I think I want at least .75 acre! (blinds, square foot, standard)

[oldgardener]

I have a little over 5 acres and can still hear my neighbors dropping pins, or whatever the hell it is they're dropping over there, sounds like they're dumping boulders on sheet metal, punctuated by small bombs being set off. Fifteen acres would be better. Postage stamp sized lot, no way.


Any acreage I don't use is actually a buffer zone, so I consider it all to be in good use. Not to mention, nature finds good use for it.

[MidValleyDad]

Originally Posted by marino760

You sound obsessed about your trees. Unless something is seriously wrong with them, they don't need near the maintenance you are describing. What are you trimming and pruning? The only pruning trees need is taking out an occasional dead branch unless they are growing up against you house with the potential of doing damage. Spraying? I've lived with trees of various types on my properties for many years. Never had them sprayed for anything. Your tree company is making a killing.
BTW, in my younger days I was a certified arborist in the state of CA.

I'm in the mid-atlantic and the spraying/fertilizing is mainly to control bugs and disease (I've lost one mature oak, a spruce, and a couple pines due to tent worms and other bugs and diseases over the last 6-7 years before I found my current 'tree guy') The trimming is to control potential storm damage due to ice and wind. with 50 year old oaks and pines I lose brances every winter due to storm damage and in a few years ago a major ice storm sheared major branches down one side of a couple pines. Part of the problem is that the tree services around here mainly go 'down the road' to the Washington Metro area where upscale neighborhoods pay top dollar for good work. It took me nine months to find the local company I use now.

[bande1102]

I'm in the Mid-Atlantic, too. I have one sweet gum tree in tiny (I only have 1/10thof an acre) yard. Every couple of years I have to have the tree pruned "naturally" to reduce the chance of having a branch fall on my roof. I can also apply a growth inhibitor to reduce the growth of the tree, but I rarely do that. This costs me about $500-800.

Because that tree is so close to the house, I have it's health checked because I don't want to risk it falling on my house. I never want to go through that experience again.

That tree is a PITA. OMG. Sweet gum trees drop horrible little prickly balls. They are a pain to clean up. They'd get caught in my dog's fur, his paws. uggghh. Of course, it drops about a million balls, too. I appreciate that the tree cools my bedroom, but I can never leave my window open because the tree is full of birds and squirrels. Yes, squirrels do make little squeaky-type noises. Before dawn, it sounds like a concert going on out there.

I used to have a Bradford Pear in front of my house. It is not native to my area. During one bad storm, it fell on the front of my house.

Additionally, I had a large shrub by my door that was killed by bagworms.

I use whatever tree person will actually come out and do the job. Seriously. They show up, they set the price, and I pay it. I can call whomever I want and they will not commit. They say if they are in the area, they'll come by and look at it and email a quote. Once I agree to the price, they say they'll be out sometime in the next month. Sometimes they show, sometimes not.

If the tree needs to be cut down, I have to call a separate company to grind the stump. These guys are more mysterious than the tree trimmers.

Anyway, my small postage stamp lot costs me a small fortune. Mowing is a pita because 1) my lot is hilly and 2) the backyard is mostly tree roots and there are so many little pivots my mower has to make. It takes me an hour to cut and that's prior to trimming and edging. And I rarely use the yard because there is no privacy.

I grew up on an acre of land. I would love to have that again. Then again, sometimes townhouses appeal to me, too. So who knows? One thing I can tell you is that I will carefully evaluate any trees on the property, that is for sure.

[snebarekim]

I like elbow room and spacing myself. Even on bigger lots, the design and placement are important.

My non HOA house in the high Arizona desert is on .72 acre, and my house is placed well away from my one neighbor, so is very private. With the exception of about .15 acre of grass directly abutting the house in my back yard area, the rest is very low maintenence xeriscape. No trees near the house so roof/gutters stay clear. I do have two apple trees though that require attention on the outer edge of the grass area. It is fenced off so the javalinas cant get to any dropped apples though.

There is a steep hill on the far back of my lot, so I can target shoot/ zero my firearms right on my property also.

I would not have it any other way.

[WouldLoveTo]

Originally Posted by Brian_M

Lot size isn't everything... I had a .75 acre lot with my last house, and 5' spacing between my house and one to the right. I was almost on the road too, and it'd been that was since it was built in 1930. All of the lot was back yard, narrow and long.


So, if you want "spacing", look Further than just lot size. And yes, I understand that without the size, you can never have spacing.

This right here.

I have less than 1/4 acre and I can see into both side neighbors kitchens. I see everything at the back door of 2 houses behind me. No fun.

I looked at a 4 acre property that was wooded on all three sides and had a strip of land that was owned by someone else that wrapped around the back. That felt huge, but it wasn't.

I looked at an 8 acre property that felt crowded because the house was on the road and on a narrow strip of land, so there were two close side neighbors.

Ideally we're thinking 50+ acres for a space buffer, and want the house set back from the road a bit and close to the center of that area.

There is no rule you have to have a mowable lawn the size of the entire property. Same with landscaping, if you're spending a lot of time on that, it's on you. I get you like the outcome, I like my gardens too. But if they become too much work, they can turn into grass or free bushes pretty quickly. Looked at a 10+ acre property that had a largish front yard, but no backyard to speak of even though the bulk of the acreage was behind the house. It was a bit of woods with some pastures behind them. You could let them grow wild or let animals graze on them. Or run a brush hog through there a couple of times a year. No need to mow 10+ acres.

[himain]

I come from an acre growing up. We are currently trying to buy a house with a 10k sq ft lot. I enjoy doing yard work so it's perfect for me. We are in Denver so unless you go to out to rural areas you are limited on land here.

Now if I won the lottery I'd custom build a house on 4 acres with a HUGE garage (crazy car girl here)

[T. Damon]

1/8 of an acre is fine, you just have to have the right 1/8 of an acre.

[IMG][/IMG]

[riaelise]

Our previous house was on a postage stamp sized lot. Didn't like it at all. A large lot (.5 acre minimum) was in the top 3 requirements for us and that's what we have. Just enough to be manageable, but large enough where I'm not looking in neighbors' houses. The builders were smart enough to place the homes in the center of the lot so that there's ample front, side and back yard space

[silibran]

Originally Posted by K'ledgeBldr

More land=more work

I'm done with yard work!

Which is why we sold our 3 acres and moved to a subdivision. When you have a piece of property you end up fighting off critters and maintaining systems. About a year before we moved DH was up on a tall ladder several times patching woodpecker holes in our cedar siding. And there are the years with no deer forage when your ornamentals get chewed up over winter. And sometimes snakes or mice get in your garage. Lightning might hit your well. A tree could fall over the driveway during a storm.

I could on about owning acreage,

You do get privacy, dark nights with multitudes of stars, and lots of views out your windows. It is not all bad, but we do not miss it, ever.

[Tonyafd]

Originally Posted by eddiehaskell

I like a decently sized yard.

I’d feel like 10 people could be watching me every time I go outside. Maybe 20 if I cut grass with my shirt off.

You could count on fifty if you were female.