Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I really do not understand this phenomenon. I look up and down the streets of my neighborhood, or any suburban area for that matter, and I see this: cars parked in the driveways. Houses with 2 or 3 car garages, and the majority of cars are left out in the driveways.
We had some snow last night, I was out shoveling the driveway this morning and my neighbor was out there grumbling and cursing at how they had to clean the snow off of both of their cars. They have a 2 car garage, and their 2 cars get parked in the driveway. Same issue when there was a rash of break-ins a few years ago, they grumbled about their cars being broken into but they have a perfectly secure garage they could both get parked in.
Why would anyone leave both cars outside, especially with bad weather coming? I can't think of the last time one of my vehicles was left out for the night.
I have a 2 car garage and 5 cars. So the two drivers and Suburban get left out while the project cars are inside.
Many people use the garage for storage of stuff, like snowblowers, lawn mowers, etc that don't fit in the house and don't leave much room for cars in the garage.
Because it is too small- 1920s house, rare attached single car garage. You could park it in there (if we cleaned out the storage) but you would have to exit and enter the car through the sunroof. Most houses in the historic neighborhood have similarly constrained garages; I don't even have a driveway, my garage is basically right on the sidewalk, so street parking is the norm and accepted here.
No worry about weather here- except for the forever beating down sun, and car prowls while present are not that common either.
I have a 2 car garage and 5 cars. So the two drivers and Suburban get left out while the project cars are inside.
Many people use the garage for storage of stuff, like snowblowers, lawn mowers, etc that don't fit in the house and don't leave much room for cars in the garage.
I can understand the extra vehicles part, I had a third vehicle for quite a while and it obviously had nowhere to go but the driveway or street.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn
Stuff...clutter...too many cars for their space.
I suppose this is it, my neighbors for example keep a bunch of trash (literally) in their garage. It's full of lawn-disposal bags. Why, I don't know, we get to put out an unlimited number of lawn bags every week all year long. Maybe they like stinking their house up with rotting grass and leaves?
I remember the HOA take on this where we lived in Houston.
Cars had to be put away in the garage and the garage door shut.
It was a bit of an eye opener coming from the UK, though it wasn't an issue for us with two vehicles and a three car garage.
Wow! Which subdivision was that?
Too much stuff in the garage and snow is not an issue, trees keep the cars cool in summer. But as the garages in our hood are behind the house most park on the driveway and it still doesn't look cluttered.
This is something that has always mystified me, also.
The homes in my neighborhood range from 2,200 sq ft to 3,500 sq ft, and all of them have 2 attached garages, full basements, and full attics. However, I am one of the very few people who actually parks his cars in his home's garages.
I can understand the problem of having more cars than garages. Obviously, with only 2 garages, anything in excess of two vehicles means that you will be parking one or more vehicles in the driveway or in the street, but there are a considerable number of folks in my neighborhood who have "only" 2 cars and 2 seemingly-unused garages.
Whenever I have moved to a new home, I have given myself a limit of 2 weeks to use the garages as a staging area for boxes and other items, prior to finding a place for them in the basement or the attic, and I have always been able to empty the garage w/in that 2 week period.
When my neighbors have their garage doors open, it is obvious that they just never got their s*it together when they moved in 15+ years ago, and that the garage is still filled with huge masses of...God only knows what... And, almost all of them have erected fairly large garden sheds for their lawn equipment and other stuff, so what lies inside those cluttered garages is...a mystery...to me.
The net effect is that my cars still look showroom-new after as long as 10 years, while many of the neighbors have cars that look pretty bad after only 5 years or so.
The most dramatic effect is in the aftermath of a snowstorm. I simply open one of my garage doors, fire up the snowblower, and proceed to completely clear my long L-shaped driveway in less than 1 hour. By contrast, my neighbors have to work around their haphazardly-parked vehicles, have to dig the cars out by hand after the snowblower is finished, and wind up spending well over 2 hours to do a really crappy job of clearing their driveways.
I could understand making this tactical error the first winter, but...whatever happened to learning from experience?
Wouldn't you think that these people would have figured out by now that they are just continually shooting themselves in the foot by keeping all of their cars parked in the driveway?
Last edited by Retriever; 02-16-2015 at 04:59 PM..
Let me tell you, if I had a garage right now my car would be in it and any snow blower would be outdoors on the back porch. Screw the storage. That junk can go in the basement, attic or a separate shed. Always used the garage for my car when I had one. But there again, I am a New Englander.....
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
