HOAs are for people that care more about houses as investments than homes as places to live life.
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I am not adverse to doing it myself just lazy… I should see about getting on a list for chips from city tree work.
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Some are, but a lot aren’t. Just like wild mushrooms, don’t eat it if you aren’t sure.
An irony is that the target of that song - houses like those in Levittown - were homogeneous but well-built and adapted themselves well over the years. Unlike McMansions that all look different, but are shoddily built and lack the internal structure for growth and adaptation.
See How Buildings Learn.
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HOAs are for people that buy into magical Jesus juice that they somehow make houses worth more. There is no empirical evidence that they have ever increased the value of a house - or a study based on similar properties. In fact, when the housing market burst - they tanked in value just like every other house without holding onto any ‘additional value’.
The real estate business is essentially a run-of-the-mill speculative racket. Caveat emptor.
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this lady right here…
Gladys from Over the Hedge.
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Hey! We are trying to rabble here, either sharpen a pitchfork or beat it!
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I know! Brand’s book was a real slap upside-the-head for me.
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Why? Will it mess with the pipes or the septic system?
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Def. sound practice to check out HOA & neighbors before you move in, still, I’d be wary if the HOA has a lot of leeway in what it can do - you never know who moves in later, or who suddenly gets a bee in their bonnet…
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No, they are smurf butts.
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I’ll buy it. That yard means they’re very unlikely to be the sorts of neighbors who are complaining when I go to replace my lawn with mostly vegetables, some flowers, and the rest native plants. (Interspersed with an appropriate amount of pathway and the like, of course.) I currently have a set of neighbors that have nothing to do other than maintain their lawn and wait for death. They literally mow twice a week, even in drought conditions, and contribute heavily to the algae blooms in the lake with their grass-based chemical warfare.
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Well, they did ask a lawyer.
You shouldn’t have to pay for bark/wood chips at all. The tree maintenance guys generally have to pay to dump them, and might put them on your lawn for free.
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Ah, good to know for the future.
They have started charging a minor fee in Seattle cause they are having to haul them far enough from the tree site to cover some of the fuel costs, but probably more because they can.
Fair enough. Around my place, there are so many trees that trimming and removal is being done close to our place most of the time. The guy we used actually asked us if he could dump chips (ours, and from nearby work he was doing) on our property. A win-win.
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Don’t municipal and city bylaws usually prevent that sort of thing? Maybe things are different in the states, but I’m pretty sure a yard like that in Canada would have bylaw officers visiting and demanding that you clean it up, if not they they will and then send you the bill.
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