When The Beard and I first moved into our little house, I remember waking up to the sound of a summer breeze blowing through our next door neighbor’s wind chime. It was a gorgeous day, and the tinkling of tiny bells just added to the ambiance. Even though our home was filled with unopened boxes and half-painted walls, those ringing chimes spoke to the beautiful life we were going to have.
Cut to me trying to work on some very, very hot summer days with the dingle-dangle of that dang wind chime clanking away in my ears for hours. It wasn’t quite as beautiful then! In fact, it was downright annoying.
The thing about wind chimes and bells
is that as much as you or I might adore the sound of them, our neighbors might prefer to listen to the wind rushing through the trees or even silence. I always feel a bit wary of hanging anything outside my home that is going to make noise, simply because I know how I respond to unwanted sounds… and, hint, grinning and bearing it is not my way. On the other hand, maybe everyone who objects to chimes and bells that ring-a-ding-ding at a reasonable volume should just chill the heck out. What say you?
This entry was posted
on Friday, March 6th, 2009 at 8:19 am by Christa Terry and is filed under Exteriors, Just Because.
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March 6th, 2009 at 11:12 am
I know tinkly metal chimes are pretty annoying, but I am always love the sound of big mellow bamboo chimes. Their sound doesn’t tend to carry as far either, so they are a little more moderate in terms of neighbor-botherance.
March 6th, 2009 at 11:52 am
When you said your house was full of “unopened oxes” — it made me kind of giggle a bit. The visual it conjured was … interesting.
March 6th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
Angela: Those are my favorite chimes, too, and you’re right about their being more mellow and less loud.
Tracy: The B on my keyboard sticks… but I do like the visual!
March 7th, 2009 at 7:21 am
The big bamboo chimes are definitely a better bet. Or even the metal ones are fine if they’re large and lower-pitched. It’s the tiny, tinkly, high-pitched ones that don’t really do it for me.
March 12th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
I love windchimes, but wouldn’t inflict them on neighbors.
I did not, however, have any problems inflicting the belt sander on the neighbors whose dogs yapped incessantly at me (and whose poop fragrance drifted into my open windows on hot days because my neighbors wouldn’t scoop their back yard) and who stayed up talking late on work nights and even later on weekends on their back deck. Did I mention I used to get up at 5? And that I started the belt sander at 7 a.m. on Sat because. Well, because?
Did I also mention that my neighbors wouldn’t share in the cost of building the fence between our two houses — the fence I had built specifically because of their nasty dogs and their constant noise? They “couldn’t afford it.” Yeah. I guess not. Not after they’d paid to have that enormous deck built in the back yard. The one where they made all that noise.
December 8th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Doorbell chimes have become very customizable. You can choose your favorite tunes as the tone of the chime much like you can customize a cellphone ringtone.
December 9th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Um, thanks, Kathleen. I wasn’t aware of that…