DC Row Houses and Garages

[Anonymous]

If schools are not a concern that at least opens up some options price wise and lot wise.

But the big hiccup here is going to be finding a rowhouse with a usable garage - most traditional rowhouses in DC are on 14-16 foot wide lots. And there are plenty around with garages but they are almost always small - you might find one you can squeeze a mid-size car in but that's not going to leave any room for your husband to work on the car or store much - it sounds like you really need a 2 car garage.

There are some new in-fill rowhouses (maybe they should be called townhouses) that are built on top of the garages that might as wide as the house and meet your needs. There is such a development in Friendship Heights in the 5300 block of 43rd that is also a block from the Metro but the houses go for 1 million plus and aren't real attractive.

Here is an example from a couple of years ago:

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/5336-43rd-St-NW-20015/home/9957237

[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 never understood it during my many years in the city either. But now that I have one? It’s a thing of beauty.

[Anonymous]

16th street heights is just a neighborhood over from petworth and more commonly has garages

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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...

You realize your cars are decreasing in value no matter what, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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...

You realize your cars are decreasing in value no matter what, right?

This really isn't true.

Virtually all cars are at some variable rate depreciating down to whatever their value is as scrap medal. They might depreciate faster if they are getting dinged but the clean cars are also rapidly losing value.

Alternately my lawn mower and tolls are probably not depreciating as rapidly and I need somewhere to store them.

I have a garage but if it were up to me & affordable I'd trade it for more yard which would provide a lot more value to me than a ding free car.

[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.

Cars are not an investment.

Not true. It depends on the car. Your regular boring every day car is not an investment.
But exotic cars are good investments. They always appreciate over time.
A friend of mine sold a 1940 Mercedes at an auction for $2.5 million.
He bought it for $1.5 million a few years prior. It was a very rare model and only a few hundreds were ever built.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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!

Divorce.

[Anonymous]

The existing row house garages (many detached) are often too narrow to use comfortably for modern cars.

You're best bet may be buying a house with an existing detached garage, even if it's in crappy shape. You could then be allowed to replace it rather than building a new one where none existed before.

[Anonymous]

Brookland in NE DC puts you within your 30m commute and many SFHs have very big lots (for a city house). You could probably get approved to build a garage because of the spacious yard area, but many houses have detached single or double garages. Some you reach from a back alley and others have driveways leading to the back yard. Some of the attached houses have basement garages, but they always look narrow.

There are renovated houses for $750-900k.

[Anonymous]

I live close to the house you posted, OP, and have a few neighbors with pretty sizable garages. Most are small and tight, but the two I’m thinking of are larger. You might think about driving around in the alleys and see if anything seems right.

[Anonymous]

My DH and I built a 2-car garage in our NW DC backyard many years ago. We were able to get permits with no problems. You need to find a house that has a wide enough backyard. It will take time to find that and may not be feasible in certain neighborhoods with very narrow lots. But it is entirely possible! Trust me!

[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.

OP said DH is a car guy. When I hear that I think either "collector cars" or "works on cars". If you fail to see why an enclosed garage would be useful for either of those then you can't be helped, I’m sorry.

[Anonymous]

With ride/car sharing and self-driving cars none of this will be a concern one day.

[Anonymous]

It is possible to get a zoning exemption to the lot coverage rules - a couple houses on my block have managed it. But it does add a layer of expense to pursue a construction project that it not by-right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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).

Be careful of this type of busybody neighbors.