To object to the mural

They paid £350000 for the bungalow a year ago and have spent at least a couple of hundred thousand extending and modifying it. My house is probably the most expensive in the road worth probably before they moved in about £5000000. I'm told local estate agents have downgraded this road because of them and that was before this monstrosity.

I have mixed feelings.
On the one hand I am in favour of a man's house is his castle, or whatever the expression is.
But on the other hand, I dont think things should be that bad that neighbours should be a nuisance to others. And I think what they have done, constitiutes a nuisance.

Out of interest, do you know what job they do?

eg, if they are plumbers, they may not get so much work. But if say they own a betting shop, what they have done probably would not affect their income.

Some years ago I was running an arts outreach project for YP aged 11 - 21 and graffiti art was all the rage. I got an street artist from Bristol (no, not Banksy) to come and run a workshop with a group of them. They painted a blank wall down a wall-lined alleyway and turned it from a ghastly space covered in obscenities to a very interesting piece of art. I obtained all the necessary permissions from the owners and the council etc. The art remained there unsullied by the local youth, because they owned and appreciated it and made sure it was taken care of.

A few years later a developer built a terrace of houses along the alley opposite the mural and the owner of one of these complained to the council about the mural as they could see it from their upstairs windows (the wall on their side of the alley masked it from downstairs). I was pretty peeved when the council had it painted over - the owners of the house could not have failed to see the mural when they chose to buy the house. There was nothing offensive about the mural - it was colourful and creative.

And, guess what happened....? The young people who had made the mural got stuck in and covered it in spray-painted obscenities and frankly I did not blame them. No amount of effort by the council to scrub these off worked, as by the next day it was all back again.

The irony was that the same council had funded the workshop in the first place!

I like it. Too many boring houses around.

It's horrible.

I still can't see Nits. It looks more like a W and Nate. Which makes about as much sense!

Ghastly!

Meant to add, yes, it is possibly art, but in the wrong place?

Bit like the definition of a weed, I.e. that it is a plant growing where it is not wanted?

Is it any worse than people who put mock stone cladding on their houses? It's all a matter of taste.

Out of interest, what do you object to the most. The graffiti mural or the fact the estate agent says the value of your house has dropped?

I would think - meh - who cares. Despite your concern I very much doubt they have devalued the street. Property prices tend to be more robust than that.

A word of warning though - your neighbours clearly and cheerfully don't give a toss what their neighbours think of them. It is their house and their prerogative to decorate it as they see fit. I would beware trying to take an official route to get it remove. They are probably not actively trying to annoy people, just don't give much thought to what anyone else thinks. But if you p* them off, they may make it their business to be as objectionable as possible within the confines of the law and that is likely to be very much worse.

They have been causing problems with inconsiderate parking, their rubbish blowing down our drives and general ntideness since their arrival.
The local postie told me on their arrival 'I see you have the neighbours from hell moving next door!'
It's been proved correct

Untideiness

I am no good with horrible neighbours. So I simply act as if they don't exist! At the moment it is bliss with young couples either side who are quiet and considerate. In fact I think our dog makes the most noise if he thinks a car has been in the garden

Our last neighbour was an aggressive alcholic -that was dreadful.

Cat!!!! Not car

galen you need one of my neighbours he is like a new pin and even his flowers and grass stand to attention

I really dont see the problem. it is their house, if that is what they like in the way of art, it is their business. If i were in your position and didnt like it, I would put up a trellis or plant some trees.

It's a bit of a minefield. 40 odd years ago we allowed our 11year old son to paint a cartoon character on our garage door. It was the summer holidays and we thought it would keep him out of mischief and he was a good artist. However one of our neighbours objected and it upset me. I phoned the council and was told that if we were the property owners, there was nothing that the neighbours could object to legally. (That was then , don't know about now). We kept it for a while, but rather than really fall out with people who were otherwise friendly, we got our artist to overpaint it. To this day we never found out what caused her to object, maybe she had had a bad day.

Have you got your noughts right Galen?

One of the worst things about it is the amount of red in the picture, because red sort of overrides every other colour so you can't get away from it, even out of the corner of your eye.

Wouldn't mind so much if it was Google graffiti art , of which we have good examples in Bristol, but this is very poor quality.
It looks like a a cross eyed volcano spewing out fag ends!

Not Google.
Good quality!
iPad!

Also, this is the kind of thread the less salubrious papers (like the Mail) pick up and you would be completely identifiable.