Please help....any suggestions appreciated. In October of 2007 a major live event caused me to buy a house under some duress. The house I bought is charming about 3000 sq ft in incredible condition on 1/2 acre of completely landscaped yard with fruit trees, paths fountain, etc. Really a magical garden. OK here is the....'what have I done part'. I bought the house in November and updated some things....new paint, bath remodel, new kitchen floor about $70,000 worth. I did not move into the house until Feb 2008. Since then I am losing my mind. The house slopes up and little did I know that the freeway noise would become a major issue. The whole back of the house faces the source of noise and I feel like there is no place to hide from the constant din. What can I do? Should I fire sale the house? Should this have been disclosed to me? When I visited the house several times before buying it did not seem that bad. The master bedroom is the worse....the outside wall actually vibrates. Should I try to fix....insulate the bedroom wall and put a glass wall on deck? Thanks!
You received some good advice on the other thread you started on this topic: a) plantings/berms will help cut down the vibration/noise; and b) you have no recourse against the seller as the freeway was obviously there when you visited the house -- you just didn't notice it, which is unfortunate for you but not an actionable issue against the seller.
some times we just don't put 2 and 2 together when we are excited about a house. Welive near a rail freight yard, i knew the yard was there and that tracks were all around us but it just never occured to me that house near train tracks = hearing trains! you cannot see the tracks from our house but they are a matter of a few blocks away. Luckily the whistels are not loud enough to wake us up but we can still hear them inside our house year round.
Mental note... next time be more observent and ask myself alot of "waht if" and "how will this affect us" type of quesitons.
I like our house but sure am glad we are not closer to the tracks!
in your case I would plant a barrier which will asorb alot of the noise
----------------------------- "Children are the message we send to a time we will not see."
Yahoo messanger= Rachel_G001113 *feel free to add me to your buddy list.
Posts: 1320 | Location: West Michigan | Registered: Jun 08, 2007
I don't know where else you've posted, but you have learned a valuable lesson, as a previous poster said, on paying attention and really getting to know the house before you buy. If sound is the issue - the suggestions for landscaping are great ones. You can also get new windows that really work well with keeping sound out, and you can do insulation, as well - that should help. I can't imagine doing a "fire sale" - you will get used to whatever noise you live around. I used to live on a farm that had peacocks. Don't know if you've been around them before, but during mating season - they have a piercing scream that sounds like someone yelling for help. They used to roost outside my bedroom window. About 6 months of living there - I didn't even hear them any more..... Good luck - if the house is as great as you thought to begin with - you can do lots of things to lower the noise....
Posts: 3634 | Location: Northern Virginia, USA | Registered: May 29, 2003
you do get used to any noise really. I have a aunt and uncle who raised their family in a house that had a train track at their property line. None of the kids were bothered by it and it got ot where the conductor would wave every time he went buy cuz they were familiar. Infact when they moved the new place seemed to quiet!
----------------------------- "Children are the message we send to a time we will not see."
Yahoo messanger= Rachel_G001113 *feel free to add me to your buddy list.
Posts: 1320 | Location: West Michigan | Registered: Jun 08, 2007
I agree that you do get used to noise, we lived about 10 minutes outside of Boston right across the street from Tufts University where in the summer time you could hear college kids walking up the street at all hours of the night as well as cars, fire engines etc all day and night. In the winter you didn't hear it at all probably because those old houses had extremely thick walls. However when we moved an hour outside of Boston about 4 years ago I found it too quiet (no city noises) and the sounds of nature (peeper frogs and owls) at night to drove me batty when I first moved here but I got used to it I never hear them now unless I make a conscious note to listen for them.
as for any rebuttals on your purchase, there's nothing you can do like some other posters have said the highway was there before you moved in, there was an episode of let me sleep on it where a couple who wanted to buy a house after sleeping over night in it changed their mind due to the highway noise that they didn't notice when they went to look at the house, some things you don't notice or overlook when you are looking at a house.
There are certain windows I believe that you can buy that have some sort of sound barrier in them as well as if you have money to burn you could always insulate the house with acoustic tiles etc.
We have lived several places where I was afraid the noise would make me insane. After a few months or less it seems to go away.
WE just bought a half acre 1 1/2 blocks from the highway. It is in town so speed is 45 but we have noticed the noise while moving things onto the property. The house is not there yet. Going to be a manufactured home. This will be our fourth manufactured home and so far the three we have already lived in have been so quiet inside if we did not have the dogs we would not know some one has driven up.
We have double pane windows. Maybe they would work for you.
Chris
Posts: 143 | Location: Midvale,ID,USA | Registered: Jun 21, 2003
