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Yea, this is what I'm starting to understand. It's very strange to me to use the garage instead of the front door. I guess if you frequently take the car when you go somewhere and you can actually fit a car in the garage I can see how that makes sense.
I'm remembering my parents house, and the garage was under the bedrooms. If you had to open the garage door everytime you wanted to leave you could wake the whole house up. They also disabled their key pad so you couldn't open the door unless you were in your car.
They make garage doors that open quietly now. Also most garages now are made to fit cars and suvs as most people no longer use a horse and buggy. Aren’t most new homes built with at least a 2 car garage these days? I see Victorians even, mostly have a garage added with a few still having the old detached barns converted to hold the larger vehicles.
Janxo, you seem to be having trouble finding what you want. Why don’t you remediate the wet property and keep your existing house?. It’s a common landscaping project and becoming more frequent as land is built up forcing water to not be absorbed, increasing runoffs and changing the topographies.
I did it 8 years ago and most of my neighbors have as well. I wouldn’t let it stop me from living in a house and neighborhood I liked.
They make garage doors that open quietly now. Also most garages now are made to fit cars and suvs as most people no longer use a horse and buggy. Aren’t most new homes built with at least a 2 car garage these days? I see Victorians even, mostly have a garage added with a few still having the old detached barns converted to hold the larger vehicles.
Janxo, you seem to be having trouble finding what you want. Why don’t you remediate the wet property and keep your existing house?. It’s a common landscaping project and becoming more frequent as land is built up forcing water to not be absorbed, increasing runoffs and changing the topographies.
I did it 8 years ago and most of my neighbors have as well. I wouldn’t let it stop me from living in a house and neighborhood I liked.
Staying is on the table, but I'm exploring other options. The architecture of our house doesn't permit a lot of what I want and we already invested too much into it to rebuild. I would love a garage that is attached to the house and a driveway that can accommodate a few cars but our small lot and the configuration of the house simply doesn't allow it.
Our neighbors did a ton of work on their lot and a few years later there is standing water again. It could be that the people who did the work did a crappy job, but it also makes me nervous that it's not something that can be fixed where we are.
Staying is on the table, but I'm exploring other options. The architecture of our house doesn't permit a lot of what I want and we already invested too much into it to rebuild. I would love a garage that is attached to the house and a driveway that can accommodate a few cars but our small lot and the configuration of the house simply doesn't allow it.
Our neighbors did a ton of work on their lot and a few years later there is standing water again. It could be that the people who did the work did a crappy job, but it also makes me nervous that it's not something that can be fixed where we are.
Everything can be fixed with enough effort. I am certainly no expert but I learned a bit about French drains, underground systems, holding tanks, adding clean fill to raise the property, regrade to alter the water flow into the storm drains and water absorbing plantings. Once we did the work, adjustments are not as big a deal. Nothing says this problem won’t happen after you move in to new home- unless it’s on top of a mountain!
Where do you guys store all your coats, shoes and umbrellas? Do you walk around the house in your shoes and undress somewhere else?
we hang our coats and store whatever shoes we're wearing lately in the mudroom, at the garage entrance to the house. we do have a coat closet at the front door for guests. when we were building the house i paid close attention to storage, since we came from an old house with none.
i store off season outerwear (as well as dress) in my closet upstairs, along with the rest of my clothing.
do you have any kind of vestibule at the entrance of your home? i've seen small-ish benches with storage that are used for such a purpose. a friend of mine found a wooden bench with a bottom shelf, that had a tall back with hooks, for hanging coats. something like that might work for you.
when we bought our 1979 existing 2 story colonial style home, it had two good size coat closets each side of our front doors and a tiny laundry room in back of house near our garage entry. For 1st 5 years living there, we used the front coat closets as storage and guest coats when they visit us, and build a hook with open shelf on wall in laundry room for myself & hubby as we leave house by garage.
fast forward to life with 2 school age kids, front entry coat closets is now used as the boys school supplies/coat/bags as we build cubby holder inside there, as well holds guests coats/extra curriular sports like Taewonko uniforms & extra soccer uniforms. 2nd coat closet is turned into seasonal to hold all the heavier winter coats, hubby's heavier overcoats, my winter purses, etc. It worked out well cuz our house is also where the school kids meet at corner of street to go school by the school bus. So, my kids leave by front door every morning since leaving by garage entry isn't convievient as it's at back of house.
we have expanded the laundry room to become the bigger laundry/mud combo room to hold more lighter every day coats, our shoes, hubby & i's workbags, soccer cleats, baseball bags and taewonko bags. We always leave by garage entry near mudroom since all those activities above is driving the kids for their sport practices and ourselves for work once we've seen kids off to the bus from front door.
We never knew how well it was gonna work out when we bought this house 12 years ago, as i initially thought two front coat closets and a smaller mudroom near garage was overkill. So glad to have this setup.
I've noticed that it's become trendy not to have coat closets at the front door. I've been looking at new constructions and most don't have any closet at all, or tiny ones.
Where do you guys store all your coats, shoes and umbrellas? Do you walk around the house in your shoes and undress somewhere else?
I just don't understand how a house can have no coat closet.
I have a small closet near my front door (house built 2004), but it has all the alarm system wiring in it. It does have a coat rod, but I store the parts of my central vac system and other floor care items in there. I had an armoire that used to hold a TV, but it isn't the right shape for the newer TV's. It actually also came with a clothes rod. I have it near the door and I hang jackets and shorter coats in there. I went on a tour of homes recently and almost every house had one of those "drop zones" with hooks and cubbies. That seems to the thing these days.
we hang our coats and store whatever shoes we're wearing lately in the mudroom, at the garage entrance to the house. we do have a coat closet at the front door for guests. when we were building the house i paid close attention to storage, since we came from an old house with none.
i store off season outerwear (as well as dress) in my closet upstairs, along with the rest of my clothing.
do you have any kind of vestibule at the entrance of your home? i've seen small-ish benches with storage that are used for such a purpose. a friend of mine found a wooden bench with a bottom shelf, that had a tall back with hooks, for hanging coats. something like that might work for you.
We are living in an apartment now that came with a massive wardrobe. Our house in NJ had a tiny coat closet and we ended up using a spare room as the coat closet / dressing area. We will likely move when we return to NJ so just exploring different option.
when we bought our 1979 existing 2 story colonial style home, it had two good size coat closets each side of our front doors and a tiny laundry room in back of house near our garage entry. For 1st 5 years living there, we used the front coat closets as storage and guest coats when they visit us, and build a hook with open shelf on wall in laundry room for myself & hubby as we leave house by garage.
fast forward to life with 2 school age kids, front entry coat closets is now used as the boys school supplies/coat/bags as we build cubby holder inside there, as well holds guests coats/extra curriular sports like Taewonko uniforms & extra soccer uniforms. 2nd coat closet is turned into seasonal to hold all the heavier winter coats, hubby's heavier overcoats, my winter purses, etc. It worked out well cuz our house is also where the school kids meet at corner of street to go school by the school bus. So, my kids leave by front door every morning since leaving by garage entry isn't convievient as it's at back of house.
we have expanded the laundry room to become the bigger laundry/mud combo room to hold more lighter every day coats, our shoes, hubby & i's workbags, soccer cleats, baseball bags and taewonko bags. We always leave by garage entry near mudroom since all those activities above is driving the kids for their sport practices and ourselves for work once we've seen kids off to the bus from front door.
We never knew how well it was gonna work out when we bought this house 12 years ago, as i initially thought two front coat closets and a smaller mudroom near garage was overkill. So glad to have this setup.
I have this fantasy that as my toddler gets.older we will have less clutter, but you just kinda killed it
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