Sex & Romance
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Adjusting to life in an apartment.
Well my husband and I have been married almost two weeks and lived in our new place a little over two weeks. We have a two story town home and have neighbors on either side of us. We hear then when they vacuum and can even smell they're food when they make dinner! Both my husband grew up in houses and aren't quite use to this kind of living yet.. So what I'm getting at is.. Well I'm starting to wonder if our neighbors hear every little move we make when we're being we're intimate. 
haha SO ladies, do any of you have this problem? and if so, any tips?! 
Thanks!
Angela
Re: Adjusting to life in an apartment.
Hehe, I've often wondered the same thing about whether our neighbors can hear our "private time". To be perfectly honest, it doesn't bother me if they happen to hear a few odd noises here and there, but that's just me. One of my former roommates would just play music loud enough to drown her and her boyfriend out. Of course, we all knew what was going on, but we couldn't actually hear any of it.
I guess you have to decide if it actually bothers you or not.
My H and I are newlyweds too. I went from living in my own 1600 square foot single family home to a 600 square foot apartment on the 20th floor. Urgh! We have the same problems. And if you can hear your neighbors vacuuming and cooking, it's a safe bet to assume they can hear you as well!
We always make sure we open windows and put on the fan when we are cooking, especialy smelly stuff like fish! Air fresheners are a must-I think the yankee candle ones work the best. I prefer them over glade. And if you are worried about being heard in bed, i suggest you play some music during the act. I have a water feature in my apartment that I love! Drowns out annoying noises from the neighbors and creates a soothing and tranquil atmosphere-i highly recommend!
Haha! I wondered this as well. Our condo mirrors our neighbor's so our bedroom and bathroom share a wall with theirs. But I haven't heard anything from over there- I assume (hope) it's the same for them and that they aren't just super-quiet people. If you can't hear them talking, yelling or uh, moving furniture, they probably can't hear you either...
Tips? Position your bed against a non-shared wall if you are worried about being overheard/bed hitting the wall. But really, it's your home. Besides avoiding being obnoxiously loud at odd hours, don't worry about it. If they do overhear something -they can always turn up their music!
I live in a hi-rise building and I hear the guy above me having sex sometimes, strangely it seems like he does it right after DH and I do it.
I think he either gets in the mood when hearing us or he isnt really having sex and he is making fun of us! Either way I'm not letting him stop me!
My husband lived in our apartment for a year before we got married (we were doing the long distance thing), and he said he could often here the couple upstairs having intimate time. We often wonder if our neighbors can hear us, but we don't worry to much because most of our neighbors are young couples like us. So we figure they have the same worry. We did put a pillow behind our headboard when it started hitting the wall hoping that would help the neighbors.
Our best story about having to be quiet while being intimate was this summer. We went on a sailboat cruise around the coast of Maine, and the cabins were small and really close together. Also, the ceiling was kind of low, and people were walking around on deck right above our heads. It made it way more fun though since we had to be pretty much at a wisper but still enjoy it. And we did both of those!
My H and I wonder if our downstairs neighbor hears us. Our bed frame is really creaky. Also when the kids play on the porch we share with our neighbor we can hear them talking and playing.... it would stand to reason they can hear us too.
Before we were married (we were long distance) my H lived downstairs from a woman with a very active and loud sex life. He always put his headphones on and listened to music or watched a movie.
No advice, but I grew up in Pittsburg, KS. I'm pretty familiar with Joplin
Small world!
Last updated 4/06/11
I am a night owl, and have one day off in the middle of the week. There have been a couple times when I pulled the vacuum out at midnight, and had to remember the neighbors. I know my H would sleep through it, but sometimes forget that we live in an apartment. I'm sure my neighbors are glad I put it away, even if the don't know it.
As far as your neighbors making loud noise late (other than sex and quiet talking), our complex has quiet hours. There is not allowed to be loud obnoxious noises from 11pm to 6 am. Have called the leasing office a couple times, and they always keep it anonymous. For instance, when the neighbor underneath was coming home at 1 am and sitting in the parking lot below under our window blaring his radio for an hour. Litterally, it was shaking our windows so hard, I thought they might break!
Maybe they are trying to drown out their own sex life. lol. Who vacuums that late?
We got transferred to Hawaii and it aint cheap to live in Waikiki! LOL
We still own the other place and are renting it out while we are away from the mainland. Trust me-i would have brought it with me if i could!
Sound travels very well in my 4-plex and on my street. I can hear my next door neighbors urinating, I can hear people speaking in a normal voice across the street, and I can hear the cross walk signal that's a block away. I'm pretty sure they can hear DH and I during our intimate times, but we don't care. Sexual activity between two loving and committed individuals is nothing to be embarrassed by. We do try to be quiet in the middle of the night when people are normally sleeping, though.
Funny story: when we first moved in one of our neighbors would play "Crash" by Dave Matthews a few times a week. I could hear it clearly while showering, so you know it was pretty loud. Well, we got to talking and the neighbor said "I love that song. It makes me 'happy' if you know what I mean!" I figured they played it whenever they were being intimate, but to have it confirmed was hilarious! I can't listen to that song with a straight face any more.