I wasn't too far from you up until 2.5 years ago, I moved from NJ where I was born and raised until May of 2011 when I moved to Florida. Where about's in PA do you live? I am from Parsippany, NJ -that's in Morris County
we live in Lancaster county PA in Mt Joy , we were in Columbia PA for 30 years then we lost our 4 bedroom with full basement & attic home after my husband retired, well we gave it up on our own because we couldn't afford the bills anymore, so now we live in a 2 bedroom apartment we like it here, but miss our front porch & friends. plus we have limits on our pets we used to have so many pets dogs cats fish pond in back yard that took up 1/2 of the yard that was hard to give up. with our age & my medical issues its so much easier here we do have 3 cats & 2 small fish tanks so its not all bad the best part is with all the snow we have this year we don't have to worry about it we only moved here in sept so it will get better i hope we just need to get used to the noise.
yeah you will settle in soon and get used to being able to hear others nearby. I lived in garden apt's for 8 years, luckliy I had the bottom and my neighbors were my age and also on the quiet side. I had one dog and a very loud parrot on occassion who would sound off. But my neighbors were great never complained nor did I ever complain that they had visitors who came with a tiny mean dog who took a piece of my ankle, lol