Is it bad to have master bedroom above garage? (Sugar Land: townhouse, landscaping)

[astrohip]

Originally Posted by Over

Our master bedroom is above our garage.. and although my wife and I haven't yet started growing a third arm from the chemicals seeping from the garage , our room is the hottest in the house. We have to deal with the heat emanating from the garage. It feels that our room is about 5+ degrees hotter than the other rooms. But it's only bothersome during the summer months.

This.

This summer was so bad we had to run fans in the hallway to blow some cooler air our way. The rest of the upstairs--a nice, cool 74. Our room gets above 80 sometimes.

[cheryjohns]

Originally Posted by Malvie

I'd keep looking. There are LOTS of houses for sale in Houston. I don't like the idea of all the fumes, and as others have said, the garage door would drive me nuts. I like detached garages. Also, if a fire starts in the garage, there is at least a small chance of limiting it to the garage if it's detached. Attached, well, it's already IN the house, isn't it?

Tree removal depends: you can find some jackleg group to do it for you (and if they bail halfway through the job or if they drop the tree on your house, tough clams) for as little as $500, depending on the size of the tree.

I had a large, dying elm in my back yard, 10 feet from the house. I had it removed and the rest of the trees trimmed by a licensed, bonded tree service. $1,500.

Cost of new tree = $10 to however much money you have; depends on type of tree, what you want, how big you want it, whether you're going to plant it or they are.....etc.

Detached garages get really hard to find in a house less than ten years old.

[Sampaguita]

Originally Posted by vwgto

Garage door and fumes from the cars - - or other yard chemicals, etc. I would not want to sleep above a garage.

I almost lost a colleague to this when something was going on in the garage below his garage apartment. He didn't show up for work so I sent the police to his place. Thank goodness we didn't just assume he wasn't coming into work. He was unconscious from carbon monoxide poisoning - slept through whatever was going on in the garage (the details escape me - I just remember all of us being freaked out!). Luckily, he was ok.

[migee]

Just from the standards of quality for homebulding here in Texas should make you walk away from this. As was aleady posted here, it takes one accident with a running car that can be a tragedy...And with the construction here, I doubt if you would have much protection from the fumes.

Anyone that would design a house with a bedroom above a garage has to be nuts anyway...So, I'd be worried about the condition of the whole house.

[Alphalogica]

Originally Posted by Malvie

I like detached garages.

It really depends on the needs of your family. I remember growing up, when my family would go house browsing/shopping throughout greater Houston they would always prefer attached garages due to safety concerns. My mom, an RN, who often worked shift-work at now-defunct Bellaire Hospital, would often come/leave late at night (this was during the high-crime 90's) and an attached garage provides a slightly better level of security. Being able to walk straight into the home from the garage is safer by far than having to walk from the garage to the house outside the security of your home.

[caliking]

In our case, I leave for work before my wife does, so the garage door opening and closing would wake her up every day. Secondly, I sometimes get called in the middle of the night and have to go to work, so again the garage door would wake her up.

Then there's the issue of the heat... no matter how great your garage door motor is, I bet it doesn't do anything to cool the room above it.

[brucerby]

The same kind of heat/cold problem with these bedrooms above garages is reversed up north in places like IL.....My master bedroom is FREEZING in the winter due to being over the garage. Fortunately no smell of fumes tho.

[mdh1]

Originally Posted by cheryjohns

Detached garages get really hard to find in a house less than ten years old.

Why is this the case? What changed 10 years ago?

[cheryjohns]

Originally Posted by mdh1

Why is this the case? What changed 10 years ago?

Lot size started becoming smaller, which left less room for the footprint of a home. In order to conserve space, the garages started becoming attached and incorporated with the rest of the house slab.

[Malvie]

Originally Posted by mdh1

Why is this the case? What changed 10 years ago?

Oh, I can answer that one: More houses on less land. Squeeze them closer together. More houses on less land = more profits for builders.

Started about 2000 or so, Cheryl is right.

I don't like new houses or neighborhoods; I'd rather a neighborhood would have a little gracefulness that age imparts. Of course, that means your house is less than uber-stylish, but then, I never was the stylish type---and all those houses they built with corian countertops and blonde wood cabinets and brass fixtures are REALLY dated and out of style now, while at least my neighborhood (built in 1976) has mature trees/landscaping, and a gentle look of "settled".