annoyance is when the offenders fail to come back to remove them after the sale.

Complaint # 8: Dogs. Continuous barking is the main issue with dogs, and some towns have specific allowable time frames considered acceptable to let dogs bark. In my town, a resident can complain after 15 minutes of continuous barking.

And here’s one for the books about dogs.  It involves poop. One client whose house I listed complained bitterly about his neighbor next door, saying, “That S.O.B. trained his dogs to (do their duty) on anybody’s property but their own! And their owner doesn’t clean up!” Upon leaving with my contract, I was advised to “be careful where you step.”

Complaint # 9: Water  Runoff. When a new construction project creates water runoff on another property, the complaint usually goes first to the code enforcer, but then to the town board and town engineer to try to get something done about it.

Complaint #10:  Outdoor Lighting.  This is a distant last category. Perhaps because of security measures or safety, there seems to be more outdoor lighting used today, which sometimes is pitched directly at neighbors’ bedroom windows.

I have a friend who says that when her neighbors across the street pull into their driveway at night, the entire property and sky light up like there's a prison break.

Interestingly, Hughes told me that the number of complaints in 2010 dropped to about 350, compared with 500 the year before. Do people become kinder or more accepting during recessionary times, I wonder?

Hughes also told me that I might do more research on the website called The Neighbors from Hell where people can vent their un-neighborly grievances. When I went to the site, filled with fiery fonts and a flaming background, there was a message that read: "This site has been closed. Thank you for your past support. For all you still living with The Neighbors from Hell, just remember: This too shall pass. :)" 

Bill Primavera is a licensed Realtor® (www.PrimaveraHomes.com), affiliated with Coldwell Banker, and a marketing practitioner (www.PrimaveraPR.com). For questions or comments about the housing market, or selling or buying a home, he can be reached directly at 914-522-2076.

The Secrets and Dangers of Hoarding in the Home

By Bill Primavera

The Home Guru

The voice on the other end of the line sounded very sweet but tentative.  “Hello, I’m calling about a column you wrote a while back about people who help clean out homes,” the woman said, “I have some stuff  to remove, and I need help.”

I asked specifically what kind of “stuff” was involved because I have worked with several suppliers who do this kind of work and know that some specialize in evaluating and selling things of value, while others just dispose of junk.

My caller wavered a bit in answering, saying that her daughter had already removed much of the clutter, but it was too heavy a job and she now needed professional help.  When she acknowledged that she had “a problem,” I knew what the problem was.

Hoarding is a subject I considered writing about several times, particularly when I have encountered it in my work as a realtor, but I’ve always pulled back, feeling that it was too intrusive into the lives of its victims to explore it further.

This week I changed my mind when a neighbor of mine died from a fire in her home and it was reported that the firefighters had difficulty reaching her on the second level of her home because the entire interior was filled with furnishings and trash “from the floor to the ceiling.” 

The fire had started, it was determined, from a faulty extension cord, but I wonder whether hoarding contributed to the tragedy. Actually it’s not an uncommon occurrence that hoarders die in their own prisons of trash.

At what point do homeowners progress from having a cluttered home to one that becomes dangerous because of the condition known as hoarding? And what causes the condition in the first place? 

Researches at the Mayo Clinic say that it’s not entirely clear, but currently it is considered a subtype of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Interestingly, the condition is more likely to affect people who have a family history of hoarding, so genetics or the environment in which they grow up may be triggering factors.  In fact, my caller said that she was relieved that none of her children had inherited the problem.

Hoarding sometimes goes undetected from the outside world for years, usually being discovered only upon the hoarder’s death.

My first exposure to it was through a listing of an estate sale where the lawyer who was a close friend of the deceased had to start unloading the materials at the front door to open it. It was only a 1700 square foot house, but it took three dumpsters to rid the house of its trove of trash.

That same lawyer was left to deal with another estate with a similar problem but this time most of the collected items were of value. My supplier Jennifer Gurihian, a professional in organization and clearance, was called in to evaluate the collectibles which were sold through tag sales, on e-Bay, Craigslist and at a consignment shop.

The condition of hoarding was brought to the attention of the public most famously by the case of the Collyer Brothers in New York City. They had both died in their brownstone within days of each other in 1947. One brother had died of an illness and, in his attempt to reach him,  the other was crushed to death by one of his own booby-traps of tons of bundled newspapers that had been set to protect their possessions from intruders.

When the authorities arrived, upon a complaint about the stench of decaying bodies emanating from the house, they found the Collyers’ home filled with over 130 tons of hoarded materials, including countless bundles of newspapers and magazines, 25,000 books, 14 pianos, many other musical instruments,  a collection of guns, and such disparate items as dressmaking dummies, an army of bowling balls, the folding top of a horse drawn carriage, and human organs pickled in jars (one of the brothers had been a physician).

The other day when I re-contacted my caller to ask if there was anything further I could do to help, she shared with me her history of dealing with the problem. I was glad to hear that she had been aware of her condition for some years and has worked to address it.

As her first stab at recovery years ago, she attended a workshop at the Y in the Bronx and learned some of the basics of clearing out obsessively collected items from the home. Since then, she has attended other seminars and has read articles about it.

“The first thing I learned was to dedicate a certain amount of time to organizing each day.  It had to be at least 15 minutes, but not more than two hours at any one time because it is a very stressful and tiring process. Then, it’s all about decisions and some of them are very emotional.

“We are taught that possessions should be organized into three piles:  things to keep, things to get rid of, and a third pile for ‘maybe.’ Another part of the decision process is to determine whether the things are useful, sentimental or ornamental,” she said.

When I asked how she would classify where the problem stood with her right now, she said, “Well, it’s much like a diet.  Sometimes you do well with it and other times you relapse into old habits. Right now, it’s serious, but I’m not panicked. I’m doing something about it.”

Because lives  can be lost through hoarding, it’s probably best if any of us encounters it to try to provide some kind of intervention, either by researching agencies in our area that deal with it, or approaching the person’s friends, family or neighbors to help.

And as hard as it might seem to do, if the situation is dangerous enough to warrant it,  it may be necessary to contact local authorities or public health officials to protect the lives of people who suffer from this behavior and use the home as its repository.

 Bill Primavera is a licensed Realtor® (www.PrimaveraHomes.com), affiliated with Coldwell Banker, and a marketing practitioner (www.PrimaveraPR.com). For questions or comments about the housing market, or selling or buying a home, he can be reached directly at 914-522-2076.

The Basics of Building and Living Green, Part I

By Bill Primavera

The Home Guru

“Building and living green is more than just screwing in an energy efficient light bulb or buying Energy STAR kitchen appliances,” says Galina Kanevsky. “These things help, yes, of course, but there are many ways to achieve a more sustainable lifestyle in the home.”

Kanevsky should know about such things as an architect and principal of GnG Design+Build, located in upper Westchester, which dedicates itself to green and sustainable principles.

The first time I heard about a house for sale that was designed and built “totally green,” I must confess that I had only a sketchy idea of what that meant, even though I was already involved in real estate. Some years went by without my having to educate myself further because I never again encountered another totally green house.

But because of educational programs and certification in green practices offered by the National Association of Realtors and state associations, the real estate industry is betting that we’ll all be living green and sustainable someday. Maybe not in our own lifetime, but someday.  It’s inevitable.

“So far, our generation has learned how to recycle and to compost, and that’s a start,” Kanevsky told this reporter recently. “It takes time.”

When I asked for more information about the basics of green design, she referred me to her firm’s brochure which identifies them as: maximizing energy efficiency and reducing energy costs in the home, maximizing the use of daylight, providing a healthy environment for the occupants of the space created, preserving existing landscapes, minimizing construction waste, and utilizing materials with high recycled content.

As an example in her own home, she said that she was considering installing solar panels to produce energy for her heating system, but when told that she would have to remove several large trees to do so, she settled for a percentage of energy savings by working with her supplier to accommodate her wishes to preserve the environment as well as save energy cost.

According to Kanevsky, the concept of building green is not new. Many of its elements were developed in ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, but totally lost by the Middle Ages. Here in America, interest in green building was revived during the Clinton administration because of the energy crunch at that time. 

In 1998 a green building certification system called LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council to improve performance in building design in terms of energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality and stewardship of natural resources.

To achieve all that might seem like a tall order for someone wanting to build responsibly, but the most direct route to achieving green objectives in a new or already existing home is to identify an architect who is schooled in these disciplines.

“Obviously it’s easier to accomplish sustainable living when designing a project from scratch, rather than adding green elements to an older home,” Kanevsky said, “but every step toward a more sustainable living environment helps.

“Our objective is to educate as well as design and build to make our plan fit the lifestyles of the home owner,” she said. “It’s a relationship among the owner, designer and builder in deciding what level of green is to be achieved, what it will cost, and what it will save,” she said.

The process of learning more about the family starts with an extensive interview with the client, and that can be a very personal kind of journey. “We are designing and building a place for clients to raise their children,” Kanevsky said. “Their home must reflect how they function both as individuals and as a family to live a more fulfilling life. I ask such questions as how they eat breakfast, what do they do after they shower, what is their work schedule, and how do they spend their weekends? Then, it’s the architect’s job to create the space to accommodate their lifestyle.

“We educate our clients about which designs will help them live happier and healthier lives. For instance, we site their homes to maximize daylight, and we plan more open interior space to improve circulation and the quality of air. And because we’re encouraging clients to live smaller for energy efficiency, we like to design multifunctional spaces,” she said.

After the interview or series of interviews, the next step for Kanevsky is to create a preliminary schematic to which the client can add ideas. Usually she supplies at least three schematics for discussion and final selection of features.

The next step is the design development stage in which the cost can be roughly estimated because the square footage is known. And by the time of the final design, the client has selected all systems, materials, and appliances to be incorporated into the home, and a final budget has been determined.

But what about those costs? Haven’t we all heard that green building is much more expensive to achieve?

Kanevsky says the upfront additional cost for green and sustainable design has been greatly reduced in the past five years because of the greater availability of green materials. “Five years ago, it might have cost 20 or 30 percent more to build green,” she said, “but today that extra cost has been reduced to 10 percent. 

“Remember, making that effort to design ventilation, lighting, heating and cooling around green principles is all about living a healthier life,” she concluded. “And that is the most important benefit.”

Part II, next week, will focus on the specific language and materials of green living.

To know more about designing green for the home, Galina Kanevsky can be reached at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   or call 914-432-5871.

Bill Primavera is a licensed Realtor® (www.PrimaveraHomes.com), affiliated with Coldwell Banker, and a marketing practitioner (www.PrimaveraPR.com). For questions or comments about the housing market, or selling or buying a home, he can be reached directly at 914-522-2076.

Garden Clubs and Beautification of our Communities

By Bill Primavera

The Home Guru

From early spring to late fall, I am always aware of the colorful plantings that grace corners and roadsides, as well as the plant containers on sidewalks, in many of the towns in our area, and I wonder, who are the people who do this beautiful work?

My question was answered just recently when I was approached by fellow realtor Bettyann Nettelfield, a longstanding member of The Garden Club of Yorktown, who informed me that her organization was celebrating its 85^th anniversary this year.

When I expressed interest in knowing more about how garden clubs work, Bettyann arranged for me to meet with some of the club’s officers. In advance, I did a little research on garden clubs and beautification committees in our area and those that popped up on Google included organizations in Pleasantville, Briarcliff, Larchmont, Mount Kisco, Elmsford, Hastings, Somers, Port Chester and White Plains. And, while most clubs are private, there is a significant beautification program originated by Putnam County called “Plant One on Me” in which businesses and corporations are encouraged to do their own roadside plantings to enhance the appearance of the town.

There are surely many more groups that don’t have websites, as is the case with Yorktown, but their efforts are high-profile in that their annual plantings target the most heavily trafficked corners and streets in our towns.

“The purpose of our club is education and the beautification of our community,” said Lou Ann O’Brien, president of the Yorktown Club. “When it was founded in 1926, the club was quite different than it is today,” she said, explaining that it was then somewhat exclusionary, compared with the openness it now offers to anyone who wants to join.

Denise Farrell, the organization’s Civic Chair, shed more light on that interesting social tidbit. “From old minutes we know that, when a new woman wanted to join the club, she had to be ‘proposed’ by another member. The proposing member would then have a tea to introduce the prospect to the club, after which they would vote for accepting her or not.

“The minutes detail what was served at the tea and what the flower arrangements for the day included. Sometimes they would have contests, aside from competitive flower arranging, like identifying the tree species from just a leaf. Only certain groups of people would even be considered for membership. Many of the early members were weekend people from New York City and would summer here. Obviously we have evolved to include anyone interested in gardening and willing to help with our town gardens!”

Elise Graham, a member of the program committee, explained that the mission of the club’s annual program is to offer education on horticulture, conservation and environmental issues. “We have lectures by well-known horticulturists, and offer field trips to significant public gardens,” she said.

The members meet the first Wednesday of every month, either at a member’s home or at a destination location. A sampling of field trips this year include: an “easy” hike conducted in April by John Schroeder, president of the Yorktown Land Trust; in May, a visit to the Locust Grove Estate in Poughkeepsie and lunch at the Culinary Institute;  a Stone Barns tour and lunch in June; and a tomato tasting by the Cornell Cooperative Extension in September. Each year, the December meeting is dedicated to wreath making at Town Hall, with wreaths allocated for town buildings.

But the real essence of the program is best demonstrated by the yeoman work conducted by the club on its planting sites throughout summer, working in tandem with the town, which supplies mulch, weekly watering and removal of waste.

The planting plans are changed each year to provide constant interest for passersby. A typical plan for achieving color throughout the season was outlined by Ann Perkowski, co-vice chair. At one entrance point to the town, Ann’s planning notes say: “There are lots of spring blooming daffodils; summer perennials include Knock-out roses (which have a high degree of pest and disease resistance) in both red and pink. Purple sedum. Icy blue oat grasses. Also a dramatic hibiscus that has dinner-plate size blossoms in late summer. A lot of magenta petunias added last year for a purple, blue and magenta theme.  This garden has mostly perennials that are drought tolerant.  The blue oat grasses remain through the winter.”
   Financing the club’s plantings and program activities is an annual plant sale that takes place the Saturday before Mother’s Day at the Yorktown Green Shopping Center in front of the Suburban Liquor Store. This year, the date is May 7^th.   “And it’s more than just a plant sale,” said O’Brien. “We have really unusual plants, and our members consult with customers about the best ones to buy for certain plantings, and they even help them put together their plant containers.”

Monica Doherty of the program committee said, “People want to support local initiatives and the more who come out and buy from us, the more flowers and gardens we can plant.”

Bill Primavera is a licensed Realtor® (www.PrimaveraHomes.com), affiliated with Coldwell Banker, and a marketing practitioner (www.PrimaveraPR.com). For questions or comments about the housing market, or selling or buying a home, he can be reached directly at 914-522-2076.