Backyard clothes lines - Americana or Eyesore?

we have them in our neighborhood. thank goodness.

 

Looks like the main sail for my boat
:jester:

 

I remember helping my grandmother hang her clothes up outside when I'd stay at her house during the summer. And then there was the mad dash outside to get the stuff before the afternoon rainshowers started.

I think they may have had a dryer for a few years, but never even took it out of the box. Before my grandfather passed away, it was finally set up. I don't think Granny used the line outside after that.

I air dry a lot of my stuff--mostly my clothes that I wear outside of the house, with the exception of screen print t-shirts. They don't shrink like my other stuff does. Shower curtain rods come in real handy!

If there was a significant difference in my electric bill between using a dryer and not, I'd probably consider a line. Where I live at now, I don't think lines are allowed...even with being in one of the 3 states that doesn't allow an association to totally ban them. The yenta who lives on the next street over from me would definitely have something to say about it. I know she's not on the board, but she's on some sort of a committee and has way entirely too much time on her hands.

 

Same here.

Ma kept the clothes pins in the pocket of her apron.

Lord, I miss her.

 

I don't mind clothes lines as long as they are kept neatly and in decent repair and in the back of the house, and aren't used as someone else mentioned--like a closet with stuff left hanging for eons. We once had a neighbor that decided that they would string up a clothesline in the front of their house. It was made out of two large tree branches pulled from the woods placed upright in two old tires and set with quickcrete. I was not happy, it made the neighborhood look trashy and neglected. Thankfully, another neighbor addressed the issue and they moved it to the backyard out of sight.

 

"Drying areas" would include leaving a beach towel & bathing suit on your front porch rail for a few hours after your kids get done playing in a kiddie pool. I know of one neighborhood where that RC is enforced by a busybody couple with nothing better to do than walk around during the day looking for infractions.

That said, I do think that RCs can be a good thing. They just need to be reasonable and flexible at times, ie: replacing fescue in a drought, or line drying in your backyard.

Anybody remember the story that was in the news a year or two ago about the HOA guy who made 6 digits a year, just riding his bike around Cary neighborhoods looking for defectors?

 

I can just picture the skid marks now! :mrgreen:

 

HOA says fake grass gotta go!

RALEIGH, N.C. — Les Bernstein may have the greenest yard in Raleigh's Falls River neighborhood, but he hasn't turned on his sprinkler system all year.

After trying to maintain his fescue lawn during the drought, Bernstein chose to install low-maintenance, water-saving artificial grass.

"The only thing you have to do is sweep it off once in a while," he said.

Bernstein made the $6,500 investment this May, but it wasn't long before the Falls River Community Association weighed in. The homeowners association sent a letter telling Bernstein that he needed signatures from neighbors because he did not get prior approval for the artificial grass.

"(Neighbors) look at their lawns, which are weeds or are hard to maintain, and they look at this, and the first thing they want to do is install it themselves," Bernstein said.

He says he gathered the signatures and presented them to the board, but he got back a letter saying he has to remove the artificial grass by Sept. 30.

"We were horrified," Bernstein said. "We put a lot of money into this to keep our house looking good, to keep our lawn looking good."

He says the association's covenants, which require fescue grass, were written 14 years ago, before the modern artificial grass he had installed existed. It comes in different color variations to match the ocal surroundings. It requires no watering, no mowing and no fertilizer.

"We keep telling them it's time (for the covenants) to be updated and step into the real world," Bernstein said. "They won't come back from their decision."

The Falls River Community Association did not respond to repeated requests for a comment.

"I'm not looking to ruffle feathers. I want my lawn to look good, like any other homeowner," Bernstein said.

Homeowners associations aren't the only groups dealing with the push toward environmentally friendly projects. Local and state governments also are trying to catch up with new developments.
State lawmakers took some action last year, enacting a law that overrides some neighborhood restrictions on solar panels.

"These technologies are so new that the rules of the road don't really exist yet," said Steve Kalland, executive director of the N.C. Solar Center in Raleigh.

He says last year's law governing solar panels is a step in the right direction.

"I think the appropriate role for state and local government is, to some extent, to take all of the different types of concerns and try to find a reasonable balance that achieves the best public good," Kalland said.

Meanwhile, Les Bernstein takes his case back to the homeowners association Wednesday night. He's waiting to see if he'll lose his green yard.

"Life goes on," he said. "When you come back next year, this is liable to be all weeds or all dirt or something."

Link: http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3408199/

 

If the coenenants say only fescue is allowed the HOA has to enforce them or run the risk of not being able to enforce any of them. Selective enforcement will kill their case as quickly as anything can.

 

I haven't much sympathy for him, he clearly violated his contract / agreement with the HOA.

 

Just a helpful hint - if you have a backyard clothesline and a riding lawnmower, and you get a canopy for the mower to give yourself a little shade while you're mowing - before you mow under the clothesline, look up!

 

I'm curious. Where would I find a list of restrictive covenants for our neighborhood? We rent this place, but likely not for much longer, due to people complaining about stupid stuff, like the 2 year old running around in his diaper and our grass being too tall. BTW, I rode through the neighborhood just to see other homes, and counted no less than a dozen other homes with grass higher than ours. Where would I find the restrictive covenants?

 

Some can be found at the courthouse, if they are not part of some subset such as the rules set forth by an architectural review committee, or the HOA. If they are part of such a subset, the HOA or the management company will ba able to provide those too.

 

You may also be able to find them online, rather than a trip to the courthouse, most of them are on the Johnston County Government website now.

If you'd like help with that, as I used to be pretty good at pulling them up, PM me your address, subdivision and lot number (they can vary depending on which phase you are in) and I'll see what I can do. No guarantees and no liability assumed on my end. :mrgreen:

 

yes

definitely, he accepted the covenants he has to live by them. Wish our old neighborhood had enforced them - it looked prett weedy real quick. Glad I live out on a farm now.

BTW, what's the best looking neighborhood entrance here? What's the worst?

Chadbourned is very nice.

 

I tried hanging my dress shirts outside one time. When I brought them in a lizard came with them. That was it for me. There are no reptiles in the dryer.

 

Are you sure? I know of at least one case where a snake came in from outside through the dryer vent.

 

coon

we had a racoon get up in ours. it was back before they had grilles on the exhaust and he knawwed his way through the screen where it attached at the dryer. Ruined several hundred dollars worth of clothes! Happened while were on vacation - had to replace the whole dryer cause we couldn't get the smell out.

 

Don't forget about those who cannot even afford dryers. Of course, they most likely wouldn't be living in a nice subdivision either, huh? Ok, so I'm second-guessing myself, but I will proudly say that I use a clothes line full-time. (so does my sister) Much cheaper electricity bill and I actually enjoy the act of hanging them out. I end up with a little more metabolism by the time I'm done and usually decide to hang around outside doing things for a little while. "Yeah man, that's the good stuff."

 

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,575698,00.html

PERKASIE, Pennsylvania — Carin Froehlich pegs her laundry to three clotheslines strung between trees outside her 18th-century farmhouse, knowing that her actions annoy local officials who have asked her to stop.

Froehlich is among the growing number of people across America fighting for the right to dry their laundry outside against a rising tide of housing associations who oppose the practice despite its energy-saving green appeal.

Although there are no formal laws in this southeast Pennsylvania town against drying laundry outside, a town official called Froehlich to ask her to stop drying clothes in the sun. And she received two anonymous notes from neighbors saying they did not want to see her underwear flapping about.

"They said it made the place look like trailer trash," she said, in her yard across the street from a row of neat, suburban houses. "They said they didn't want to look at my 'unmentionables.'"

Froehlich says she hangs her underwear inside. The effervescent 54-year-old is one of a growing number of Americans demanding the right to dry laundry on clotheslines despite local rules and a culture that frowns on it.

Their interests are represented by Project Laundry List, a group that argues people can save money and reduce carbon emissions by not using their electric or gas dryers, according to the group's executive director, Alexander Lee.

Widespread adoption of clotheslines could significantly reduce U.S. energy consumption, argued Lee, who said dryer use accounts for about 6 percent of U.S. residential electricity use.

Florida, Utah, Maine, Vermont, Colorado, and Hawaii have passed laws restricting the rights of local authorities to stop residents using clotheslines. Another five states are considering similar measures, said Lee, 35, a former lawyer who quit to run the non-profit group.

His principal opponents are the housing associations such as condominiums and townhouse communities that are home to an estimated 60 million Americans, or about 20 percent of the population. About half of those organizations have 'no hanging' rules, Lee said, and enforce them with fines.

Carl Weiner, a lawyer for about 50 homeowners associations in suburban Philadelphia, said the no-hanging rules are usually included by the communities' developers along with regulations such as a ban on sheds or commercial vehicles.

The no-hanging rules are an aesthetic issue, Weiner said.

"The consensus in most communities is that people don't want to see everybody else's laundry."

He said opposition to clotheslines may ease as more people understand it can save energy and reduce greenhouse gases.

"There is more awareness of impact on the environment," he said. "I would not be surprised to see people questioning these restrictions."

For Froehlich, the "right to hang" is the embodiment of the American tradition of freedom.

"If my husband has a right to have guns in the house, I have a right to hang laundry," said Froehlich, who is writing a book on the subject.

Besides, it saves money. Line-drying laundry for a family of five saves $83 a month in electric bills, she said.

Kevin Firth, who owns a two-bedroom condominium in a Dublin, Pennsylvania housing association, said he was fined $100 by the association for putting up a clothesline in a common area.

"It made me angry and upset," said Firth, a 27-year-old carpenter. "I like having the laundry drying in the sun. It's something I have always done since I was a little kid."