How to make your future neighbors think you are a freak

Yellow arrow is maybe our place. Red arrows denote
neighbors who may now be praying we don't move in. 

What are Carolyn and Mister Crane doing? Having our last fire, not only of the season, because this is the last of the wood and hopefully the last of the cold and snow, but also because we have put an offer in on a condo!! And it was accepted!

We are so excited. While it has no fireplace, and is in a less glorious section of town, we think it is lovely and we also suspect there will be more people like us living around there. Also, we will save money and there are many nearby coffeeshops.

Now we have the inspection period where we will have it inspected. Which brings me to a little story...

The one that we almost bought
There was this condo we almost bought. OMG, it was a bit more money, but bigger and so lovely, and we were up there with our realtor and every room was more magical than the last. We were like, this is perfect perfect!

Then, the downstairs neighbor turned on their TV. And it was SO loud. I mean, they were obnoxious to have it so loud, but it became clear that the floors in this perfect place were not that thick, and that any TV noise would carry pretty well. We were like, omg, thank you for turning on your TV.

Now Mark and I have become totally focused on the potential of noise. We are both writers who do lots of work at home, and while we don't need library silence, we don't want to listen to Maury Povich all day.

So like the freaks we are, we went over there and dropped a note in the analogous condo across the hall's mailbox asking for their assessment of how well the noise carries up on their side from the floor below them. And then we dropped a note in the unit below us to ask if, oh, one of these days during our inspection period, we could go over and stand in the unit we might buy, and they play their TV or stereo and we can see if it really carries.

I mean, there are other things we have to check out with our inspector, but this noise thing has seized our imaginations. How thick are the floors between these units? Will we be driven crazy by noise? Will our concentration be totally destroyed? Will I lose my ability to write novels and be found wandering Death Valley in a Panda suit this time next year? But we didn't put that in the note.

Do you think our potential new neighbors will think we're freaks?

Mark read an article the other day that boiled down the difference between rich and poor, in part, to the ability to have quiet around you. That the poorer you are, the noisier your environment is. And the richer you are, the more you can control your environment. I thought that was so fascinating.

Since we fall between those two extremes, neither rich nor poor, I think we rely partly on luck and partly on being careful. And notes in future neighbor's mailboxes. eep.