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I wouldn't buy in an area like in the photo, the homes are way too close together. Our garage is on the right side of the front, but from the street in front of our house you cannot see any neighboring houses, just our house and trees, and few sidewalks.
This is not rural, but a suburban city of 50,000 with mostly 1/3 acre or larger lots and many 80-100' fir and cedar trees.
While it's almost a mile to the nearest store, we have a very walkable neighborhood, as evidenced by the couples and families walking around with or without dogs every evening rain or shine.
Ours is a similar neighborhood in many ways - definitely suburbia but very walkable and people walk around it constantly. I think people even drive from other areas and park and walk!
Most of the lots in our neighborhood are 1/3 to 2/3 acre lots, with a few that are a full acre and a few that are smaller. Only the smallest lots have front facing garages so there aren't many of those. A few have garages which are at the back of the house and the drive circles around to the back, but most are side entry.
Here's our house from the front - the garage is to the left as you face it. I like the symmetry of the two wings.
Last edited by KathrynAragon; 02-07-2020 at 07:14 AM..
To the right side of the house, from the photo it doesn't look much but its DH dream garage, his garage-mahal. It has room for 4 cars and 3 motorbikes and even has an inspection pit.
I wouldn't buy in an area like in the photo, the homes are way too close together. Our garage is on the right side of the front, but from the street in front of our house you cannot see any neighboring houses, just our house and trees, and few sidewalks.
This is not rural, but a suburban city of 50,000 with mostly 1/3 acre or larger lots and many 80-100' fir and cedar trees.
While it's almost a mile to the nearest store, we have a very walkable neighborhood, as evidenced by the couples and families walking around with or without dogs every evening rain or shine.
I agree with everything you said!
I would not live that close to other houses either. My neighborhood's lots are about 1/3 - 1/2 of an acre, and the whole suburb is a very walkable area. We have walking paths and bike baths all over.
Ours is similar to the photo in post #14, 3 car front entry. Lots are just not big enough here for side entry which is my preference. In the area we are buying they have front entry and alley entry. We chose front because we wanted a back yard and parking for guests. I am also not the best driver and it is easy to pull straight into our garage off the wide street with the full drive way to line up the garage door.
Last edited by Pooks1976; 01-25-2015 at 11:47 AM..
I agree with Hemlock - to me that looks like a townhouse development. My neighborhood is pretty old. The original homes are from the mid-1800s to early 1900s. One of the farmers sold off some land in the 1920s when most of the homes were built, mine included. There are a few from the mid-1980s. Most of the houses that have garages , have detached ones. I actually like it because it keeps all the crud in the garage where it belongs. I have indoor cats and am pretty particular about keeping chemicals out of the house but I'm also a car enthusiast so I do get dirty.
I did look at one early 1900s house that had a 2 car detached but they had built a large breezeway between that and the house. I could see that being a mudroom/sunroom type of thing, it really appealed to me. It was about 2x the size of my current sunroom.
Ours faces the front and is quite prominent. It isn't the most attractive thing, but there were other priorities when choosing a house. From an urban planning perspective, I like garages on an ally, but the few houses like that around here have no back yards.
I like side-load garages, too, but those are few and far between here, too.
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