Erm, uh, my porch?

[bhskittykatt]

As I sit here, writing this, my apartment manager is eating his lunch on my porch. His food wrappers are on my table. I haven't invited him over.

I don't feel like b*tching at him (Hubby will be home any second now and will probably do that for me), but it's a little awkward. You see, I live on the first floor, and my porch is at ground level next to the parking lot. In order to get mowers and other tools down to the yard from the parking lot, people usually have to go across my porch to get around the landscaping. That's fine. But to take your lunch break on my table on my porch? That's got to be crossing some sort of line. At least now I think I've finally figured out how that piece of hamburger bun ended up in my plantholders the other day...

[AriRashkae]

Any way you can "screen" off the seating area of your porch from the traffic area, perhaps with decorative plants and the like? It's subtle, but at least you've got a clearly marked area to tell people to GTFO.

[Flying Grype]

Aah yes. When I lived in a basement apartment, my landlady upstairs had a crew renovating her kitchen and livingroom. I remember once coming home from work, collapsing on my sofa and falling asleep, and waking up to hear the sound of peeing from my bathroom. I said "Hello?" and a construction worker shot me a glance as he crossed my kitchen and went back upstairs. (Earlier in the week I had come home to find pee in my toilet. I had finally found the culprit.)

I told the landlady about it and she chewed the foreman out -- his crew had no reason to be going into the basement apartment, and there was a single woman who knew karate living there.

[bhskittykatt]

Well, when I went out to my porch, about an hour after our apt manager and his buddy left, I found his McDonald's cup sitting on the table. I was pretty annoyed, but Hubby thinks I'm overreacting...seriously, it's bad enough their eating on my table, now their leaving their trash behind!

[underemployeed]

Well, when I went out to my porch, about an hour after our apt manager and his buddy left, I found his McDonald's cup sitting on the table. I was pretty annoyed, but Hubby thinks I'm overreacting...seriously, it's bad enough their eating on my table, now their leaving their trash behind!

You need to send him a bill for your house keeping services. maybe he will get the hint.

[Erin]

Our neighborhood has no fences in our yards. My aunt lives across the street from my house, and her backyard faces out onto the pond that's in the common area of our neighborhood.

She's come home to find people in her backyard, sitting on her patio furniture as if it were part of a public park. Kids climbing thru her landscaping as if it were a playground just for them.

and they leave their pop bottles and Burger King bags on her porch. Hell, her neighbors that live next door have actually come into her yard and taken her Easter baskets that she had on her patio table a couple of springs ago. (she was waiting for my cousins to show up with their kids, and she put their baskets on the patio because it was a nice day.

The neighbors took her baskets! (sentimental baskets too, they'd been in her family for years...at least since my cousins were babies) You'd think the neighbors would have said "we didnt put baskets out, those arent yours" to the children...nope...they just took off with it all.

It's amazing how many people in the neighborhood think that just because my aunt has nice stuff that she's placed those chairs and tables out there for the use of anyone walking thru the commons. (everything is on her patio, which is so far back from the commons that there's a neighbor between her and the common area)

I've gone back there when I've seen strangers walk into her backyard from the side or the front, and told them that it's private property and they have to leave. Got the "I know the owner, HE said we could come back here whenever we want". (my uncle has been dead for 15yrs and my aunt lives alone...the neighbor next door to her is a much older woman who's also a widow, so there's no way that these people know the owners of those houses if they cant get the gender of their "friend" right.)

I'm glad that we dont live facing the pond, we dont have to worry about people using our patio furniture. (we do have a "water feature", it's a creek that was only just cleaned out of all the dead trees and crap that people had been dumping in it for years...association has control over it, but they're not going to pretty it up for us because that would take away the money for the pond across the street) Yay! We just have to worry about the homeless people in the field above that coming down and stealing our air conditioners and anything else not nailed down....

[Imogene]

My Dad has a story from just after moving to Texas... he was asleep, and the house has a pool in the backyard, on the other side of the house from the master bedroom. One night, he hears loud noises, so he sneaks into what is now my bedroom, and flicks the lights on, only to hear a lot of scrabbling from the backyard, as two half-naked young adults climb over the fence, dripping wet.

[Dasota]

The backyard at my parents' faces the old drive-in. When it was open we used to get people that would walk through our backyard to get into the drive-in for free. Usually it wasn't a problem, especially if they weren't sticking around and just crossing through. Though from time to time people would sit and hang out in our backyard to try and watch the movie for free. Why is beyond me, my aunt had a barn built next door that cut out a huge chunk of the screen. I used to sit on the roof of the house though if there was a movie I wanted to see, and if people would come crossing through I would scare the daylights outta them by yelling "Hey" to them really loudly. Usually got them to move fairly quickly

[protege]

Most of last summer, I'd get the neighbor's kids using my yard as a shortcut. Not sure why, since it was actually *longer* than simply following the street. They'd come up the driveway, up the steps...and across the yard. First time I caught them, they pulled the "we know the owner" routine. Took the wind out of their sails when I said that *I* owned the house and massive side yard...and had never seen them before. Didn't stop them from hanging out on my porch/patio when I wasn't home...until the neighbor across the street told them to GTFO

[TelephoneAngel]

I used to live in a house with low front garden walls on a bus route, people always seemed to believe the wall was there for them to sit on while waiting for the bus (which we didn't mind too much)

What we did mind was the using the front garden as a place to toss the empty sweet wrappers and drink cans when the bus arrived, and even on occassion using the front garden as a toilet.

If they had knocked on the door and asked to use the toilet or to dispose of some rubbish we would have been happy to help them.

The amazing thing was that often we would arrive or leave the house and the people would go right on sitting on the wall oblivious.

[elsporko]

Well, when I went out to my porch, about an hour after our apt manager and his buddy left, I found his McDonald's cup sitting on the table. I was pretty annoyed, but Hubby thinks I'm overreacting...seriously, it's bad enough their eating on my table, now their leaving their trash behind!

If they are leaving garbage then it isn't overreacting. Letting them sit their would be fine but they shouldn't be inconveniencing you by trashing the place.

The place I work is surrounded by college owned buildings and a frat house. Most people don't realize we aren't owned by the college so its no big deal if they try to use our basketball hoops or whatever but the frat thinks its okay to block the alley when they throw parties, despite being told many times to not do that because its the fire lane.

[draftermatt]

Most of last summer, I'd get the neighbor's kids using my yard as a shortcut. Not sure why, since it was actually *longer* than simply following the street.

When we moved in we would see the neighbor kids cutting across our front lawn from time to time, but in the interest of being neighborly I never said anything. Even when it made no sense for them to do it (like when there was snow on the ground)

Till the day the kids, their mom and their freaking dog cut through the yard!

A lady 4 houses down watched the kids sometimes and rather than walking down the sidewalk they would just walk across the 4 yards. My wife went over and raised hell and was told "in this neighborhood this is what we do" and "I can't promise it won't happen again"

My wife told her it had better not happen again, and we couldn't promise the yard would be free from debris as we had landscaping projects planned.

So for a while they would cut through 3 yards and then bypass ours and use the sidewalk. Till the guy on the other side of me asked them to stop since he was frequently having his lawn chemically treated.

Stupidly enough one day we parked the truck in the yard to unload some landscaping materials and I heard their kid ask "how come they can drive in the yard but we can't walk in it?" I answered "because it's my yard"

The best part? They did it to the previous owner too until she told them to stop. (She warned us about them before we moved in) They figured since we were new to the neighborhood and young we wouldn't say anything. Her husband about shit himself when he came to an HOA Board meeting last year and saw me sitting on the board of directors.

[wheeitsme]

I've found that a motion activated sprinkler keeps pests out of our yard...I found it for $70 online, and it has more than paid for itself.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

One word:

Sprinklers.

[MaggieTheCat]

One word:

Sprinklers.

Oh, I am going to keep that one in mind in case we ever have these issues when we get a house.