Are you friends with your neighbors?

[KimberlyH]

I've always imagined that I would develop acquaintanceships if not friendships with my neighbors. We live in a rural area so that has not been the case, but we plan to move this summer and I am hoping that living in an area where houses actually sit next to one another will change that. My DH thinks most people prefer to keep to themselves and that it's not so common for neighbors to develop anything more than a quick-wave-and-"hello" sort of relationship, especially where we live (in Southern CA). So I'm curious, are you friends with your neighbors? And what region do you live in?

 

[kcoursolle]

We desperately tried to be friends with our neighbors since a young nice couple moved in next door. Unfortunately, they are in the industry in LA and work very strange hours, so we've never been able to connect very much. They seem really nice though, and definitely friendly enough to borrow a cup of sugar...or that sort of thing.

 

[monarch64]

We''re in a west burb of Chicago, as you probably know by now, and packed tightly into one of something like 22 houses on a block...we have met most of our neighbors and our acquainted with a few. I usually conversate over the fence with our next door neighbors (we''re on a corner lot), and DH talks sports frequently with the guy across the street. Other than that, it''s strictly "hi, how are you, how are the dogs?" with everyone else who passes by. We don''t have block parties like some communities do, which is sad, but OTOH I really do prefer that we keep to ourselves and don''t get too involved in anyone else''s business and vice versa.

We did socialize in the past with a couple who moved in a couple months after we bought our house two blocks over, but honestly we ended up spending so much time together that it basically took its toll on the friendship and we don''t see much of them anymore. We were all close in age and experience, and a lot of competition had started happening, unfortunately. I.E. we would make a big purchase, not say anything, they would come over and find out, then go out the next day and buy the exact same thing, or similar things. It sucked because before we lived so close to each other we really enjoyed their company. After they ended up buying in our neighborhood things just started to go south fast...I''ve posted before on what to do about it to either save things or move on but that was a while ago and I''m sad to say things just didn''t turn out well. Of course we still see them at other social gatherings and we are cordial but it''s not the same level of friendship and fun that it used to be. I think some hurt feelings were involved on their part because we didn''t consult them on every major purchase we made and they kind of felt like they should''ve been in the loop for some weird reason. (Just a couple examples: I buy a new car, they go out and get the same one, right down to the options on it, DH gets me tickets to Wicked, her DH gets her tickets and they have to be the same seats, etc. It just got to be weird and not in a good way, there had to be a conversation about every decision they made based on our experiences with the same products.) I mean, if we''d wanted another couple in our family we''d be polygamists or something. Sorry for what turned into an entirely too long vent...the whole thing just left a bad taste in my mouth as far as neighbors!

A side note: I did grow up on a farm in rural Indiana and was not in sugar borrowing distance from neighbors. Maybe that is a reason why I''m not too fond of getting too friendly with people I live extremely close to now...however, DH grew up right around where we live now and he feels the same as I do.

 

[surfgirl]

well Kimberly, I live in your city and I''m no longer friends with the neighbors. We used to be friends with our next door neighbors, our across the street neighbors and the old lady across the street. Our next doors are nice but wishy washy and decided to demo and re build their house. So they moved out FOUR years ago and didn''t start demo-ing until TWO years ago. And they were refusing to put up a debris fence because they''re so cheap. In the end they did but we had to put up the netting, which is the whole point, really, because they were too cheap to pay for that. It''s been nearly TWO YEARS that they''re "building" their house (mind you, they''ve been living around the corner in a $1700/mo apt all that time!). But since they cant make a solid decision between them, they keep changing things which cause huge delays. Most of the ''hood is fed up with them now and sadly, we would never hang out with them again because we feel they''ve inflicted their re-build on us for way too long. I think it''s easier to be "friendly" with neighbors but not necessarily "friends". The couple across the street moved and we''re still good friends with them. The old lady across the street died and her daughter (who is rather trashy, to put it nicely) moved in with her 5 yappy dogs that she never walks, they are so unbalanced and live in a tiny concrete fenced in area on her driveway, never touching dirt or lawn (she doesn''t want them in her backyard because she ''wants to keep it nice''...so why does she have FIVE dogs she doesn''t care for???) and she lives 5 minutes from a dog park. They bark all the time and we basically loathe her. And behind us are two more houses with dogs that never get walked and go on barking jags where they dont shut up for hours and the owners do nothing.

So are we friends with our neighbors? No, sadly, we are surrounded by inconsiderate people. I find that so many people today just dont care about anyone other than themselves. It''s really a shame. I keep wanting to move to a more rural area so I dont have to live on top of my neighbors or so close to them (I grew up in a rural area)...I dont know if that''s the answer or not. But I dont find alot of warm, considerate neighbors here in SoCal...

 

[zhuzhu]

I have been friendly with my neighbors while living in Pittsburgh. However my single-graduate student-lifestyle does not mix in too well with single-family homes where I live. I am hoping to become friendly with neightbors in my new SD apartment complexes as I think conneting well with people living near you can only enhnace your quality of life!

 

[Skippy123]

Kimberly,
Thank you for the super sweet comment in the best qualities thread; I would love to stop by for tea and chit chat with you! That would be the best!!!!

I lived in a few neighborhoods. My parents neighborhood we were friendly with our neighbors.
The neighborhood I live in now is like anytown USA. We actually have a very close knit neighborhood. We have block parties every 2 years. Of course I am on that committee.

The moment we moved into the neighborhood a neighbor and her 3 year old girl brought over a pumpkin bread they made together!! Then within the month our neighbor across the street
threw a cocktail party to welcome us and introduce us to other neighbors.

I watch out for my neighbors and vise versa. They have given me keys to their house; we do the same. We meet for dinner once in a while with serveral different neighbors. It is funny because anyone who does a remodel project means everyone wants to see; it does not bother me. In fact it almost feels like a family. Every 4th of July we have a parade. People show up on their bikes, segways, dogs balloons and decorate in red white and blue and we do a loop. Then one neighbor always has ice cream for the kids at the end of the parade! It really is wonderful; we made the newspaper 2 years ago! I love it here. I have everyones phone number and work number; we make sure when people move in the they get the phone list. My neighbors helped celebrate my 30th bday. I live in sunny Albuquerque, NM

 

[strmrdr]

Friends with one family out of 12 in my building.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

We don''t really hang out with the neighbors considering everyone is so busy these days. But our neighborhood, which is relatively small, does have a shared pool which is used by the few families with kids, so there is some interaction there. Like Skippy, we also have a 4th of July parade in the neighborhood and a firetruck and police car participate and all the kids ride bikes, etc. We do carpool to school some with one family. My husband wishes we lived out of town on a few acres, and I''d love to do that if it weren''t SO much trouble to move!

 

[Cehrabehra]

I live in portland oregon suburbs in a quaint neighborhood oasis that is semi-rural living in about a square mile (or so) smack dab in the middle of *everything*. Best of both worlds to me. And I know more of my neighbors here than I did after 8 years at our old house a mile away. This neighborhood is VERY tight in several ways and we have a lot of meetings and other community events that encourage bonding. At my old house I pretty much just knew the immediate neighbors (one of which owned the dog that attacked my son) and would kinda get to meet neighbors at halloween... here we don't TorT in our own neighborhood because it's not very good for that, but we get to meet the neighbors all year long. I wouldn't say I am "friends" with any of the neighbors, but we're definitely friendly and do things for one another.

ETA many of them are older, though there are a few kids sprinkled around.

 

[WTNLVR]

We live in a rural suburb of Boston, about 45 minutes from the city. We are cordial with our neighbors, but that's it. When we first moved in - new development like setting- we invited both sets over to our parties. They both came over for several years but NEVER reciprocated! They always seemed to enjoy themeselves, kept coming to our parties, etc... One couple just did not have company. Now they do because they have an adopted child form China, but most of their friends seem to be couples they met during the adoption process. The other couple is older, but our age at heart. If we invite them over, they come in a heart beat, but we stopped asking after 9 years because it was all one sided. We are cordial when we talk over the property line, etc... I've heard it is very rare these days to really hang with the neighbors. It's sad really. I wish I was born about 20 years earlier

 

[Diamond*Dana]

I live in Ohio, suburb of Cleveland. We are fortunate to have met a wonderful family 2 doors down...they are 42 (I am 34 snd hubby is 36) with kids that are around the same age as ours. They have become some of our very best friends! We do hang out socially, BBQ...dinner...out of town...we love having such great friends next door!

 

[Miranda]

I live in a new development in South Orange County. I just mentioned to DH that all of the neighbors seem to wave and say hello, but, it''s not close like our old street. I''m not sure why. Everyone is really busy with their kids and such.

 

[basil]

I live in a converted condo building with 6 units. I''ve met my neighbors, but I don''t hang out with them, and mostly our conversation is limited to ''hey, how''s it going?''

I work long and weird hours and there is no real outdoors or common space to our building, so I honestly don''t see them around that much unless we happen to be pulling into the parking space at the same time. We''ve only had one "condo meeting" since I moved in about a year ago. I guess I would have expected to get to know them a little better since it''s only a few units, but on the other hand, I haven''t put any effort into it at all.

 

[Madam Bijoux]

I live in a single house in the Philadelphia suburbs. The neighbors on my side of the street are very friendly, but one family across the street is hostile.

 

[Clio]

We live in the DC suburbs, and I''d say that we are friendly with our neighbors, but not close friends with them. We do see neighbors a lot a various school, neighborhood, and church functions, which is nice, but I''ve never really felt the need to get closer. I''m the kind of person who really only needs 1-2 close friends, and my sister lives in DC as well.

 

[KimberlyH]

Date: 5/25/2007 8:48:29 PM
Author: Skippy123
Kimberly,
Thank you for the super sweet comment in the best qualities thread; I would love to stop by for tea and chit chat with you! That would be the best!!!!

I lived in a few neighborhoods. My parents neighborhood we were friendly with our neighbors.
The neighborhood I live in now is like anytown USA. We actually have a very close knit neighborhood. We have block parties every 2 years. Of course I am on that committee.

The moment we moved into the neighborhood a neighbor and her 3 year old girl brought over a pumpkin bread they made together!! Then within the month our neighbor across the street
threw a cocktail party to welcome us and introduce us to other neighbors.

I watch out for my neighbors and vise versa. They have given me keys to their house; we do the same. We meet for dinner once in a while with serveral different neighbors. It is funny because anyone who does a remodel project means everyone wants to see; it does not bother me. In fact it almost feels like a family. Every 4th of July we have a parade. People show up on their bikes, segways, dogs balloons and decorate in red white and blue and we do a loop. Then one neighbor always has ice cream for the kids at the end of the parade! It really is wonderful; we made the newspaper 2 years ago! I love it here. I have everyones phone number and work number; we make sure when people move in the they get the phone list. My neighbors helped celebrate my 30th bday. I live in sunny Albuquerque, NM

That''s what spurred this post, Skip; I thought: I would want her to be my neighbor she and I would get along so well!

So it seems sorta like a mish-mash across the country. My parents lived in a great neighborhood in No.Cal. In fact they were there not too long ago and the old neighbors threw a get together so they could see everyone. People who had moved away drove over an hour to come be part of the day. I think that''s really neat.

Monnie, you and your DH feel like my DH does. He''s an extremely private person. In fact, when we started discussing moving he asked if he could post a "No Trespassing" sign on our new home...I started to get miffed until he laughed at me ''cuz he was trying to get my goat and it worked.

 

[Skippy123]

Date: 5/26/2007 11:32:05 AM
Author: KimberlyH

Date: 5/25/2007 8:48:29 PM
Author: Skippy123
Kimberly,
Thank you for the super sweet comment in the best qualities thread; I would love to stop by for tea and chit chat with you! That would be the best!!!!

I lived in a few neighborhoods. My parents neighborhood we were friendly with our neighbors.
The neighborhood I live in now is like anytown USA. We actually have a very close knit neighborhood. We have block parties every 2 years. Of course I am on that committee.

The moment we moved into the neighborhood a neighbor and her 3 year old girl brought over a pumpkin bread they made together!! Then within the month our neighbor across the street
threw a cocktail party to welcome us and introduce us to other neighbors.

I watch out for my neighbors and vise versa. They have given me keys to their house; we do the same. We meet for dinner once in a while with serveral different neighbors. It is funny because anyone who does a remodel project means everyone wants to see; it does not bother me. In fact it almost feels like a family. Every 4th of July we have a parade. People show up on their bikes, segways, dogs balloons and decorate in red white and blue and we do a loop. Then one neighbor always has ice cream for the kids at the end of the parade! It really is wonderful; we made the newspaper 2 years ago! I love it here. I have everyones phone number and work number; we make sure when people move in the they get the phone list. My neighbors helped celebrate my 30th bday. I live in sunny Albuquerque, NM

That's what spurred this post, Skip; I thought: I would want her to be my neighbor she and I would get along so well!

So it seems sorta like a mish-mash across the country. My parents lived in a great neighborhood in No.Cal. In fact they were there not too long ago and the old neighbors threw a get together so they could see everyone. People who had moved away drove over an hour to come be part of the day. I think that's really neat.

Monnie, you and your DH feel like my DH does. He's an extremely private person. In fact, when we started discussing moving he asked if he could post a 'No Trespassing' sign on our new home...I started to get miffed until he laughed at me 'cuz he was trying to get my goat and it worked.

Kimberly,
I feel that is one of the sweetest compliments; thank you

You are a sweetie

That would be fun! I am dying to see the flowers in Carlsbad so maybe next spring we could meet in real life!!! I love San Diego; I actually have a close friend that lives out there and we went jet skiing out there. It is so beautiful! If you are ever in New Mexico please let me know

 

[KimberlyH]

Date: 5/26/2007 11:44:54 AM
Author: Skippy123

Date: 5/26/2007 11:32:05 AM
Author: KimberlyH

Date: 5/25/2007 8:48:29 PM
Author: Skippy123
Kimberly,
Thank you for the super sweet comment in the best qualities thread; I would love to stop by for tea and chit chat with you! That would be the best!!!!

I lived in a few neighborhoods. My parents neighborhood we were friendly with our neighbors.
The neighborhood I live in now is like anytown USA. We actually have a very close knit neighborhood. We have block parties every 2 years. Of course I am on that committee.

The moment we moved into the neighborhood a neighbor and her 3 year old girl brought over a pumpkin bread they made together!! Then within the month our neighbor across the street
threw a cocktail party to welcome us and introduce us to other neighbors.

I watch out for my neighbors and vise versa. They have given me keys to their house; we do the same. We meet for dinner once in a while with serveral different neighbors. It is funny because anyone who does a remodel project means everyone wants to see; it does not bother me. In fact it almost feels like a family. Every 4th of July we have a parade. People show up on their bikes, segways, dogs balloons and decorate in red white and blue and we do a loop. Then one neighbor always has ice cream for the kids at the end of the parade! It really is wonderful; we made the newspaper 2 years ago! I love it here. I have everyones phone number and work number; we make sure when people move in the they get the phone list. My neighbors helped celebrate my 30th bday. I live in sunny Albuquerque, NM

That''s what spurred this post, Skip; I thought: I would want her to be my neighbor she and I would get along so well!

So it seems sorta like a mish-mash across the country. My parents lived in a great neighborhood in No.Cal. In fact they were there not too long ago and the old neighbors threw a get together so they could see everyone. People who had moved away drove over an hour to come be part of the day. I think that''s really neat.

Monnie, you and your DH feel like my DH does. He''s an extremely private person. In fact, when we started discussing moving he asked if he could post a ''No Trespassing'' sign on our new home...I started to get miffed until he laughed at me ''cuz he was trying to get my goat and it worked.

Kimberly,
I feel that is one of the sweetest compliments; thank you

You are a sweetie

That would be fun! I am dying to see the flowers in Carlsbad so maybe next spring we could meet in real life!!! I love San Diego; I actually have a close friend that lives out there and we went jet skiing out there. It is so beautiful! If you are ever in New Mexico please let me know

If you''re ever hear please let me know, I''d love to meet you! All your good talk about NM makes me want to visit! Maybe a future trip?!

 

[Haven]

Kimberly--you''re thinking about moving to Chicago, right?

Just in case, I''ve lived in a few places in and around Chicago, so here''s what I''ve found:

My parents are friendly with every single person on their block. They live in the "North Shore" which consists of the northern suburbs that border Lake Michigan, so they are not quite in the city. The houses are pretty far apart--I think the smallest lots in their neighborhood are one or two acres--but they still manage to make friends! They have a few friends on the block, people they get together with for coffee or a night out, and in general everyone is really nice. In the winters, whoever takes the snow plow out first for the day does everyone else''s driveway--now, that is being neighborly.

The actual city has been different, in my experience. It''s strange, because you''re more likely to live much closer to your neighbors in the city (as in there''s only a few feet separating your door from their doors) but people keep to themselves. I have a few friends in my building, but some people step into the elevator and just stare at those blinking numbers all the way down.

Wherever you move, good luck, and I hope you have a lovely set of neighbors!

 

[KimberlyH]

Date: 5/26/2007 12:35:03 PM
Author: Haven
Kimberly--you''re thinking about moving to Chicago, right?

Just in case, I''ve lived in a few places in and around Chicago, so here''s what I''ve found:

My parents are friendly with every single person on their block. They live in the ''North Shore'' which consists of the northern suburbs that border Lake Michigan, so they are not quite in the city. The houses are pretty far apart--I think the smallest lots in their neighborhood are one or two acres--but they still manage to make friends! They have a few friends on the block, people they get together with for coffee or a night out, and in general everyone is really nice. In the winters, whoever takes the snow plow out first for the day does everyone else''s driveway--now, that is being neighborly.

The actual city has been different, in my experience. It''s strange, because you''re more likely to live much closer to your neighbors in the city (as in there''s only a few feet separating your door from their doors) but people keep to themselves. I have a few friends in my building, but some people step into the elevator and just stare at those blinking numbers all the way down.

Wherever you move, good luck, and I hope you have a lovely set of neighbors!

Hi Haven,

Good memory! I had a bit of a freak out about Chicago so we''ve decided to stay put in good ol'' San Diego. We''re moving from a rural suburb into the city of SD, though. Right now we live on 2+ acres and our neighbors are horses. We know some of the people who live around us, but we''re not really friendly with anyone (except of course the horses, who we love). The neighborhoods we''re going to look at are older and established, one seems more friendly than the other, so it will be interesting to see how things end up. Thanks for the info, that would have been really helpful had we moved to Chicago (we were looking at Lakeview if we were to relocate, which appeared to have that neighborly feel).

 

[surfgirl]

Kim, if you can tell me which hoods you''re looking at I can tell you more about them perhaps...

 

[february2003bride]

Yes! I love my neighborhood! I live in a suburb of Northern Va and it''s the best! Almost our entire block of families are friends. We''ve started a monthly book club, twice yearly block parties, I can count 3 of the women to be close friends now. My kids play with all of their kids, we do playdates, etc. I just hosted a "new mommy playdate" because we had a baby boom on our block (3 newborns in 3 weeks!) and since they are on maternity leave (1 is anyway) I hosted a small playdate so they could get out of the house and have some adult convo!

Our community does events every other month (easter egg hunt, halloween, Santa Run, etc). We also have a neighborhood intranet with a message board and I know several neighbors in our community do happy hours. It''s awesome as far as neighborhoods go!

 

[innerkitten]

On my block I chat with two people from different housholds. Then there are a few people I only say a few words to, " hello, how are you, crappy weather...etc". I get invited to and always attend my upstairs neighbors Christmas party every year. We've been neighbors for years. She's an astrologer and as a gift when my daughter was born she did a chart for her. Isn't that sweet!

I also chat with most of the dog walkers in the area and know the names of the dogs they walk. I love dogs even though I don't have any myself. I have cats.

 

[innerkitten]

OOps, I forgot to mention my mother lives on my block ( how could I forget !) so of course I see her all the time and she is friends with some neighborhood people too.

 

[Mrs Mitchell]

My last house put me off neighbours for good! We lived in the middle of nowhere, basically, but we did have one neighbour. He was really friendly at first, then got gradually more horrible, weird and nasty. He moved in about a year after we did, the other house on the plot having been empty. He was fine for a few months, then started getting nasty -interfering, giving orders, wanting us to concede more and more every week. Little things, then some bigger things then finally he reverted to his old favourite hobby - bagpipe playing. I swear he used to wait for me to get home before he started. He wasn''t even very good at it and he made our Deerhounds howl for hours at a stretch. A lot of unpleasantness went on because we weren''t in a position to move away immediately, it got really bad.

When we couldn''t bear to live near him another minute, we ended up buying a house with no neighbours at all. It sounds a bit trivial now, but at the time I think we were actually quite traumatised by it all. We live on the edge of a small village now, and meet people in the local shops (ok, pubs) that we get on with quite well. I''m still quite wary of getting too close to people I live near though.

Um, well, that was a cheery, helpful little post, wasn''t it? I take some comfort from knowing that it wasn''t just me - nobody has stayed in that house for very long.

Jen

 

[sumbride]

We live in a rowhouse in Baltimore city, so you''re kind of "up-close and personal" with the neighbors, whether you want to be or not. I will say that we have several neighbors we are good friends with... they don''t necessarily live on our block, but our neighborhood itself has a pretty tight-knit group of people trying to make it better... we are active in the neighborhood association (not like a homeowner''s group... our dues are $10/person), we have a newsgroup, we do volunteer activities, etc... There are a lot of "no-good" people in the neighborhood as well, so a lot of the bonding with neighbors has been over trying to get certain tenants evicted and getting the city to oust some property owners, but it does have a "feel-good" quality about it.

M is the treasurer for the neighborhood association and is way more active than I am because he has more free time. There is a tree planting on our street next week, and he spent all day yesterday in the park around the corner staffing the booth at a festival. There''s a cookout in our alley next month to welcome about 20 new households moving in behind us. It''s much busier than I really would expect, but we like it.

 

[lumpkin]

We have some great neighbors who are really involved in the neighborhood, and I''m on the association board. In a pinch I asked one of our neighbors to watch our kids a few years ago, and she did it with a happy heart and was very kind to them. I bake for our neighbors during the winter holidays. The men borrow each other''s tools, which is VERY handy, and if you need help moving something around or if someone ends up with extra plants they share. But we don''t get together and have coffee or go shopping or have intimate conversations. The neighborhood has a couple of social clubs, but honestly, my favorite neighbors don''t participate. I went to a few and it was a gossipfest about other neighbors. Most of the people who participate are kind of busy bodies, so I just don''t go. But I love our surrounding neighbors for the most part. We definitely look out for each other even though I would not say we are as close as family or super close friends. We lucked out to get a nice group of neighbors.

 

[divergrrl]

We live outside portland, or in a quaint suburb as well...(hi sara!) and on my block (there are 5 homes) I am friends with one neighbor. Within walking distance of my house (I can walk to EVERYTHING...starbucks, library, grocery store, post office, gym, salon, boutiques, bars & restaurants...)I''ve made many friends --- usually through walking our dog before we had kids. One of my neighbors is now like a sister to me (friends for 4 years now) and we are each other''s son''s godmothers, our families vacation in Mexico together...we spend every xmas eve at her mom''s house...our moms are friends now.

I''ve made a few great friends in this hood. It took a few years (about 3 or 4) before DH and I really got to meet couples our age/place in life. (we''ve been here almost 8 years)

Diver

 

[phoenixgirl]

In our condo building we had a lot of friends. We were never really friendly with the next door unit while we lived there -- the tenants changed twice, and one time there was a serial mooch living there. Four units all backed up to the same common area, and we sat out there with 6 different neighbors who lived on our floor or the floor below at various points, and we were also friendly with maybe 6 people who lived in other parts of the building. DH was on the board. We''re still friends with those people.

In our new house (in Richmond, VA), we''ve become friends with one family on the block. I actually took a class from the wife in college. We''ve taken their kids to a baseball game and tucked them in the other night and have gone over their house for drinks. We''re friendly with our neighbors on either side, but don''t hang out with them. One of our neighbors is quite comical -- it seems like every time I see him he''s building a gigantic tent in his small backyard or climbing onto our porch roof to leap across to his and see if he can get back in the house after locking himself out. He seems sort of like a comic book hero rather than a person (and he has NO sense of humor). This is totally random, but our neighbors on the other side were investigated for a high-profile murder here all because a bloodhound led the police to their front door. They didn''t have any other evidence, but they had to appear before a grand jury (they turned out to be completely innocent, of course) and a male relative they had living with them received the whole "You know you bleeping did it!" bad cop, good cop routine.

Our block is urban, although I don''t think the houses can be called rowhouses because they''re detached. So it''s definitely easier to meet people because the houses are so close together and people sit out on their porches a lot. Or at least we do, so I guess we meet people coming and going. We''re the only people with off street parking so we see our neighbors going to their cars. We''ve met about half of the people on the block, I think.

 

[Cehrabehra]

Date: 5/28/2007 12:50:40 AM
Author: divergrrl
We live outside portland, or in a quaint suburb as well...(hi sara!) and on my block (there are 5 homes) I am friends with one neighbor. Within walking distance of my house (I can walk to EVERYTHING...starbucks, library, grocery store, post office, gym, salon, boutiques, bars & restaurants...)I''ve made many friends --- usually through walking our dog before we had kids. One of my neighbors is now like a sister to me (friends for 4 years now) and we are each other''s son''s godmothers, our families vacation in Mexico together...we spend every xmas eve at her mom''s house...our moms are friends now.

I''ve made a few great friends in this hood. It took a few years (about 3 or 4) before DH and I really got to meet couples our age/place in life. (we''ve been here almost 8 years)

Diver

Hi Diver I am going to be so sad to leave our neighborhood when we move... if I include our whole neighborhood, its really awesome, and we are a very close and closed neighborhood. Most of the people I''ve met with kids my children''s ages live across the neighborhood which really is just a few short blocks LOL