We lived for over a decade in a condo complex with a HOA. For condos, a HOA can be an asset, like when you have to get the place(s) reroofed, or your hot water heater replaced, but since I’m fairly handy, some of it just seemed annoying. It took over a year to get a simple bike rack approved and installed; meanwhile we were not allowed to park our bikes anywhere in public sight. For those of us who were bike commuters, having to wrangle the bikes out of wherever you were able to store it inside the condo and sometimes down stairs was a problem.
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That’s the problem. If you don’t like your HOA’s rules, go to the meetings and get them changed.
In the xeriscaping case, if the HOA is being annoying I would simply send them a registered letter asking what would be “permissible under 4735(a) and within the HOA guidelines,” with language like “if I don’t hear from you within 21 days, I will interpret this as blanket approval of my choice.” If they give you a choice of plants, use those. If they say “nothing” or only list drought-intolerant plants, report them to the county; since you named the ordinance, they would be acting in willful disregard of the law. If you don’t hear from them, put in the cacti if you like.
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Fully read the HOA CC&Rs before making an offer, and if it doesn’t make you want to run screaming then read them again. The biggest tragedy is that being part of an association makes everyone liable for any financial issue, including those caused by the developer. If any residents stop paying their dues then you are on the hook. My HOA has a commercial space which is empty after the tenant went out of business and guess who is paying for the maintenance.
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Our last two neighbors have had problematic junk filled yards (worse than that picture + dogs and kids), and I’d still rather live in a HOA free-neighborhood.
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I’m appalled that American home owner associations can and do ban this sort of thing. Why are American home owner associations so oppressive? I thought you people loved freedom.
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What? Why not? And does the same rule apply to cars?
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Don’t worry, there’s no actual place in Ohio that’s a 5 hour drive from an Apple store.
@mcv: Never confuse “freedom” as defined by American Jesus worshippers for true liberty.
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We love freedom for ourselves, and those exactly like us. Everyone else is doing life wrong, and needs to be told how wrong they are. Telling them is our national pastime.
We love telling other people how to live, because only when everyone behaves according to the dictates of my particular in-group will we really ever be FREE! America Fuck Yeah!
< /snark> or something like that.
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Apparently bikes are ‘visual clutter’, but cars have designated parking spaces. Until official parking places were installed for bikes, it was either hide them inside out of sight, or get a nastygram. True story: you weren’t allowed to put up clotheslines either, or hang your bike from the ceiling.of your porch for storage. Someone apparently thought those uses looked bad and reflected poorly on the HOA, so…
We don’t live there anymore.
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To say nothing of the bleach. Vinegar and baking soda (we buy the Costco-sized containers) are excellent for flushing out pipes with a lot less damage (to pipes AND environment).
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Kitchen volcano FTW! We use that combo regularly.
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In my area that’s called “putting out hors’d’oeuvres for the termites”. Nothing draws termite scouts in faster than a yard-sized sheet of shredded wood…
With the tree stumps in the back yard I already got that… they are currently too far away and wet wood ones so not interested in the dry timber.
Where I live (wooded mid-Atlantic coast) the bottom layer of mulch will stay wet most of the time. Landscapers put heaps of it around trees, and it’s typically chock full of termites within one growing season.
I know what you mean about the stumps! I pull a stump every six months or so (there’s at least one picture in the Victory thread I think) but I still have at least ten within 20 feet of my house, and the rootballs usually have termites. 
I keep thinking I should just drill them and dump KNO3 in.
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Don’t worry, the Himalayan blackberry creepers will pop back up in no time flat.
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and I am still sad. Ents are friends!
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I keep those at bay with the mower and they are in the back yard and now I am reminded I need to get at cutting down and killing more laurels which are not native and provide excellent hiding spots for the blackberries to take root.
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In your state, are you supposed to keep a termite bond on your house? Sounds like it would be a good idea, either way, though! We have baits around our house (also in a wooded area) and we almost always have activity at least once a year in the baits.
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I understand. I plant more than I harvest, and I never take them down unless they are a hazard.
This is the first time I ever heard of that! We require termite inspection when selling a house, but that’s it.
We’re putting in bait stations this week. I’ve always gotten by with twice-yearly inspecting the foundations for mud tubes, but the barn has some inaccessible areas I can’t check.
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I forget what the law is in GA, I thought that was the case… it might be what you say, just when selling… but we’ve kept it up, because it just seems like good sense.
Sounds like a great idea! Termites can do real damage! Good luck!
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