The glass bricks are being left in place until they go back to the UK so as to avoid any disturbance to them when the building works happen.
Yes, I totally get it.
I have told them the windows will be non opening and will have frosted glass (or were going to).
This I raised with them back in April and they did not object at all. Visibility from our house onto their terrace will be none existent.
July 30
Peter_Goble:
It seems to me that it is highly unlikely that the screens are intended to deprive you of light, it would be mindlessly petty.
+1
Why would anyone put themselves to the trouble and expense (I imagine these screens weren’t cheap to erect) if there was no tangible benefit to themselves? And the most obvious “benefit” in this case is, as Peter says, to preserve their privacy. People tend to regard holiday homes as hideaways, and privacy is very important when you want to hide away.
Sometimes people are unwilling to raise objections and will ‘give in’ because they don’t want to have to justify their anxiety-based objections which they think will be
pooh-poohed as trivial or unreasonable.
After all, the windows won’t open and are of frosted glass. You do acknowledge their need for privacy, but tacitly, and not in its personal detail, perhaps. It’s hard to address with people you don’t really know.
Anxieties around personal intrusion, real or fanciful, aren’t reasonable, they are primitive emotions; yet they usually respond to understanding and to being ‘really’ heard. I think!
Who knows, it is all supposition.
Maybe they had been wanting to erect a screen before all this started, and this seemed like a good time to do it. Perhaps they never considered the light issue, and simply thought that with frosted glass you wouldn’t be aware of what was outside in any case so it wouldn’t bother you.
Once the windows are in invite the neighbours round to show them and let them judge for themselves. Point out, tactfully the lack of light and then just see what happens.
We have a laurel hedge between us and our French neighbours and at one point it affects our natural light at the back of our salon. We have thinned it down but won’t remove it because we know our neighbours wouldn’t be happy.
Thank you yes, I had thought something like that - the trouble is our paths are unlikely to cross (!!) this year as they will return to the UK before we go over.
I am thinking of calling, but don’t want to put my foot in it as I just do not know them. I can only go by my builder’s assessment which is quite negative.
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What is the difference between glass bricks and frosted glass, other than frosted glass is an improvement. These people are being unnecessarily unpleasant.
I liked the idea that the screening came down in a storm.
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Anne, just out of interest are there any other English residents in your commune?
I took the high fence down to the previously agreed 1.2m once I had overcome the rage to chainsaw it! I neatly put the capping pieces on after all I didn’t want an ugly rough edge. The neighbour threatened me but did nothing more than that.
The only other solution as you can’t see through is to build the window as a light box.
Yes, quite a few (I suppose 60% of the 9/10 houses!)
I really don’t know. Unless they think that frost glass will be more transparent than the bricks…
Or they just don’t like change I suppose.