DC Row Houses and Garages

[Anonymous]

Even if you run into problems with exceeding the square footage allowance for your yard, you can usually get an exemption. But still...it will probably be a hassle, expensive, and there are no guarantees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've never understand the desire to "house" your car but I also don't waste time worrying about door dings and scratches on the bumper of my rapidly depreciating car.

And since very few DC residents use their garages for actually storing their car I don't seem to be alone in this belief.

You my dear have never known the joy of the attached garage in the winter.

[Anonymous]

The vast majority of DC rowhouse lots are way too narrow for a proper garage for a guy who likes to work on cars. You'll get a tiny one car garage, if you insist on a centrally located rowhouse within your budget.

You need to be looking for a proper detached SFH in Petworth, 16th St Heights, crestwood, Shepard Park, AU Park, etc.

Money, space, location - you can only afford two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never understand the desire to "house" your car but I also don't waste time worrying about door dings and scratches on the bumper of my rapidly depreciating car.

And since very few DC residents use their garages for actually storing their car I don't seem to be alone in this belief.

You my dear have never known the joy of the attached garage in the winter.

DP but I live in the city and don't drive anywhere, so an attached garage wouldn't help. Still gonna walk to the bus/metro/grocery anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never understand the desire to "house" your car but I also don't waste time worrying about door dings and scratches on the bumper of my rapidly depreciating car.

And since very few DC residents use their garages for actually storing their car I don't seem to be alone in this belief.

You my dear have never known the joy of the attached garage in the winter.

OP..
Well.. there's a few things here:
1. Protecting a $6000 1990 Toyota or civic from dings and the elements is a very different decision that protecting your $120k Porsche or Tesla. Even in between those two extremes, cars can be quite expensive and I never understood people who don't want to take care of such a large investment when they have garage space - I hate seeing a nice car parked on the street while the garage houses some old couches and boxes of junk.
2. In our case it is not so much about protecting our "daily driver" (though that's good too) as having space for the DH's fairly serious hobby of fixing up and restoring older cars, race cars, etc. If not for that hobby, we'd probably consider outdoor (offstreet) parking if the house was otherwise suitable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never understand the desire to "house" your car but I also don't waste time worrying about door dings and scratches on the bumper of my rapidly depreciating car.

And since very few DC residents use their garages for actually storing their car I don't seem to be alone in this belief.

You my dear have never known the joy of the attached garage in the winter.

I've also never had to shovel out a driveway. I can think of lots of better uses of my square footage than storing a car indoors.

[Anonymous]

Keep in mind that if the garage faces an alley, the DC garbage men often seem to spill as much garbage as they pick up. This makes your garage a very inviting home for rats. We were always finding nests and having to deal with them. GROSS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never understand the desire to "house" your car but I also don't waste time worrying about door dings and scratches on the bumper of my rapidly depreciating car.

And since very few DC residents use their garages for actually storing their car I don't seem to be alone in this belief.

You my dear have never known the joy of the attached garage in the winter.

OP..
Well.. there's a few things here:
1. Protecting a $6000 1990 Toyota or civic from dings and the elements is a very different decision that protecting your $120k Porsche or Tesla. Even in between those two extremes, cars can be quite expensive and I never understood people who don't want to take care of such a large investment when they have garage space - I hate seeing a nice car parked on the street while the garage houses some old couches and boxes of junk.
2. In our case it is not so much about protecting our "daily driver" (though that's good too) as having space for the DH's fairly serious hobby of fixing up and restoring older cars, race cars, etc. If not for that hobby, we'd probably consider outdoor (offstreet) parking if the house was otherwise suitable.

To each his own obviously - hobbys are somewhat unexplainable things we all have and expend time and money on - but why anyone living in an urban area would waste money on an expensive car that just sits in traffic and gets dinged up is beyond me. And by the way even extremely expensive cars rapidly depreciate unless you luck into a collectible so it is still mostly a vanity effort worrying about whether your 120K car has a door ding.

[Anonymous]

Newer townhouses in NE have garages but they only fit one car. You might find a slightly bigger garage in the townhomes near the Costco.

[Anonymous]

Two row house on our block (near H NE) just built entirely new accessory dwellings: garage on the bottom, garage on top. DH was so shocked that he called 311 and was reassured that yes, they were properly permitted. So yes, this can most definitely be done. You just have to buy a row house with an exceptionally deep yard (as our block has).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never understand the desire to "house" your car but I also don't waste time worrying about door dings and scratches on the bumper of my rapidly depreciating car.

And since very few DC residents use their garages for actually storing their car I don't seem to be alone in this belief.

You my dear have never known the joy of the attached garage in the winter.

OP..
Well.. there's a few things here:
1. Protecting a $6000 1990 Toyota or civic from dings and the elements is a very different decision that protecting your $120k Porsche or Tesla. Even in between those two extremes, cars can be quite expensive and I never understood people who don't want to take care of such a large investment when they have garage space - I hate seeing a nice car parked on the street while the garage houses some old couches and boxes of junk.
2. In our case it is not so much about protecting our "daily driver" (though that's good too) as having space for the DH's fairly serious hobby of fixing up and restoring older cars, race cars, etc. If not for that hobby, we'd probably consider outdoor (offstreet) parking if the house was otherwise suitable.

That is a hobby that's entirely incompatible with city living.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never understand the desire to "house" your car but I also don't waste time worrying about door dings and scratches on the bumper of my rapidly depreciating car.

And since very few DC residents use their garages for actually storing their car I don't seem to be alone in this belief.

You my dear have never known the joy of the attached garage in the winter.

OP..
Well.. there's a few things here:
1. Protecting a $6000 1990 Toyota or civic from dings and the elements is a very different decision that protecting your $120k Porsche or Tesla. Even in between those two extremes, cars can be quite expensive and I never understood people who don't want to take care of such a large investment when they have garage space - I hate seeing a nice car parked on the street while the garage houses some old couches and boxes of junk.
2. In our case it is not so much about protecting our "daily driver" (though that's good too) as having space for the DH's fairly serious hobby of fixing up and restoring older cars, race cars, etc. If not for that hobby, we'd probably consider outdoor (offstreet) parking if the house was otherwise suitable.

Cars are not an investment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never understand the desire to "house" your car but I also don't waste time worrying about door dings and scratches on the bumper of my rapidly depreciating car.

And since very few DC residents use their garages for actually storing their car I don't seem to be alone in this belief.

You my dear have never known the joy of the attached garage in the winter.

OP..
Well.. there's a few things here:
1. Protecting a $6000 1990 Toyota or civic from dings and the elements is a very different decision that protecting your $120k Porsche or Tesla. Even in between those two extremes, cars can be quite expensive and I never understood people who don't want to take care of such a large investment when they have garage space - I hate seeing a nice car parked on the street while the garage houses some old couches and boxes of junk.
2. In our case it is not so much about protecting our "daily driver" (though that's good too) as having space for the DH's fairly serious hobby of fixing up and restoring older cars, race cars, etc. If not for that hobby, we'd probably consider outdoor (offstreet) parking if the house was otherwise suitable.

Why do you want to live in the city? You would like you may be more comfortable in the suburbs. .. maybe some place like Ashburn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never understand the desire to "house" your car but I also don't waste time worrying about door dings and scratches on the bumper of my rapidly depreciating car.

And since very few DC residents use their garages for actually storing their car I don't seem to be alone in this belief.

You my dear have never known the joy of the attached garage in the winter.

OP..
Well.. there's a few things here:
1. Protecting a $6000 1990 Toyota or civic from dings and the elements is a very different decision that protecting your $120k Porsche or Tesla. Even in between those two extremes, cars can be quite expensive and I never understood people who don't want to take care of such a large investment when they have garage space - I hate seeing a nice car parked on the street while the garage houses some old couches and boxes of junk.
2. In our case it is not so much about protecting our "daily driver" (though that's good too) as having space for the DH's fairly serious hobby of fixing up and restoring older cars, race cars, etc. If not for that hobby, we'd probably consider outdoor (offstreet) parking if the house was otherwise suitable.

Why do you want to live in the city? You would like you may be more comfortable in the suburbs. .. maybe some place like Ashburn.

OP: Ha ha. I am sure my DH who does not have a work commute would be quite happy in Ashburn, or heck, maybe even WVA (and many of his colleagues are encouraging him to live there), and definitely back in Texas which is where we relocated from (for my job). I, however, will be working centrally in the district in a traditionally 5 day a work week/rush hour commute job. And his desire to have a usable garage is not greater than our mutual desire for me not to lose hours every week to a super long commute when there are places we could live that are closer to a 30 minute commute. Given that and how wonderful DC is, we want to embrace city or near-city living and live somewhere walkable where preferably I can commute by public transit or with a quicker drive (preferably public transit though), etc. But we're trying to do that while maintaining some amenities that are important to us (the other big one being at least a postage stamp sized yards for dogs when the weather is bad and we don't want to walk them). Luckily schools aren't an issue for us, so at least we don't have to constrain our shopping with that. Maybe this is all a giant unicorn we're looking for with our budget, but we're trying to make it work... open to suggestions!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:extremes, cars can be quite expensive and I never understood people who don't want to take care of such a large investment when they have garage space - I hate seeing a nice car parked on the street while the garage houses some old couches and boxes of junk.

Cars are not an investment.

They are certainly more valuable than some of the stuff people leave in their garages while their cars age and get dinged out on street parking. Its one thing to decide not to have a garage at all. But if you have one, use it for a car not to store near-worthless junk! If nothing else it frees up more street parking for the other people who don't have garages...