Shared wall and small kitchen appliance use at 6 am weekdays

[Anonymous]

Is it inconsiderate to grind coffee or use a blender to make smoothies before 7 am on a weekday if you share a wall with another home.

Our neighbor sent us a note that we wake him up. He must be extremely noise sensitive as the walls are not exceptionally thin, his bedroom doesn’t abut our kitchen, and these small appliances run for maybe 3 min tops. I can’t hear them if I’m in my bathroom on the same floor! We are very quiet otherwise, minimal talking, no tv or radio, and we’re out the door by 7 typically. In my opinion, the loudest sound we make in the kitchen is opening and closing the patio door to water plants and that is only 1/3 of the year.

I’m unsure about a next step: respond verbally, ignore/don’t respond, explain the above in writing?

[Anonymous]

Ignore. People make noise getting ready for the workday. If it was the weekend, I’d advise waiting until after 8.

[Anonymous]

Grinding coffee at 6 am? Yes, inconsiderate. Can’t you grind the night before?
If he can hear it then you are disturbing him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Grinding coffee at 6 am? Yes, inconsiderate. Can’t you grind the night before?
If he can hear it then you are disturbing him.

What? That’s crazy. Grinding fresh coffee beans is what you DO in the morning. Sometimes way earlier than 6 am.
Is your neighbors bed next to your kitchen or something?

You could try putting a heavy towel over the machine while grinding, see if that helps?

Is this new construction? Paper thin walls are not your fault.

[Anonymous]

If you can fix it, I would. Can you move the appliance to another place..or grind the night before? Otherwise 7 is not really that early for a workday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you can fix it, I would. Can you move the appliance to another place..or grind the night before? Otherwise 7 is not really that early for a workday.

It is at 6 a.m. They are out the door by 7.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Grinding coffee at 6 am? Yes, inconsiderate. Can’t you grind the night before?
If he can hear it then you are disturbing him.

I dn’t know if he hears the coffee grinder or the blender. Neighbor just said noise in our kitchen. Oddly, he can hear our kitchen noise from his bedroom although we can’t hear our own kitchen noise from our bedroom with the identical layout. Even if DH grinds the night before, the blender is at the same decibel I think. I’m not making smoothies the night before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grinding coffee at 6 am? Yes, inconsiderate. Can’t you grind the night before?
If he can hear it then you are disturbing him.

What? That’s crazy. Grinding fresh coffee beans is what you DO in the morning. Sometimes way earlier than 6 am.
Is your neighbors bed next to your kitchen or something?

You could try putting a heavy towel over the machine while grinding, see if that helps?

Is this new construction? Paper thin walls are not your fault.

His bedroom should be as far away from his kitchen, which abuts ours, as our bedroom is from our kitchen. Unless he is sleeping in another room.

I will try a towel.

1969 construction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you can fix it, I would. Can you move the appliance to another place..or grind the night before? Otherwise 7 is not really that early for a workday.

That is what I would try. A coffee grinder is easy to move somewhere else. A blender might not be so easy to move, but I think that a blender is not as loud (depending on what you're blending).

Or you could be a super extra coffee snob and get an expensive hand-cranked burr grinder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can fix it, I would. Can you move the appliance to another place..or grind the night before? Otherwise 7 is not really that early for a workday.

That is what I would try. A coffee grinder is easy to move somewhere else. A blender might not be so easy to move, but I think that a blender is not as loud (depending on what you're blending).

Or you could be a super extra coffee snob and get an expensive hand-cranked burr grinder.

DH might like the hand crank for fun. Could be a good anniversary present in a couple months.

The blender really will be the issue. I could take it into the bedroom and run it there with the door closed, then bring it back out, but I feel as though that’s a bit onerous for 3 minutes of noise.

Would it be weird to invite him over and test the noise? What if it it’s from something else and not even our appliances? The prior neighbors were friendly and never mentioned noise.

[Anonymous]

I think it is considerate of you to be open to try to make things better (e.g., towel).

6am is not an inappropriate hour to be awake.

[Anonymous]

It's unfortunately but your neighbor may not be cut out for apartment or townhouse living. I don't find what you describe to be inconsiderate. That said, you could try to take steps to mitigate the noise but you don' have any obligation to do so and it may not make any difference at all.

[Anonymous]

I live in a condo and am "that" noise-sensitive neighbor. That said, I think your neighbor is being ridiculous.

Barring whatever your lease/HOA says about noise, my belief is that it's not reasonable to complain about regular, everyday, short-lived noise that arises from being human. To me, this includes watching/listening to something at a conversational volume, having a conversation, child's play, standard cooking and cooking prep sounds. That's the tradeoff when walls are shared, and anyone living in a multi-unit dwelling needs to get over it and accept it because it's part of the deal.

The problem is that what's considered "regular" and "everyday noise" is highly subjective. It would be one thing if you were grinding coffee at 5am next to this neighbor's bedroom wall, but your use of the coffee grinder and blender are normal and reasonable IMO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's unfortunately but your neighbor may not be cut out for apartment or townhouse living. I don't find what you describe to be inconsiderate. That said, you could try to take steps to mitigate the noise but you don' have any obligation to do so and it may not make any difference at all.

+1 I live in a place with truly paper thin walls. Would I be a bit crankypants if my neighbor vacuumed at 6 AM? Sure thing. But a coffee grinder or a blender for a minute or two is not something that I would or should complain about. His expectation isn't reasonable. If there are easy things you can do (like the towel thing) to muffle the sounds, fine. But I wouldn't go very far out of my way to accommodate this request.

[Anonymous]

Are you an apartment or condo with ductwork? Sounds travel really strangely through those. I have lived in places where the sound from part of a neighbor’s unit was louder in part of my unit than something happening in my own unit. It wasn’t through the shared wall, but the ductwork. I remember I had a couple whose activity was loud and frequent (she was a screamer) and they actually loved one floor up and a unit over from mine (not directly overhead). It sucks, but it’s apartment living.