[Twitchy15]

Originally Posted by timun

The "massive benefits" of having a detached garage are quite literally exactly the same as an attached garage, except for the perceived inconvenience of not being attached to the house.

The Land Use Bylaw prohibits attached garage access from an alley, and contextual rules under the bylaw prevent driveways from being poured in many older neighbourhoods. Generally if you have an alley you won't have driveways out the front, and therefore by extension attached garages are de facto not allowed. Twitchy15 said he bought "an older '60s home"; almost assuredly he lives in one of these areas with back alleys and thus detached garages in the back yards. He won't have a choice in the matter: either detached garage or no garage.


That said, I'm kind of in the same boat as Twitchy: I live in an area developed in the '50s-'60s, one of only a couple properties on my street with no garage out back. I have a massive (~3300 sq ft) back yard that I barely use, and desperately want to build a garage out there. However, my house is a little 1000 sq ft bungalow and admittedly a bit of a dump (other than a new roof it hasn't been significantly reno'ed in 30 years...), and building a garage will do essentially nothing for my property value; my property value would be maximized if the house was blevvied and I sold it to a developer. I can pretty much guarantee no one in their right mind would buy the property and keep the house. But it's a perfectly good size for me, I don't need any more space, and it would make it a lot easier to undertake renos to the house if I had a garage for storage space.

The rational part of me says spending well upwards of $50,000 (I don't have grade issues like Twitchy, but I have to undertake a complete electrical panel replacement in the house and service upgrade to make a garage happen...) on a garage is foolish, because I'll never get more "out" than what I put "in", but at the same time I don't foresee moving any time soon and I want a space to keep my cars in and have workspace to tinker with them, rather than borrowing other people's garages. I think my quality of life would shoot up tens of thousands of dollars' worth by having a garage. I think that's all that matters, and worrying about property values is a bit of a nonsense shell game. Like I said in my case there's a kind of reductionist absurdity to it all: it'd be worth more if I didn't live there at all and just tore the house down. But... I still need a place to live. And I might as well enjoy it.

Exactly our house is small and would not impress many people. But it is really all we need but we always want more. A slightly bigger house with better storage would be great but the hassle of moving and the costs, increased mortgage etc. makes it a hard choice. The portion of our useable yard is quite big compared to new houses the slope is probably 30 feet by 55 feet of the yard.