Garage In the Front Yard?

[Jey]

I am looking at buying a house on 2 acres, it is located near the back of the property and has a pond on the side and is pretty tight to the line on the other side.

I'm thinking about putting the garage in the front yard as it's wooded and i should be able to tuck it into the woods a little bit and have it not be too tacky looking.

Wondering if anyone else has something similar to share pictures of?


Thanks!

 

[RonBou]

I have two garages in front of my house...mostly hidden by trees and bushes during the warm weather but it looks o.k. during the winter also. The one car garage is hidden by a small tree in the pic and is in front of the Jeep.

 

[twostory]

I'm thinking about putting the garage in the front yard as it's wooded and i should be able to tuck it into the woods a little bit and have it not be too tacky looking.

I would check with the county to see if they allow a "detached garage" to be located in front of the house. My county does not allow this, but may grant a variance. Anytime you have to get a variance, it is tricky. They do not have to allow the variance, it cost money, and it can take months to even get voted on at the county meeting.

A simple call to "planning & devolpement" should answer this question. Tell them what you want to do and ask if this is allowed.

 

[Jey]

I already made that phone call reguarding putting the garage in the front yard, they're okay with it provided it isnt more than 30% of the land covered blah blah blah... And 1500 SQ minus the SQ of the attached garage (480ish)...

So, I should be okay there I hope. The only variance I need to get is for the height, as i want to be able to go with 10 foot walls...

I'm just worried about the astetics.

 

[Down Under Bloke]

I'm just worried about the astetics.

Good point if you are putting it in the front yard. Cruse around the site for a bit and you will find heaps of great looking garages that would look great in any front yard. Yes you may need to spend a little more on it, because it is in your front yard but you are going to be looking at it every time you come home and there’s the resale to think off. If the budget is tight look at something you can build the structure cheaply now and add architectural features later.

 

[oldgoat]

Done right a garage can look quite well, but I would think that it would require a little more effort of keeping the area around it cleaned up. The one example looked pretty nice I thought. I would look into keeping at as far back from the road as I could though and also if it would be a concern to make sure that it is well lit so that you can discourge vistors in the night.

 

[boiler7904]

Depends how the site and driveway layout. I would think that as long as its off to the side and unobtrusive, it could look pretty good. The key is to use materials that match the house and attached garage.

I'll see if I can get you a picture of what not to do tomorrow on my way to work.

 

[Morrisman]

If you can make it look like this I'm sure you'll not feel too bad about building it in the front yard:

 

[KingPerformance]

Post an aerial photo from Map quest.

 

[ol55]

I too put my garage in my front yard as it was the best use of space and more cost effective. I just dressed it up some and I don't mind looking at it at all. It leaves the back yard as a little escape to nature.....

 

[Jey]

Here's an Aerial Shot of the property with the bounds


The large pond is shared between the neighbor and the property... There's about 20 feet between that and the house...

The woods behind the house aren't deep and it abuts a Dev Project of 300K houses that i don't want to look at , so i would consider losing the woods in the back worse than some of the trees in the front....

I thinke the property line on the top (through the pond) is actually further up, but i'm not 100% sure ....

Let me know if you think the place where the yellow Dot is, would be a nice place for a 3 car garage with 10 foot walls and a loft, (22.5 ft On center peak)




Thanks,

Jason

 

[Kinger]

I would put it closer to the driveway. It would require more clearing, but you could keep trees all around the building and be barely visible from the house.

Nice property!

 

[Jey]

I was thinking about that too, not really sure.

If the bank would stop being such a pain in the ***, I would know if we were getting the house or not.


It's a bank repo... needs a little TLC (paint, carpet, some patches on the drywall... )

first house. Kinda excited. Mostly makes me wanna vomit.

 

[Down Under Bloke]

Nice place, I'm with kinger on slightly closer to the drive but I’d also go a little closer to the street as well, so as to get some trees between the house and garage.

I am a firm believer that the smaller clearing foot print you make to construct a building the better. It just cuts out a lot of land scaping and waiting for things to grow when you finish building.

 

[Jey]

That's what I'm thinking as well. Building it into the trees will be the best bet. In the winter it will be obvious, but i bet in the summer you would almost not be able to see it...

I don't want to too close to the road though, because i want to leave my gold bars laying around and not have someone be able to smell them driving by... if only i had the money to make an underground garage *sigh*.