Growing up I lived on a dead end road. The back yard was about the same as the front, but the back led to the neighbor’s very large side yard. We had a large side yard on one side and a wooded ravine on the other (the actual yard on that side was maybe 12 feet). The ravine led to wooded large side/back yards, abandoned railroad tracks and lots of adventures.
I now have a small yard which I’m OK with but I miss the mostly vacant area (though there is some not too far away)
Brian
Which way is north? I’d want the sunniest yard to be the biggest.
This is exactly what I want. As it is, the car length between my front door and the street is 4.5m too much.
Mine is called “a front door”.
Same here.
I like a bit of front yard, right now I’ve about 20 feet between sidewalk and front porch and that seems about right for me … a few flower beds, couple trees and bit of lawn … urban residential neighborhood … whatever’s left is for the backyard which isn’t all that much to be honest … it’s a big house, two bedrooms with two racketball courts … and I’m using the drawing room to sleep in and the parlor for a tool crib …
Do I get to move their houses to suit?
Say my neighbors’ houses are set about halfway back in their lots, but I build my house as close to the street as possible. Then their houses overlook my back yard, which would make it less private than it would be if I had the same setback as they do.
So ISTM that unless I either get to decide on *their *setbacks, or there’s sufficient trees and undergrowth between our lots so that they can’t see into my yard except from the street, the neighbors’ setbacks affect my optimal setback.
Back yard.
All-grass front yards are useless at best, and complete environmental disasters at worst. I have neighbors who are watering their stupid front lawns for hours every day, dump commercial fertilizer on it every weekend, and don’t use it for anything besides servicing their own vanity.
I don’t really have a back yard, it’s entirely deck, so I’m growing a hedge around my front lawn, killing the grass, and planting a vegetable and pollinator garden.
I wouldn’t want my front door to be right on the sidewalk, but I don’t need much space there. Just enough to put in a low-maintenance decorative garden and maybe a tree or two.
When it comes to the back yard, though, the more the better.
Not to argue, but it could be a demand of their HOA, if they have one. YouTube on my phone has been posting a boatload of these kind of clips lately.
Those quiet country roads, if they are gravel, also generate a HUGE amount of dust. You might want to be farther back.
Back yard. Percentages just about what we have now: 1/3 front (all in rock) and 2/3 back (lawn and garden and patio). Far enough back from the street that salesmen will bounce once before they hit the sidewalk.
Really depends on the size of the lot and how busy the road is. My front yard is smaller than my back yard, but my front yard is still like 2 car lengths from the house to the road. It’s fine that way, and I also live on a quiet road.
So, I’d want a bigger back yard, unless it put the house quite close to the road, and the road was busy
I love the idea of no front yard and a big back yard with an 8-foot privacy fence around it. When shopping, the only house I saw like this was a historic row-house on a main street where the door is right off the sidewalk; someone living in the next one said the issue wasn’t traffic noise but rather people assuming it was some sort of business (despite the lack of signage) and trying the door to see what kind it was. Yeah, hearing people try to get in would get annoying.
Back.
Enough space at front for a drive and a car port or garage, and as much of the remaining space at back - I want to grow fruit, herbs and vegetables, maybe keep chickens or quail