mxt_77

No, that's what the garage is for. The driveway is only there to provide access to the garage. The guy across the street from me has a 3-car garage. Do you know how many cars he parks in it? Zero. At one point, he had 7 cars... 5 parked in the driveway and 2 in the street. If you think that's not going to have a negative impact on all the home values around him, then you're sadly mistaken.
Add that to the fact that he has somehow managed to "burn" his grass (probably used the wrong kind of fertilizer or something), and now his whole yard is yellow except for the healthy clumps of weeds, and you just get a huge eyesore for the whole neighborhood.

Fortunately, the house currently has a "For Sale" sign in front of it and I am deeply hopeful that he will sell it to someone more considerate (and less ignorant about home maintenance/landscaping) than himself. However, I don't know of anyone that would want to pay for a 3700 sq. ft. house with a 3-car garage... and a completely napalm'ed front yard.

wing

Wow some people are short-sighted. It doesn't cost much to get the lawn redone.

I don't want to derail the thread too much but heck I'm bored at work .

If the driveway is only there to provide access to the garage why is it large enough to hold 5 cars? obviously he only needs enough room to get into the garage so it doesn't need to be more than a few feet deep.

It depends on the community, but in Ottawa VERY few park in the garage, most people park in the driveway and store junk in the garage. Personally I store my S2000 in my garage. The remainder is space to work on it and the lawnmower and all the other crap I need like gigantic recycling boxes. Maybe if the houses were built with large enough garages to fit all the cars and junk that wouldn't be a problem. Heck my truck doesn't even fit in my garage. Truck is 19' long and that's a shortbox truck, my garage is only 18'8" long. Stupid builder!

wing

Dude, if you do remember this.

Your salary will be halved for whatever job you do.

Then the government will take 50% of that (so cut her in half again).

Ottawa is about 3rd or 4th most expensive in Canada though. Look at places in the US that aren't overcrowded. I'm sure you can get a kick a$$ HUGE house in Iowa for $150k

mxt_77

It's a 3-bay garage, so the driveway is the width of all 3-bays. Therefore, you can easily park 3 cars directly in front of the garage. Additionally, the setback line is about 25 feet from the street, and the garage is set further back than the front of the house, so the driveway is deep/long enough for two rows of cars. If the house was built right on the curb, then you're correct, it wouldn't be possible to park 5 cars in the driveway.

When I had my house built, I paid extra to add a 3rd garage bay because I wanted to be able to keep all of my cars protected and out of eyesight. I also had the garage extended a couple of feet to accomodate a full-size SUV or truck (although I still couldn't fit a crew-cab longbed in there). Granted, I did this for my own satisfaction because I don't want my vehicles exposed to the weather, but it's still beneficial to the overall appearance of my house. Unfortunately, there are only about 3 other people on my block that feel the same way.

And admittedly, if I ever get married, she's going to have to park in the driveway, because I'll probably have all 3 bays already full by then.


Anyway, my original post wasn't really about the HOA thing, so I guess its off-topic, but it's just a pet peeve of mine when people have a garage but they don't use it for its intended purpose. The intended purpose of a garage is for the storage of vehicles not junk.

wing

I use mine to work on the car and store junk .

The Gasman

I agree with you, and I keep all 3 of my vehicles in the garage, but in California where you have no basement, many people use the garage for storage.

Bz2005s2k

Do people really fall for this crap? I am sorry but if you think that cars parked in the front of a house takes the value down you are crazy IMO. Of course having some rusted out junkers in the front is different.

So, when you go to look at a house with a realtor how many of you actually look around the neighborhood? Most of you I hope

Of those that actually look at the neighborhood does a Ford F-150 and a Dodge Magnum parked in the driveway of the house next door make you not want the house or want to pay less for the house?

If you answer yes to that I would be willing to say you are in the, what I like to call, "Special Needs Group" and you will be just fine in a hood with HOA's.

For the 90% of us that do not see the two cars in the driveway as a reason to only pay $459,000 instead of the asking price of $463,000 then HOA's are probably not for you. Super anal control freaks are the type that like HOA's generally. They not only want to control their own enviroment but everyone around them as well. Personally if you are that way you should live in the country with a few acres so you don't have to deal with neighbors in the first place

Also, you all keep saying "I hate when people buy a house with HOA's and then complain about the rules". Think about it for a second. All of the rules that were put in place before you moved in you need to follow but they do add, remove, and modify rules after the fact. Most HOA's have at least monthly meetings to discuss things and they can put in new rules to say you are not allowed to drive your S2000 up to the house because the rest of the hood hates the JDM scene So just because you agree to the rules now does not mean you will always. And even if you do not agree with the new rules is does not matter because if you are not on the board you get no say in the matter.

Chris S

Check out this story of HOA hell w/ a car! The resident handed it very well, I wouldn't have be so level-headed.

http://www.parkingenforcementforum.c...ic.php?f=3&t=3

airgate

I'm still scratching my head that an Avalanche is considered better looking than a standard pickup.

Geez...

Chris S

I thought my old Avalanche looked pretty decent (& admittedly better than my Ridgeline).