So, if you own a condo, you've probably gotten used to living in close proximity to your neighbors - listening to your upstairs neighbors clomping around on the bare hardwood floors above you; leaving their shoes, boots, moccasins, and snowshoes outside their front doors, in the middle of summer and winter; playing Aretha Franklin's "Think" over and over again, from midnight 'til six AM, every Saturday night.

It takes some getting used to.

Others have it far worse.

One couple with a newborn faced difficult neighbors in their Manhattan flat.

The building was the site of the Piñata Episode, in which a family made themselves so comfortable in their common hall that they held a birthday party there. A downstairs neighbor recalled it ruefully: “Our son had just been born, we were exhausted from no sleep, and one afternoon we finally get him down. And then we hear footsteps, running, back-and-forth.

“The running doesn’t stop, and my wife goes to see what’s going on. The elevator opens, and he’s hanging a piñata above a crowd of kids. She’s dumbstruck, and says something like: “Our child is ill. We just got him to sleep. Could you please be quiet or go in your apartment or something?” And the man says, ‘The party will be over in half an hour.’ And walks away to get the stick, leaving her there with her mouth open.”

If you can't stand that sort of thing, apartment and condo life might not be for you!

More: Getting Territorial Out in the Hall - By Penelope Green, The New York Times