yup, I know what you mean. They are constantly on edge a bit or anxious, fighting to have a normal/good day and the slightest thing triggers them to get more anxious and upset. I think there are many people like this.
New Wood Fireplace and Now Angry Neighbour
- Thread starter MomOf2Gr8Kids
- Start date
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Why? They want to burn wood. They spent 20 grand on what they wanted. I'd be damned if I would just throw that away. If I want to burn wood in my house that's what I am going to do. I will make every effort to do it as clean as possible but you can only do so much. Changing what you want is only enabling this women to get what she wants. It's not like they are burning garbage in the fireplace. Burning wood is not an unreasonable thing to do.
The only reason I agree with what he / she wrote was because an efficient wood stove with seasoned wood can produce nice flames, great heat, look great and reduce the smoke dramatically. Also if it really comes down to it and they were to get into a legal battle (not saying they are but), a wood stove with a cat using dry wood, has a much better leg to stand on vs an ornamental fireplace. A good example of this are HOA's that lose the battle with home owners parking work trucks on their property vs an RV, both not permitted but one is much more enforceable than the other.
yooperdave
Minister of Fire
MomOf2Gr8Kids After reading through more of your posts and learning even more about your neighbor lady friend, it is plain to see (IMO) that the problem lies with her and not your setup. Unfortunately, there is probably nothing you can do to satisfy her..........perhaps there were warning signs during the lemonade drinking and associated conversation visits with her?
Go ahead and enjoy your well earned fireplace and rest assured that you are doing everything correctly. You shouldn't have to worry about conforming to someone else's wants. Maybe even mention to her that you have done everything you can to appease her but still plan to enjoy your fireplace occasionally.
Based on the "leaf story", it sounds like there will always be a never ending list or requirements with your neighbor. Tell you husband that I can send him some dandelion seeds if he wants. LOL
Not to mention a gas fireplace, if used often enough, really starts to get up there in price. I have a gas fireplace in a property that I really like because it's a lightswitch on/off. Makes life so easy, but I own now 3 wood burning appliances and use them every opportunity I can.
If it is worth it, you could spend a couple of hundred dollars and buy her a good air purifier:
Six models make our Best Air Purifiers for Smoke of 2023 rating, with the Coway Airmega AP-1512HH earning the top spot. To effectively filter smoke, an air purifier must have a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter. It should also have a high clean air delivery rate (CADR) for smoke.
With these factors in mind, we’ve arrived at our picks for the Best Air Purifiers for Smoke of 2023. Each unit in this list uses a HEPA filter and an activated carbon filter, which reduces odor. Of the air purifiers in our overall Best Air Purifiers of 2023 rating, the models that make this list have an above-average smoke CADR-to-room-coverage ratio.
#2 Levoit Core 400S (tie)
#2 Blueair Blue Pure 211+ (tie)
#4 Honeywell HPA300 (tie)
#4 Winix 5500-2 (tie)
#6 Honeywell HPA100
Six models make our Best Air Purifiers for Smoke of 2023 rating, with the Coway Airmega AP-1512HH earning the top spot. To effectively filter smoke, an air purifier must have a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter. It should also have a high clean air delivery rate (CADR) for smoke.
With these factors in mind, we’ve arrived at our picks for the Best Air Purifiers for Smoke of 2023. Each unit in this list uses a HEPA filter and an activated carbon filter, which reduces odor. Of the air purifiers in our overall Best Air Purifiers of 2023 rating, the models that make this list have an above-average smoke CADR-to-room-coverage ratio.
Our Best Air Purifiers for Smoke Rating
#1 Coway Airmega AP-1512HH#2 Levoit Core 400S (tie)
#2 Blueair Blue Pure 211+ (tie)
#4 Honeywell HPA300 (tie)
#4 Winix 5500-2 (tie)
#6 Honeywell HPA100
Well i don't like smoke blowing in my house either. The neighbors burn crappy wood in outdoor firepits in the summer when we have all our windows open. They of course think smoky fires are normal. I close my windows when i would much rather have them open on hot summer nights. We don't have AC.
I am also like 15 feet away from my other neighbors and am always conscious of starting fires and reloading when running my woodstove. They never complain but they are not the type of people that would ever complain. But i make sure i do start and run my stove as cleanly as possible. That means lots of kindling, dry splits, hot starts and good air gaps on reloads.
Also i check the wind direction and am extra careful if it's blowing straight at their house. They have attic gable vents so i'm sure the start up/reload smoke gets at least into their attic vent space.
So Very Dry Seasoned wood and Hot Hot Top Down starting that stops showing smoke in less than 5 minutes should be a good plan when u do burn. When you are burning well all u will see out of your chimney will be clear heat waves.
I am also like 15 feet away from my other neighbors and am always conscious of starting fires and reloading when running my woodstove. They never complain but they are not the type of people that would ever complain. But i make sure i do start and run my stove as cleanly as possible. That means lots of kindling, dry splits, hot starts and good air gaps on reloads.
Also i check the wind direction and am extra careful if it's blowing straight at their house. They have attic gable vents so i'm sure the start up/reload smoke gets at least into their attic vent space.
So Very Dry Seasoned wood and Hot Hot Top Down starting that stops showing smoke in less than 5 minutes should be a good plan when u do burn. When you are burning well all u will see out of your chimney will be clear heat waves.
mellow
Resident Stove Connoisseur
I mentioned the ESP filter a few pages back and still say if you have invested this much money into this just go a bit further and clean up the exhaust more, it would only turn on when you are actively burning so it wouldn't waste energy. It would be a perfect compliment for your fireplace to burn cleaner.
It is very cool technology that hasn't taken off yet but I really do think it would be the perfect solution to your neighbor issue.
It is very cool technology that hasn't taken off yet but I really do think it would be the perfect solution to your neighbor issue.
I agree. This is a person you'll never appease. If not this, it'll be something else. Tell her to go pound salt.
I mentioned sand several posts ago. Does that not count? LOL
St. Coemgen
Feeling the Heat
Want to point out that trees use their deep roots to mine deep minerals, which they put into their leaves, and dropping the leaves fertilizes their shallow roots.
This "raking" leaves idea, which is all to common, is basically hurting the trees normal biological cycle. For... Why? Personal egocentric reasons that it somehow "looks nicer"??..... And then what? Burn the leaves (people where I live do this) so the carbon goes into the air rather than soil? That causes a lot of smoke. Good grief....
Just let the leaves "be" in place. And to boot, they are a lovely multicolored walk path all autumn. Which others may find lovely. Thinking outside the box.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Most people with a lawn rake their leaves to avoid the damage they cause to the grass. But whether or not she does, it's not really relevant to this thread.
St. Coemgen
Feeling the Heat
It depends... were the leaves burned.... If not, you may be correct. But if so, would not that negate her complaint about smoke? And then be on topic? I will let the OP let us know the facts as I do not know them.
Extreme off topic side note : Grass -- this was said to be a forest, not a grass lawn. Grass does not grow much in real forests as the tree canopy does not let in much light so raking up leaves is a forest does not help grass. Opinions of grass lawns need not even come into play. Unless one is burning their leaves they raked up....
But what it may indicate is the psychology of this person... Maybe someone who tries to control their total environment. And if so, that fact of the forest leaf raking might be indeed interesting, maybe relevant, information..... 🧐
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Wisco Shepherd
Member
I have found that mulching my leaves with a mower a few times during the fall has lead to my yard becoming quite lush with no need for fertilizer. The trick is mulching though I agree don't always want to just leave them. Come spring time there is no sign of them. Its a heck of a lot easier than raking and hauling 3-4 trailers worth of leaves.
Some people want to either be miserable or control other people, or both. This statement above shows how the relationship is going to go. She won’t live forever. Let her know each time you are about to light a fire. Done. No more you need to do. How about a BBQ? Why does she have her windows open in winter? She should get a fan.I asked her to keep it closed just this once and she said it isn’t an option. She MUST open her window every single time. She didn’t sound willing to compromise at her age.
Is your chimney already at the max height recommended for your neat-looking fireplace. If not, do you think maxing out the height could make it more likely for any smoke to blow over her house?
You have your own home and property. Like you literally own your own plot of the planet, and you own a building on that plot that your family lives in. You are the queen of your castle. This lady can't tell you what to do. Do with that information what you will.
Maybe ask her to reimburse you the $20k and pay for your heating bills from here on out. That might be a fair compromise. You have no obligation to ask all your neighbors their permission to burn wood in your own home; how ridiculous she'd even suggest it.
Maybe ask her to reimburse you the $20k and pay for your heating bills from here on out. That might be a fair compromise. You have no obligation to ask all your neighbors their permission to burn wood in your own home; how ridiculous she'd even suggest it.
brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
Hey, gotta talk about something until OP comes back with a report!... and now it's become a lawn and leaf thread.
You rather discuss, what, oil?
mellow
Resident Stove Connoisseur
You guys obviously don't live in a high end neighborhood like the OP does where most have a lawyer on retainer or have one in the family and probably have an HOA.
Telling an 80+ year old woman to pound whatever is harsh and not advisable in this situation. The OP's husband wanted to probably recreate childhood memories of burning wood but she wanted something that "looked good" in that gorgeous room and they came to this consensus. Neither of them had any idea it would create this mess. The older lady probably has breathing issues like COPD and if the fresh air intake is forcing wood smoke particulates into her home she has a reason to sound the alarm. If someone was doing this to your mother would you take an answer of the neighbor telling her to go pound something? That older lady has lost her husband and lives alone and probably already has enough issues going on that money can't solve (sounds like she isn't poor by any means).
The logical solution would be to either not use it or figure out a way that both parties can be happy when it is being used. How often is it really going to be used? I would guess on the weekends when the husband wants to sit by the fire and enjoy it.
Telling an 80+ year old woman to pound whatever is harsh and not advisable in this situation. The OP's husband wanted to probably recreate childhood memories of burning wood but she wanted something that "looked good" in that gorgeous room and they came to this consensus. Neither of them had any idea it would create this mess. The older lady probably has breathing issues like COPD and if the fresh air intake is forcing wood smoke particulates into her home she has a reason to sound the alarm. If someone was doing this to your mother would you take an answer of the neighbor telling her to go pound something? That older lady has lost her husband and lives alone and probably already has enough issues going on that money can't solve (sounds like she isn't poor by any means).
The logical solution would be to either not use it or figure out a way that both parties can be happy when it is being used. How often is it really going to be used? I would guess on the weekends when the husband wants to sit by the fire and enjoy it.
As others have suggested, when you reach such a point of frailty that your only hope of healthy survival is trying to force the free world around you to accommodate your frailty, then it's time to find living accommodations that specialize themselves in meeting such needs.
Ctwoodtick
Minister of Fire
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Easy to say when it's not your neighborhood. We don't know all of the details.
I've had a few mistakes costlier than $20k, and while no one loves them, they're not the end of anyone's world.
<-- hoping the OP gets back to us with resolution, as this plays out
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