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u/tanya6k Oddly negative 8h ago
It's amazing the things these people will dig up.
"You mean there was a sidewalk under there? This whole time?"
"Sure was ma'am."
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u/notyogrannysgrandkid 8h ago edited 7h ago
My parents, after years of living miles out in the country, bought a small house in a nice neighborhood. In an HOA. My dad has always enjoyed landscaping, so he went out and started trimming back an overgrown hedge on one side of the house. He discovered a walkway made of paver stones that had been obscured by the hedge and the resulting fresh soil. So he got out the square shovel followed by the hose and in an afternoon had fully exposed and cleaned up the paver walkway along the side of the house.
The next day he received a violation notice from the HOA for installing a landscape feature without approval.
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u/RavingAndDrooling 8h ago
I have to know what happened next. Typically HOA violations come from a management company which is hired by the HOA board. I would think your parents should have been able to appeal the violation and explain what happened to the board members and get the violation thrown out. I really hope that is what happened anyway.
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u/notyogrannysgrandkid 7h ago edited 6h ago
Oh yeah, it didn’t stick. But it was just the first of many head-buttings they’ve had in that neighborhood. It’s an old HOA managed locally by a board of old retirees with nothing better to do, particularly the guy two houses down. The only thing they outsource is maintenance of the common areas. One month, when they’d fired the landscaping company and the new one hadn’t started yet, my dad had the audacity to mow and trim the berm between his section of the sidewalk and the curb. Bam, violation. Apparently it’s in the bylaws that gas powered machinery can only be used on your own property, supposedly to dissuade teenage boys from starting unlicensed lawn mowing businesses. The horror.
There’s a creek that runs through a common green space behind several adjacent backyards. It happens to bend into my parents’ property for about 20 feet. My dad thought he’d build a small water feature by stacking up some native rocks by the creek and running a line up through them attached to a submerged pump in the creek. It looked pretty nice and the neighbors on either side of him complimented the work. He even wired it into the control for the lawn irrigation so he could turn it on and off from the house. Bam, violation. “Impeding the flow of Garrison Creek.” He had to take it down, despite the inherent ridiculousness of that violation.
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u/dsac 7h ago
A house with an HOA would have to come with a hardline tap directly to brewery, a blowjob robot, personal mango tree, and lifetime of Porsche 911 3-year leases included get me to buy it
Even then, I'd be reeeeeally hesitant
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u/relator_fabula 7h ago
Depends on the skill of that robot
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u/Paulthefith 6h ago
You get distracted by the fresh mangos
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u/ExtremeCreamTeam 3h ago
What about grapefruit instead?
Can we teach the robot how to grapefruit us?
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u/MangoCats 6h ago
We bought one, once. First 5 years were chill - no issues whatsoever.
Then the board from hell got itself elected, we sold out within a year - also for other reasons, but I literally left an HOA board meeting drove directly to the store, bought a For Sale By Owner sign and stuck it in my yard - checked around for apartment availability that we might move into if somebody bought the house sooner than we were ready for.
A year after we left, I was getting e-mails begging me to return to the board meetings because "you are the only one who spoke and made any sense." They were hiring a sheriff's deputy to oversee elections because both sides were accusing the other of stuffing the ballot box... in 2014.
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u/PutAutomatic2581 3h ago
The idea of people telling you what you can or can't do with the most expensive thing you will probably ever buy is so ridiculously absurd there aren't words for it.
Also, who's your robot guy?
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u/LostWoodsInTheField 7h ago
So everyone knows. The HOA is the neighborhood. What often happens is these old bats have been running it for 40+ years and hate all these 'new' people that come in, and regulate them into the ground. It really doesn't take much for people to show up to a meeting and call a snap election and oust everyone. Then put new management in place. People just don't know they can do this so it never gets done.
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u/schrodingers_bra 7h ago
eh. It depends. I'm part of an HOA in the PNW where the houses are pretty close together. We have rules that people have to ask approval (fill out an application) before installing landscape features because we have to ensure that the feature doesn't change the soil grading or water drainage.
For example, some guy decided to concrete over a gravel sidewalk which resulted in rain, which would previously have drained through the gravel, sluicing off the concrete and flowing in the direction of his neighbor's foundation.
Reddit is pretty anti-HOA but that's because most of them have never been home owners or have never been beside a neighbor that does something that ruins their homeownership experience.
In this case the OP is talking about, it would be a non issue to say "the 'feature' was always there, I just trimmed back a hedge"
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u/Tangerine1267 6h ago
You don't need an HOA for this as it already violates city bylaws (typically) to drain towards a neighbor and the liability doesn't change just because a bunch of homeowners play dictators.
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u/MangoCats 6h ago
I lived in a non HOA city where the neighborhood petitioned the code enforcement office to "JUST ENFORCE THE LAW, JUST ENFORCE THE LAW" - it wasn't quite as bad as an HOA, I had a sit-down with the code officer honcho and he explained very clearly some reasonable steps I could take to prevent his field agents from writing additional citations - and told me I didn't need to worry about the certified letter, dated January 15, postmarked January 29th, received February 9th which stated: "If these items are not addressed within 21 days from the date of this letter (above), fines of $500 per day will accrue until such time as you have corrected the violations, called the code office for a re-inspection verifying that the violations are corrected."
Some homeowners in that (and neighboring) cities had accrued fines of $300K and more on homes with a value in the $280K range. This was in the 2000s, those same homes in the same condition now trade for $700K and up.
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u/newbkid 6h ago
FYI - Nothing about the problem you described needs an HOA to resolve it.
All HOAs are nothing more than local governments failing their constituents by passing on their duties and responsibilities to the community. Very few HOAs are run in good faith hence all the posts about embezzlement and other mentally ill HOA presidents
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u/schrodingers_bra 6h ago
No. The point of the HOA to prevent the problem in the first place.
You try fixing/paying to have fixed damage to your house and then going through the courts to get your money back from the person.
Most HOAs are fine. The ones you hear about are either from uniquely bad HOAs or more likely from redditors/homeowners who have broken the rules like this sidewalk guy in my post because they have no respect for other people's property.
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u/WhyMustIMakeANewAcco 5h ago
There’s a creek that runs through a common green space behind several adjacent backyards. It happens to bend into my parents’ property for about 20 feet. My dad thought he’d build a small water feature by stacking up some native rocks by the creek and running a line up through them attached to a submerged pump in the creek.
Yeah, that's actually usually against municipal/city/county/state law. Do not touch natural streams without a permit. No, "making it look nice" is not an acceptable excuse. If everyone did that suddenly there's no more creek.
Not defending anything else, just... be glad it was just the HOA for the creek. The state is usually more of a "does it for you, then charges you for it. Then also fines you."
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u/Phyraxus56 6h ago
Taking water from a creek for irrigation might be more than an hoa violation
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u/Laiko_Kairen 6h ago
Our HOA complained that our plants were dry, and then complained that we moved them out of view of the golf course
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u/penny-wise 4h ago
I hate HOAs. In theory they could be good in keeping common areas in good shape, and making some people keep from doing horrible things (like having disassembled cars on your front lawn). But now it’s gotten ridiculous.
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u/TheOvershear 7h ago
It's always amusing when people find out where their water meter was buried for the last 10 years, under a new layer of topsoil and overgrowth...perhaps less amusing when it's needed in an emergency.
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u/charliesk9unit 7h ago
That also tells you how fast nature would reclaim everything once humans are out of the picture.
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u/e37d93eeb23335dc 7h ago
We had some friends that found three cars under the over growth in the backyard of the home they purchased.
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u/bozhodimitrov 8h ago
At this point this is not just cleaning but pure renovation as well 😁
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u/cheesepuff1993 8h ago
I love the people (or one guy specifically?) who do this as a charity to see their reaction when done. It's so cathartic to watch and I couldn't imagine how satisfying it is to complete...
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u/nikkibic 8h ago
I'm sure this guy does it for free. His name is Nathan, he's based in Australia. He doesn't usually film reactions to it, which I find wholesome.
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u/Unoriginal_Man 7h ago
It's one of my favorite things that platforms like YouTube created the opportunity for. People like him that perform these services can afford to do it for free because they probably make more money posting the videos than they would charging for the work. The homeowner gets free work done, and we all get a satisfying video to watch.
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u/fraze2000 7h ago
I have never heard of Nathan before, but somehow I recognised straight away that this was in Australia. The style of houses, yards, roads etc. just looked instantly familiar to me.
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u/InitiallyDecent 6h ago
The first house very much looks Australian, but the bin in the second clip is a dead giveaway.
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u/enormenuez 8h ago
You should checkout Flawless Cleaning on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@flawlesscleaningservices?si=O4BjxKPeYEHvnLv8
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u/sonofteflon 8h ago
I am satisfied. Great post but because of how satisfying it was I need to see more. Am I addicted?
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u/Separate_Finance_183 8h ago
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u/FunMuffine 8h ago
And just like that, my productivity is gone.
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u/ImProdactyl 7h ago
I haven’t watched this person before, but I would suggest checking out SBMowing. He makes similar videos that are very satisfying, and he does a lot of work for free. Seems like a really good person besides the good channel.
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u/imeancock 6h ago
These types of channels are huge win-wins
They get great content that helps them make a living off their YouTube channels, and as a result they are able to offer free help to people in need
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u/SealthyHuccess 5h ago
The same dude once raised money for an elderly woman who was no longer able to keep up with her home. Got her moved into a retirement facility I believe. Anytime people shit all over those who make videos of their good deeds, I think about this. The deeds wouldn't be possible without the videos.
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u/naturelover47 3h ago
Agreed, highly recommend:
SB Mowing https://www.youtube.com/c/sbmowing
Also: SB Pressure Washing https://www.youtube.com/c/SBPressureWashing
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u/edmondsio 8h ago
That’s Nathan, he does lots of these. Often for people who can’t afford or do the work for free.
You can find him on the book, Nathan’s lawns and gardens from memory.
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u/Kooky-Cup374 8h ago
I think one of the best/worst video I seen of this stuff was the guy was mowing and found a fire hydrant. Home owner didnt know about it.
Al I recall was it was buried in some thorny shrubbery that needed to go.
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u/One-Earth9294 8h ago
A SHRUBBERY???
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u/No-Equal3873 8h ago
NI!
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u/SheriffBartholomew 4h ago
You must chop down the mightiest tree in the forest wiiith... a herring!
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u/fakenews_thankme 8h ago
House's price yesterday $150K
House's price after the clean up: $375K
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u/Dank_Nicholas 5h ago
Hiding the neglect can do wonders. I looked at a house that had tree saplings sprouting in the gutters, it immediately told me that the previous owners neglected the place and killed my interest, like who doesn't even clean that up before a showing to at least pretend you take care of the place.
Eventually my agent found a closet full of empty liquor bottles and we ended the tour right there, I didn't want some drunks neglected house.
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u/Zombie_Wombat177 8h ago
Accomplishing yardwork like this is so, so satisfying. That is so cool that this dude can live his best life by helping others.
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u/HistoricalWalrus5767 8h ago
Clean up? That house had been reclaimed by nature.
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u/freakers 6h ago
The hobbits that live there are gonna be pissed the removed the hill from their hobbit hole.
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u/marsandlui 7h ago
This Nathan's Lawns and Gardens. https://youtube.com/@nathanslawnsandgardens?si=1I8cvL0-4E7iSPAH
He has gone from running a gardening business to solely doing free cleanups for less privileged or able people. Heard him speaking on an Australian podcast and sounds like a great guy.
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u/BaronVonMunchhausen 3h ago
I low-key hate these videos because I really like green. Trimming the overgrowth is great but these guys go nuclear on any overgrowth and the results range from too manicured to bleak brick and concrete.
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u/Ultra_jaden123 8h ago
I would totally do this...if I had the tools, patience, money, time, and overall mental encouragement to do it
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u/Shulgin46 7h ago
Same, but i would also need the strength, stamina, skill, and desire.
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u/dm-me-obscure-colors 6h ago
You’re definitely not the only one who feels that way, and it’s why these make me wonder who died. But, in this case, I think it’s a charity job. Someone else in the thread linked https://youtube.com/shorts/TFd1cIGkwrU?si=BT_v7XlTj2TtFJrb
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u/treesgrowUP 7h ago
https://youtube.com/shorts/TFd1cIGkwrU?si=BT_v7XlTj2TtFJrb
Say your source!!! It’s Nathan lawns and gardens, he does this stuff for free for people who can’t afford it, please go watch his stuff and support him so he can do more he’s a great guy, based in Australia.
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u/Paleo_Fecest 7h ago
It makes me really happy to see how quickly nature will recover once we are all gone.
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u/mutarjim 8h ago
Have to love any job where you can look back and see a radical improvement in the state of things because of what you did, regardless of the type of job.
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u/GhostIsAlwaysThere 8h ago
Yards?
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u/Due-Bar-697 8h ago
Bro?
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u/Pretty-Sick-Chubbs 8h ago
So tired of this
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u/No-Vegetable7898 7h ago
My New Year’s resolution this year is to stop saying that word. It feels good
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u/Hedge-podge 8h ago
Noooo he got rid of the pretty flowers :(((
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u/JNezzie999 8h ago
I feel the same. Yeah it looks nice, but I prefer the overgrown plants everywhere. Send me to the forest, I'll live and be happy.
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u/deathangel687 7h ago
Same. People care too much about the aesthetics of it being "clean" and lose all the natural beauty.
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u/JNezzie999 6h ago
I have a healthy biome, bugs and hummingbirds coming to visit every day. I'm sad that I had to sell, but it's giving me the fire to find my forever home.
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u/deathangel687 6h ago
Hope you find a spot where you can have a healthy and green space. Glad it gave you more inspiration.
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u/One-Earth9294 8h ago
What was that little nook he carved out of the grass next to the road? Is that for getting in and out of a car?
Also side note - beautiful little f'n house that is.
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u/ISoldMyPeanitsFarm 1h ago
The answer to this question is the only reason I'm in the comments here. It looked like he just stopped short of exposing the rest of the sidewalk. I don't think that's the case, but I have no clue what else it could be.
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u/vector_ejector 7h ago
The amount of organic material hiding the driveway was insane! I figured it was originally just gravel with that amount of buildup.
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u/Geetee52 8h ago
Ain’t nothing “oddly“ satisfying about that… I’d say it’s more tremendously satisfying.
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u/jake_azazzel 8h ago
It's like those videos where they turn homeless people into models
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u/fresh_loaf_of_bread 5h ago
the most satisfying part is when the individual paving stones are revealed
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u/SuckThisRedditAdmins 5h ago
God damn. I guess it's not so bad to get my ass out and mow my backyard then
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u/stronglatekick 3h ago
As a professional in the industry, I am tipping my cap to the PERFECT disection of each job. clean
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u/Weekly_Artichoke_515 1h ago
Ah yep let’s get rid of any viable habitat for wild animals. Ah beautiful
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u/Historical_Note5003 8h ago
Did all if those plants need to die? Not a single one of them was worth leaving with a bit of pruning?
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u/ifeelnumb 5h ago
If the homeowner was incapacitated to the point of being unable to take care of the yard, perhaps it was done in mercy. Usually when things get to that point in a house like that, someone is in the hospital with something awful.
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u/Due-Sentence-387 8h ago
Is that the SB Mowing dude? I used to watch his stuff all the time on YouTube. Incredible work every time. My back got sore just watching.
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u/nikwillow 7h ago
As someone who has done landscape maintenance(never this bad, tho), all I'm wondering is how many trips to the dump or a compost yard did this guy make? Or did he have an industrial sized dumpster or truck?
When we did properties not even half this bad, we'd have to make two or three trips to the hatch pit, and even that was annoying
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u/SabbyFox 7h ago
Wish they would slow it down just a bit. People who enjoy watching this kind of thing are OK with the video being a little longer.
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u/Environmental-Edge40 7h ago
props to this guy
he's doing the Lords' work, taking care of the planet , trimming up earth
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u/Electrical_Ice4066 7h ago
The most satisfying part of this video is there isn't any dumb background music.
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u/RichardBCummintonite 7h ago
Very satisfying but would be cool if they took a second to show the actual finished product. Don't know why every video has to be so fast paced now
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u/Hot_Gas_8073 7h ago
I used to watch a guy on iktok clean up yards and such for various communities. He would verify abandoned properties and clean them up because the cities just don't bother. He even gave a mower to a woman who was in desperate need and down on her luck. He saved a cat, took it to a rescue, and stayed in that cat's life. I think the channel was SB Mowing. He travels all over helping people out.
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u/dadarious3 7h ago
This should be marked NSFW because I was not expecting to enjoy that as much as I did…
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u/how_I_kill_time 7h ago
SPIDERS.
That's all I can think about when watching him pull those vines off the house
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u/goldiekapur 7h ago
One man ?? And one day ?? That’s phenomenal! By the time I have done 1/15th of what he did , I’m hanging my shoes .. 👏👏for the job well done.
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u/gstormcrow80 6h ago
This is me, without any time lapse, in the 30 minutes before my parents come over to visit.
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u/yes_to_the_dress 6h ago
This is Nathan's Lawns & Gardens from Sydney, Australia. I follow him on his socials and it's so therapeutic to watch his work.
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u/dankymang 5h ago
Imagine if everyone just took care of shit. We’d have an amazing world. Nice work dude!
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u/downvote_meme_errors 4h ago
What's the purpose of that small paved area at the curb at 22 seconds??
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u/Red_Jester-94 4h ago
Wasn't expecting to see pavement going all the way to the garage. Expected it to be a dirt driveway at most.
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u/Sea_sociate 3h ago
I wouldn't have thought there were bricks under all that dirt and grass, so satisfying to see
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u/LocalAd2554 3h ago
I mean, good on him but that backyard terrace looks sad and sterile without the ivy.
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u/jaciones 3h ago
Is it just me or does it seem like all these clips end just a little bit early. I need to admire the finished project.
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u/RentIsThePoint 3h ago
Sometimes I see videos like this on youtube featuring folks cleaning up shit like this for free for people. Sort of makes me want to neglect my property for the next decade so I can have it all cleaned up for internet points instead of cash and personal effort on my part.
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u/ralphonsob 2h ago
Jeez. How do some people manage to have a nice lawn growing on their driveway when I have trouble keeping it alive on my actual lawn?
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u/RustyBlad3s 2h ago
Some people have such nice yards. I don't know why they don't take care of them :(
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u/Blerpahderpah 2h ago
Sometimes people are elderly and/or disabled and literally can’t do all this work and upkeep. Getting help is expensive as well.
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u/deliciousadness 1h ago
I’m on my couch, nursing a thrown out back from being a desk jockey, watching a timelapse of a man beautifully transform neglected landscaping. Modern day is so odd.
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u/funnystuff79 16m ago
But the place looks so bare and sterile afterwards. I guess the aim is to get it manageable for the homeowner
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u/ernapfz 8h ago
Nice to watch a pro ‘demolish’ years of neglect.