What do you do when your neighbor expects to use your Wi-fi for free?

Sometimes, it's better to just leave well enough alone. By making an issue about what you “do or don't” have when you're, well… wrong—you're more than likely to end up with less than you started with in the first place. Especially, as it turns out when you're disputing what you think is the boundary of your new property… Because, as in this story, the neighbor who has been there for longer probably knows a thing or two about why that “boundary” was established in the first place As at any point…

Tree karma

"He seems to be expecting this money from us. We are willing to pay a portion but I personally feel swindled."

His dog fell ill the last time he used weed eliminator spray.

“Slumlord” landlords really don't do much good for anyone. Sure, they “provide housing” in the barest sense, but really, their landlord is just an extra convenience for them in addition to the land banking they're partaking in, the fact that there happens to be a barely inhabitable We found ourselves living in one of these places just out of university, desperate to find any available housing with our lease expiring and new jobs set to start. It was a pretty dingy building in an otherwise nice…

The house-buying process is stressful and difficult to navigate at any point—especially when it's your first, and you have no idea what you're doing or what to expect. The process will see results that can have drastic and possibly cataclysmic effects on your finances as well as on the rest of your life and its quality. It's exhausting. The process and paperwork involved are almost like a second job, with months upon months of weekends taken up by an endless stream of open homes. With possible…

Never burn a bridge with your next door neighbor

You're not supposed to take things that aren't yours—this is something that is ingrained in us from a very young age (or at least it's supposed to have been.) We were all taught that taking Little Jonny's red ball out at recess without his permission wasn't ok. Although we might still hold a grudge against Jonny for being a tattle tale (we were going to give it back), it doesn't change the fact that some valuable lessons were learned. These lessons and new-found boundaries should have stayed wi…

When you're facing up against power and authority, it's easy to feel helpless and like you don't have any options, feeling like the only thing you can do is try to mitigate the fallout they're causing by trying to keep peace with them. The thing is, they're counting on you thinking and feeling that way; a lot of times, petty authority and controlling behavior rely completely and wholly upon silence. It's difficult to do, but if you ask around enough, you're likely to find there are others with…

When your neighbor complains to your mother about how you need to mow your grass, you might have a situation on your hands.

The best part about finally owning your own home is that you can do whatever you want with it—within legal limitations and logical reasoning. Of course, you'll quickly come to realize that this isn't necessarily the case, as you'll also be contending with nosy HOA members poking around looking for a single blade of grass out of line. You'll also be subject to the opinions of your neighbors, who will be more than happy to share them with you as though their judgement is law. This homeowner bough…

Parking is one of those things that is always going to cause issues when limited spots are of any concern. People just don't know how to behave rationally when scarcity of resources is at hand, and the monkey part of their brain takes over. Still, when you have your own driveway, even if it's shared, you'd sort of expect that your side of it would remain accessible to you (and you alone) without issue—unfortunately, inconsiderate neighbors mean this is not always the case. In this case, these n…

All bark no bite

Patience is a virtue.

It's not always fair to blame parents for the actions of their children, people are psychologically complex and each child is different and wildly unpredictable in their own way. Even the best of intentions and good parenting doesn't always yield the best results, plus—well, mistakes are just part of growing up and even adults are all still just learning as we go. Still, if you work with kids and meet the parents of a problem child, it becomes immediately clear when the problem is the parents.…