Modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad in N Scale.
www.prr-nscale.blogspot.com
Yes mate i do, here on Kawana Island, they have many covenants but they don't affect us at all unless i get about 40 visitors at once, and they all seem to ignore the parking covenants; as do many others.
But really i don't think i break any rules with my layout but a few of my neighbours have asked quite sheepishly if i have steam train in my backyard, knowing of course that i couldn't have; and i think they think they have been hearing things
Rgds Ian
The Home of Articulated Ugliness
The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"
tangerine-jack wrote:Certanly not! I was quite specific when house hunting that I did NOT want any kind of homeowners association. I firmly believe that there are more than enough laws on the books already that cover how a house and yard can look, as well as vehicles on the property etc. I don't need some crabby 90 year old lady telling me how to paint my house or cut my grass. I've never felt the need to run my life in lock step with the "Jones'" nor do I want to live in an artificialy created community where nobody is really happy for fear of violating some kind of rule. When these people start paying my mortgage and utility bills, then I might let them tell me what to do. Until then, this is still a free country and I still have the right to life, liberty and the persuit of garden railroading.
Before I bought where I did I looked at buying 3 adjoining lots in a fancy new subdivision; that is until I looked at the rulebook and found that 1) I couldn't paint my front door stop sign red if I wanted to without first obtaining permission, 2) I would need permission to plant a rosebush, 3) between 1 May and 1 November I had to cut or have my lawn cut weekly without regard to drought or any other conditions. I told them precisely where they could put thier 3 lots and promptly went out into the countryside and bought a 30 acre property for the same price as those three 3/4 acre lots!
My son has had some bad experiances along the same lines, so read and reread, then make sure you understand the rules before you buy!
Yes Jack I agree with you, I hate what we call here "Body Corporates" with a vengence and i would have nothing to do with them either.
Where i live is a planned and expensive development and all the roads are "Streetscaped" and you know about all the rules before you buy, as they are published by the developer. This same developer puts on free Jazz concerts from time to time in any of the many parks that we have; so they can't be all bad.
The majority of the covenants are to do with mooring vessels in the lake, but others are to do with such things as having television dishes antennas etc above the roof line and parking of vehicles etc.
So i am very happy with the rules we have, as we knew what they were before we came here and they haven't and will not change (I hope).
Your community sounds pleasant enough, Ian. I like the free jazz concert idea!
In my area we have many real laws that cover things like how tall the grass can be and how close shrubs can be to the road and house, covered under the fire codes. We have real laws against junk vehicles in the yard, broken windows and sagging gutters. I don't see any reason to have more rules that are just thought up by a group of people who have nothing better to do with thier time than get into my buisiness. I don't like the everchanging rules either, let it be what it is when the development is built and live with it, or don't have any extra rules apart from the local laws. If I want a pink house with lime green shutters, it may be in bad taste, but who is a HOA to tell me not to do it?
I've been out to Capt Bobs many times, 30 acres is a good place to do what you want, when you want. He made a good purchase. Now if he can only move the entire plot out of Delaware.............
My last two homes I bought did not have an HOA. They do nothing but take your money. Always had parking problems when I lived in an HOA, pleople would park in front of my townhouse instead of their own?? Working shift work back then really got me steaming mad!!
My current house (all one level) with a 24X30 foot garage with 14 foot ceilings on a FLAT 1/2 acre lot has no street lights, no side walks and no HOA....I'm outside city limits (population 1,900) so it's very quiet.
I'll never own or buy into a Commie HOA again.....!!!
Oh yea, down the street there's an old church that no longer is being used, and it's painted bright solid BLUE..everything. But I don't see it unless I drive by it......so who cares....
dan
Of interest; when they had those free Jazz concerts they did not have any public toilets and we thought this was to keep non residents out, which it probably was. However the organisers have been forced to supply a toilet block now, so i guess someone must have complained.
iandor wrote: Of interest; when they had those free Jazz concerts they did not have any public toilets and we thought this was to keep non residents out, which it probably was. However the organisers have been forced to supply a toilet block now, so i guess someone must have complained. Rgds Ian
I imagine that a visitor left an editorial comment about the lack of toilet facilities on someone's lawn.
Normally community C&Rs deal with exterior treatments, but not the inside of a home. If you are planning on a garden railway in your front yard, it might become an issue, but a model railroad inside your house shouldn't be an issue at all. Where I live we have neighborhood associations, which exist basically to see that city rules are enforced and membership is voluntary, in order to keep up on negligent landlords and public nuisances, but we spend more time hassling the city to do its job! My community is also known for its quirkiness and character so pink flamingoes aren't out of the question.
If you *do* want to put a garden railway in your front yard, you must have a safer neighborhood than I do: I can't even leave a fancy-looking (read: doesn't look like it comes from the dollar store) spray nozzle on the hose I use to water my front lawn--I wouldn't even think of leaving expensive garden railway rolling stock, motive power, miniatures, building...or track...out on my lawn, it would be gone within the hour!
I doubt what you alluded to jetrock as true, and i resent what you said; it shows you have no class.This is a very classy neighbourhood and we have only ever had one reported crime on this Kawana Island. Someone had too much to drink and stole someone elses garden ornament, to wit an Australian Aborigne called "Neville'
Try to talk like a gentleman mate.
Nice response Jack, gave me goosebumps! To each his own and the pursuit of happiness be it real or an illusion.
Just don't nobody tread on my GRR!
Rich F.
Apparently Ian lives on an island where there are only 4 or 5 residents. Human nature being such as it is, if he were in a more densly populated area such as a State Capitol hosting city like Sacremento, he would not be insulted by the idea that folk would steal a hose nozzle!
Rather like the guy who after remodeling his kitchen put good working order (but wrong color) refrigerator out on the front lawn with a sign that said "free to a good home for the taking" and couldn't give it away. He put a sign on it that said "Sale! $25.00" and it disappeared within the hour!
Does one suppose they placed the paddles in the wrong place when they had to jump start his ticker?
"On the chest, Arry, not on the ears mate!"
Jetrock wrote: iandor wrote: Of interest; when they had those free Jazz concerts they did not have any public toilets and we thought this was to keep non residents out, which it probably was. However the organisers have been forced to supply a toilet block now, so i guess someone must have complained. Rgds Ian Normally community C&Rs deal with exterior treatments, but not the inside of a home....
Normally community C&Rs deal with exterior treatments, but not the inside of a home....
Not true! Out here, behind the Orange Curtain, in the Conservative Third Riech of Orange County. I friends who live with severe HOA's that consider anything that can be seen from the street, including inside your house that can be seen thru the windows to be under the restrictions of the HOA. In other words, if a neighbor walking down the street (yeah like THAT happens down there) can look inside your open curtains (also under HOA constrictions) and is offended by the degenerate art on your wall (Picasso, Van Gogh, Pollack, Titian, etc.) and file a conplaint and force you to replace it with something that does not offend the HOA members collective standard of decency, usually something vomitus like Thomas Kinkade or some f**ing whale and dolphin painting.
Have fun with your trains
Our HOA is pretty much nothing more than a paper tiger. The builder set all of the covenants INCLUDING, denying the HOA the ability to change any rules PERIOD! The builder also made the rules semi-ambiguous and open to interpretation which allows all kinds of outs if you are a homeowner. If a homeowner has a complaint, they go the association board who refers them to the management company who refers them to the HOA board. Thankfully, we are pretty much a self policing group, which, for 200+ homes is pretty amazing.
Mark
Our house is all white hence its name :Casablanca" White walls white tile on the floors right through, whie ceiling and roof.. It is architect designed the best designed house i have ever seen and the colour scheme is incredibly effective.
regards ian
iandor wrote: Our house is all white hence its name :Casablanca" White walls white tile on the floors right through, whie ceiling and roof.. It is architect designed the best designed house i have ever seen and the colour scheme is incredibly effective. regards ian
This is what I'm talking about, here is a man who loves his house, his way in a community he wanted to live in and enjoys being there. I wouldn't want an all white house, mine is very colorful, but to each his own. Neither of us needs somebody else to tell us what color to paint the house, or what type of flooring, or anything else. Do your own thing and enjoy it, that's what it's all about. The only way I would let anybody tell me what to do in my own home is if they buy it from me, then it would be thiers and they could then do as they pleased. I really, really can't stand other people dictating my life to me and I'm not afraid to tell them so.
iandor wrote:I doubt what you alluded to jetrock as true, and i resent what you said; it shows you have no class.This is a very classy neighbourhood and we have only ever had one reported crime on this Kawana Island. Someone had too much to drink and stole someone elses garden ornament, to wit an Australian Aborigne called "Neville' Try to talk like a gentleman mate. Rgds Ian
It's almost impossible to buy a new home here in the Phoenix area without a HOA. I assume it is the same in most other cities. You just have to read all the paperwork before you buy the house and sometimes read between the lines. I have a friend who bought a new house in a new development in Phase I. The HOA paperwork had all the "laws" set up but said that the HOA restrictions started after the last house was sold, so he set up his Gardern Railway even though it was a "grey area" as to whether he could have it. Some pecky homeowners started to run the HOA and started bugging him about the RR and he ignored them until they tried to take him to court. He got in front of the judge, presented him with all of his paperwork and asked "What HOA?' The judge found in favor of him and dismissed all the claims. The last house sold a while ago and as of yet the HOA hasn't said "boo" to him as they are afraid he will sue the HOA. As for he I will never have a house with an HOA even though I wish the neighbor down the street would clean up his front yard.
tangerine-jack wrote:Wow Vic, and your friends still live there? I can understand to a point wanting to keep up the property values by enforcing some standards of basic upkeep and apearance, but what the H&^% buisiness is it of yours what I do inside my own home!?!?!?!? Sound like an unconstitutional invasion of privacy and violation of civil liberties. If I lived there the HOA would have a very nice look into my psychadelic orange polka-dotted living room at my extended middle finger, that's what you get for peering into my home! I thought the Nazi's were crushed in 1945, but I see they are alive and well in Orange county.
The use of initials that other people may not know what is meant, is contrary to good communications and you Americans do it all the time. Lets not forget this is an international forum and it is regarded as an act of ignorance if you use language that others may not understand.
Wkat is an HQA, please?
Ian
Ian, reread the thread and utilize a bit of cognitive power. It's HOA, as Home Owner's Association; You know, those busybodies who tell you that you can't fart in your own front yard!
Reading and putting 2+2 together sometimes can lead to learning. I was taught that when one does not understand or know a word to look at the entire sentance or paragraph and think of the context the word is used in and that will generally give you a pretty good idea of meaning.
You know the old saying, "If you can't take the heat, stay out of the oven!" If Americans and thier ways perturb you so mightily, why not just stay with a down under forum rather than one based "over here"?
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