Best method to introduce ourselves to new neighbors during Covid-times?

Post date: 2020-10-20 10:51:05

We are finally moving to our dream, stand-alone single-family home in a fairly non-descript neighborhood with other stand-alone homes. After years of living in a townhouse with an open parking lot, we became a bit curmudgeonly and don't interact much with our townhome neighbors, but I would like to go back to being a lightly friendly neighbor with the residents near my new home. How can we best approach the process of introducing ourselves to our new neighbors given the pandemic?

For *reasons* our experience with our current set of neighbors has not been great lately (including an incident where a neighbor's dog escaped their house and bit my dog's face). However, I prefer to be on good terms with and know my neighbors enough to lightly chat and maybe help and be helped with neighborly favors every so often. We used to have this type of relationship with our next door neighbors until they moved, and I miss that dynamic. My mom, who has now lived in the same house for 36 years, also has always had that type of relationship with her neighbors, so I grew up with that as the norm. Now that we have the chance to start from scratch, I want to do what I can to establish that lightly friendly connection in the new neighborhood.

I'm more introverted than not, but in normal times, I would probably walk over to the closest new neighbors the first time I saw them outside if they didn't seem too busy or in a rush, and would probably try to provide our contact info to them after a few chats if they seemed open to neighborly communication.

With COVID-19, and since I don't know the neighbors at all yet, I'm sure it may be alarming to walk up to them and start talking, even if I have a mask on. I have a quiet voice that is hard for others to hear through my masks even if I try my best to talk loudly, so staying very far apart will probably not be conducive to extensive chats.

I thought about leaving a short "Hi, we're your new neighbors!" note with our names at their doors, but I realize that some people may find that intrusive and/or still too risky, Covid-wise, and I don't want to start off upsetting anyone as we plan to live here for a long time.

Any tips or recommendations for ways to meet and become friendly with the neighbors without crossing their current boundaries?

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