This surprised me a bit, too, that there hasn’t been a big conversation about it yet. But maybe Kati is also afraid that she’ll hear a definite no and the last hope will die that the music might stop by itself once the work is finished. Still, in the end, the neighbor doesn’t really care that much about the music in the garden and would rather keep quiet neighbors like you (he doesn’t know who would move in otherwise :), so please definitely bring it up and describe to him how it feels for you, of course without accusations but in a way that he can understand as well as possible. And please ignore the people who suggest therapy to you here because of it, I would be just as exhausted as you if I didn’t even have real peace in the house, because of the constant stomping from the neighbors I know exactly how you feel, you don’t want to go home anymore, you’re constantly tense and becoming more and more stressed because you just don’t have a retreat to relax and can’t do anything about it. I also know some people who feel the same way as I do, they are all as normal as can be, but also introverted, and there are simply personality types that really need a few hours a day of complete silence to recharge their batteries. It’s just unfortunate that the vast majority are wired differently and can relax in a community, with music, and also at parties, and that doesn’t work long-term with someone like me or Kati, but that doesn’t mean we’re sick. Regarding country life, I only have experience with a 5,000-inhabitant village in the Erdinger district, maybe it’s a generational thing, but in our townhouse development and actually in the whole village, there was never, really never music coming from the gardens, unless there was a garden party or a children’s birthday. As far as we can judge so far, it’s the same on Münchner Straße now, but the people there are mostly over 50. We had a fire department in the village, a party once a year, and that was it otherwise. That’s why I think really (if it comes to that) I would either look for a detached house somewhere in the middle of nowhere or for an “old” neighborhood where there’s an agreement not to blast music to the neighbors, because basically everyone there prefers to read or garden quietly on the weekends. But I’m basically keeping my fingers crossed that your neighbor is somehow one of the really nice ones and can understand you, because owning such a house also takes a lot of time, money, and an environment that, without the neighbor, would actually suit you and your husband well.