When does attention to detail become too much?

[Mark Blatter]

I was working in my shop (garage) the other day and saw something that made me scratch my head. We had a severe thunder store last Friday night that really blew the trees around and left a bunch of leave and branches on the ground. What I saw was my neighbor get on top of his roof with a blower and blow the leaves off his roof. This is a two story house by the way. Is this odd, or is it just me? I don't think I would ever get onto my roof just to remove a dozen small branches/leaf packets....whatever you call those things. I can post a photo or two if you don't believe me.

Would others do this? Am I missing something? I realize that there these could get into the gutters and clog things up, but I just don't see that happening with the small amount, plus we get some winds here and they likely would just blow off anyway.

[Chuck Wintle]

I was working in my shop (garage) the other day and saw something that made me scratch my head. We had a severe thunder store last Friday night that really blew the trees around and left a bunch of leave and branches on the ground. What I saw was my neighbor get on top of his roof with a blower and blow the leaves off his roof. This is a two story house by the way. Is this odd, or is it just me? I don't think I would ever get onto my roof just to remove a dozen small branches/leaf packets....whatever you call those things. I can post a photo or two if you don't believe me.

Would others do this? Am I missing something? I realize that there these could get into the gutters and clog things up, but I just don't see that happening with the small amount, plus we get some winds here and they likely would just blow off anyway.

Yes that is going to far and unnecessary IMHO.

[Gary Yoder]

Right now your neighbor is probably on a "home/garden/landscaping" forum chuckling about how HIS neighbor will spend hours with dangerous tools making sure every little detail on a piece of furniture is perfect. :-P

[Larry Frank]

To each his own...I have a neighbor who knows his lawn with a vac behind the ZTR mower several times a week. It is about 1.5 acres. He also keeps pruning his trees until he cuts one down. He is very compulsive about it and can not stand one leaf out of place.

I think it is weird but apparently makes him happy....just not my way. My 6 ft fence makes for good neighbors.

[Scott Shepherd]

When I was a kid, the neighbors were OCD about that stuff. At 7:00 am on Saturday mornings, they'd be out there with every power tool known to man cleaning up. Extremely annoying as a kid, to have the noise wake you up on your only day to sleep in. I still go by there and they are in their 80's and I often see the wife on a 10ft tall ladder, with electric hedge trimmers, leaning way out there, trimming the shapes of the tall shrubs. It freaks me out because one small slip, and at 80 some years old, a fall from 8-9' up isn't going to end well.

[Jerome Stanek]

We live in a farming community and there was an older lady just down the street from me that would rack the tire tracks out of her driveway every time the left and came home. She also swept the small gravel off the road. She complained about the neighbors trees blowing leaves on her yard.

[Patrick McCarthy]

Mark, the rest of us are relying upon you to do your best to make sure this guy doesn't contribute to the gene pool.

[Wade Lippman]

I had a friend that lost a couple jobs because he insisted on doing stuff perfectly while his boss just wanted him to get them done.

He had a brief try at home repair and asked me to help him paint the interior of a house because he had taken on too much work. I hate painting but am a great friend.

When we were done and looking around, he noted that a bathroom door frame had been installed poorly 20 years earlier and wanted to fix it. I argued that the customer didn't ask us to fix it and probably didn't even know it was bad, so it was hardly our responsibility. He said it didn't matter, he did things right. He wanted to patch it. prime it, and paint it. I argued that had he noticed it at the beginning rather than at the end that would have made a bit of sense, but absolutely not now. Well, he patch, primed and painted it. We didn't speak again for 2 months. I know why him bosses fired him; I surely would have.

[Mike Ontko]

Mark, I think I used to live next door to a close relative of your neighbor. We used to live next to a small public reserve--a preserved residential green space used for growing (and selling each spring) native plant varieties. Throughout this space and immediately behind our houses, which were situated on a small cul de sac, were tall stands of Western Cedar. Every time the wind would blow and especially following storms, our rooftops, yards, driveways, and the street would be covered with cedar bits and branches. And every single time, this neighbor would get out his leaf blower and starting ontop of his roof, would sweep everything down right out to and including the street. Because of the location of the neighborhood, gusting winds were pretty common, especially in the Fall, Winter, and Spring. So, this was a pretty regular thing. NOT the way I'd want to spend my retirement.

[Myk Rian]

I would do it to keep the leaves and branches out of the gutters. In fact, I do it to the gutters 2-3 times a year.
Not unusual at all.

[Judson Green]

Had an old gal that lived in back of us and one fall we saw her trying to pick the turned leaves off the trees. Guess raking was a one time deal for her.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Mike and Myk. Living in a heavily forested area of NH and my house is surrounded by woods. I specifically told the contractor to NOT put gutters on our 2 story house when it was built. I am forever thankful I made that choice. Just raking and removing leaves in the fall has to be done 2-3 times and takes at least half a day. I was always told that part of wisdom is knowing when "good enough" is adequate or better.

[Mark Blatter]

I realize that few will believe a narrative without photographic proof, so here you go. Seeing is believing.


On House1 (Medium).jpgOn House2 (Medium).jpg

[Kent A Bathurst]

Reminiscent of a neighbor in previous town/state. He would wash and wax his lawn mowers [one rider for volume, one push for detail] after each weekly rodeo. Then stuff them back in the storage shed, not to see the light of day for a week.

My hat was off to him.

I can only assume your neighbor's concern is that the wind-blown flora debris interrupted the zen-like calm of the pattern in the asphalt shingles.

[Larry Edgerton]

I wax my tractor once a year, so what are you trying to say? Hey, it costs more than my truck!

Larry