There are benefits and drawbacks to living in a community with a homeowners association.
I get ya, when my neighbor in the apartment below me leaves her garbage in a bag on her porch I find it offensive, and think that if I lived in a house I owned, or was buying, in a homeowners community then she'd not be allowed to do that and I'd be grateful for the rule. On the other hand, I also leave my garbage outside my door from time to time and wouldn't want to have the neighbors telling me not to do that. On balance, I think invasion weighs more on me than intrusion, and I I'll take the bad with the good rather than sign a contract saying I'll abide by X and Y and Z if you will. that said, if this woman signed a contract saying she wouldn't put up a wreath with a peace sign, then she has to take it down, doncha think? And that said, I think it'd piss me off mightily if someone said I couldn't hang a wreath with a peace sign, so I'd probably rather pay the twenty five bucks a day just to piss the asshole next door off a bit. Figure that's only about seven hundred dollars between now and Christmas. Seven hundred dollars worth of satisfaction is how I'd see it, if he's the sort of guy I really want to peeve. Hell, I've spent more than that in one day on hard living. Think of Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. What if that guy came over and said you had to change your doorframe which was specially built to accomodate Shake's stocky frame and inflexible short arms to a rectangular one. More orthodox to have a rectangular frame and all. And door frames shaped like milkshake cartons really bring down the resale value of neighboring houses. Well, go screw. I say shake ought to be able to have a door he can walk through.
There goes the neighborhood.
