Bullgrit
Adventurer
My current home and my previous home were located in neighborhoods with rather extensive home owners association rules. We knew these rules before we bought our homes, and we could have not bought if we disagreed or found them too restrictive.
In both neighborhoods, we and others rarely bothered with getting stuff approved before just doing whatever we wanted/needed. But we (everyone) didn't do anything do anything wild or strange or asshatish. Often we'd just ask our immediate neighbors, "Hey, we're going to do X. Will that be a problem?" So long as nobody is a jerk or an idiot, most rule enforcement isn't needed. But it's when someone gets a hair up their butt to do something over the top that association rules have to be enforced.
Some friends of ours lived in a neighborhood where one family painted their house a bright weird blue. It really did stand out as an oddball. That situation had to go to some kind of arbitration with the association to get resolved. The family pointed out that others painted their houses without permission beforehand, and everyone else pointed out that they didn't paint their houses colors outside the written rules. It's one thing to want a unique home, but it's more when force that uniqueness on everyone else -- the neighbors are the ones who have to look at your uniqueness all day.
I know of another instance in a different neighborhood where a family put an above-ground pool in their backyard. Their next-door neighbor's house was directly down hill. They worried that if that pool ever got a hole or burst, the water could seriously damage their home. The down-hill neighbor had a legimate worry, and the pool was against the rules as written, but the pool family pitched a fit and everything had to be handled by lawyers. The pool was removed, and the neighbors came to hate each other until one of them moved.
Bullgrit
In both neighborhoods, we and others rarely bothered with getting stuff approved before just doing whatever we wanted/needed. But we (everyone) didn't do anything do anything wild or strange or asshatish. Often we'd just ask our immediate neighbors, "Hey, we're going to do X. Will that be a problem?" So long as nobody is a jerk or an idiot, most rule enforcement isn't needed. But it's when someone gets a hair up their butt to do something over the top that association rules have to be enforced.
Some friends of ours lived in a neighborhood where one family painted their house a bright weird blue. It really did stand out as an oddball. That situation had to go to some kind of arbitration with the association to get resolved. The family pointed out that others painted their houses without permission beforehand, and everyone else pointed out that they didn't paint their houses colors outside the written rules. It's one thing to want a unique home, but it's more when force that uniqueness on everyone else -- the neighbors are the ones who have to look at your uniqueness all day.
I know of another instance in a different neighborhood where a family put an above-ground pool in their backyard. Their next-door neighbor's house was directly down hill. They worried that if that pool ever got a hole or burst, the water could seriously damage their home. The down-hill neighbor had a legimate worry, and the pool was against the rules as written, but the pool family pitched a fit and everything had to be handled by lawyers. The pool was removed, and the neighbors came to hate each other until one of them moved.
Bullgrit