Driveway

[guessagain]

Just after some thoughts really. At the moment, we have a drive that fits one car, it’s to the side of the house, so sits outside to the right of the front door (if looking out if the lounge window) it’s a built up drive as our front garden slopes down towards the house. Steps at the side of the drive, right opposite front door. Then lawn.

We’re thinking get rid of grass, extend drive, to fit other car on. It would mean demolishing existing drive, build up a new one. My only gripe is, it means when I look out my front window, I’m faced with cars. How close? At a rough guess 6ft-8ft away. Do I really want that?

Parking on street isn’t a problem really so at moment we park one car on the drive we have now & one outside on street outside our house. The other car is our daughters. I think we’re just thinking of extending the drive to accommodate her car. But then when DS is older he’ll have a car & there won’t be enough room for 3 anyway. The cost is another thing, it’s not going to be cheap, probably somewhere around £4k.

It's not often that we sit in our houses looking out of the front window. We're inside, busy, watching TV, laundry, dinner. You can sit and look at the back garden.
More off road parking would probably add more value than it costs, and you reduce congestion on the road, and probably reduce your insurance premium. I would go for it.

Thank you Mumaway, you’ve bought up some good points. It’s not something we’re rushing into, we need to save a bit more money first!

How built up is the drive?
Are you going to block light from the living room and be facing a retaining wall and tyres? That much less attractive than the glass windscreens that typically are at house window height when a car is parked on the drive.

If the new drive would be over what's currently grass or soil or permeable stuff generally, you may need PP for it. It' a drainage issue, I think.