Upstairs neighbor and super awkward situation.

[LadyL]

My upstairs neighbor "Lily" is a retired woman in her 70s. She has lived in the building for 12 years and is friendly with the owner of the building who lives on the 1st floor - they are from the same cultural background and same age range.

A few months ago, Lily's daughter, her husband, and their toddler aged child moved in with her. They had been living in a state where unemployment is top 3 in the country and moved here to get back on their feet. Lily's apartment has the same floor plan as ours and so I can say with authority that 3 adults and a child is pushing it in terms of occupancy.

Even worse, the daughter and husband are home all day every day...playing scrabble. Audibly. I work from home pretty often so I know this is all week, anywhere from 1-3 times a day, for at least 40 minutes at a time. It's not disturbingly loud - I can put on music or the TV and drown it out - but after weeks of this I started to think about Lily. If I can hear it, so can she. She's retired and was a homebody before they moved in so I'm not sure if she's in the apartment during their 'games' but I suspect so. I can only imagine how uncomfortable it is for her. It's a little awkward for *me* and I don't even live on their floor!

I feel awkward even writing about this, like I'm some sort of voyeur. Obviously there's nothing I can do and it's none of my business and for all I know Lily has some excellent noise cancelling headphones she listens to Mozart on all day. For her sake, I hope so  .

[Ruelz]

I find it a little creepy.     

But I have no idea what the 'official' etiquette is regarding 'scrabble' for married couples staying long-term in someone else's house.

[Shea]

Definitely awkward, but as you know there's really nothing you can do about it unless they're so loud that they're disturbing your sleep at night. In my last apartment the neighbors on one side would have very loud scrabble games that were audible anywhere in my (admittedly quite small) apartment. I don't think I'd ever even seen them, and it was still kind of awkward. Fortunately this only happened once a week at most, and I live in a different place now. Poor Lily, if she's home it must be really embarrassing for her.

Also, is anyone else reminded of that episode of How I Met Your Mother with the upstairs neighbors who "play the bagpipes" loudly at all hours?

[Shoo]

You know, maybe they're watching it on DVD.  You could always complain that their TV is too loud.  You can hear *everything* and you would like them to turn the volume down.

[Irishkitty]

^ hee hee, yes, and this would be a polite way of doing so.

I remember being in a situation with a person in the neighbouring appartment. Normally nice and quiet, only one time they were really loud, but they had told us they were having a party. However my flatmate had an ajoining wall and one day asked me to have a listen. I went in and could clearly hear someone enjoying playing scrabble!

It was later revealed that my flatmate heard next to nothing when her BF was there, but he was away alot (selling, ahem "scrabble toys") and what we heard was her partaking in solo scrabble toy activity 

Never could figure out a way to say to her politely that the walls were realllllllllly thin!

[heartmug]

You know, maybe they're watching it on DVD.  You could always complain that their TV is too loud.  You can hear *everything* and you would like them to turn the volume down.

That is a really good idea.