Okay neighbor is being generous, it’s somebody three blocks away from me.
But every time I drive past their house they have a port-o-potty (or whatever the generic name for those portable toilets you see at outdoor events are) sitting right on their driveway. Basically the house looks nice with a well maintained front yard though they do have a tall chain link fence covering the entire perimeter of the house including the driveway. But right where the corner of the driveway meets the driveway fence and the neighboring house is just a port-o-potty pointing door side towards the front of the garage. The potty looks clean on the exterior so it doesn’t seem abandoned.
Does anyone know why somebody would just have one on their driveway like that?
The house looks like it’s normally occupied. Everytime I pass there’s always a car either in the driveway in the gated area or parked right in front of the house. Trash is also taken out on trash day. It doesn’t look like any work is done either.
Do they have a swimming pool? I was going to suggest it was for guests who come over but if it’s in front of the house that’s not so convenient. Could be waiting for pickup after resident used it for open houses etc ?
Could it be permanent? I’d think that could run afoul of local ordinances.
The name indicates it’s not permanent. Local ordinances often have a gray zone concerning long term usage of temporary structures. For instance I have a 20ft. shipping container in my backyard that I use like a storage shed, It’s not considered permanent and I could call for a truck to come pick it up but the town has no limit on how long I could keep a temporary structure like that. It’s the same regulations that sometimes allows trailer homes to avoid taxation as a permanent home.
However, there are other possibilities. Maybe an ongoing construction project, possible septic system failure, or maybe left there after a completed project and the actual owner is out of business. As you mentioned it’s not a convenient location so I think most likely it’s sitting around unused for some reason or another. Like a stray outhouse, waiting for it’s family to come find it.
It’s a bit odd, because I believe those things are typically rented. Unless there’s construction afoot, I am not sure why a homeowner would continue to pay rent on it.
There’s a house about two blocks from me that has had a portapotty in their front driveway for over two years – do you happen to live in MA?
But I know that story. The house was bought in somewhat distressed condition by a youngish couple, who brought in a contractor to do some vital work, including replacing a failed roof and some ceilings that had fallen after water soaked them, and the portapotty was for their workers.
But in the course of clearing out the debris, they discovered the long term water leaks had led to a mold problem, and a whole bunch of other work just had to be done. And so much for their anticipated would-be-just-barely-keep-up-able budget of expenses vs. income.
And so the home owners are trying to do as much of the lesser skilled work as they can, while he’s also working full time and she’s caring for the baby born just a couple weeks after moving in.
And the contractor is accommodating their need to keep down how much they’re paying him monthly by ‘spacing out’ his team tackling various tasks, meaning they work on that home only when there are gaps between jobs for customers able to pay normally. Meaning not very often.
So, well, they have the nice new roof. All the moldy stuff has been stripped out and sanitization/treatments have happened. And the house is ‘safe’ in that they actually have complete floors again, and the previously known problems with the wiring were fixed. But details like interior walls, wood trim, new cabinets?
Yeah. They hope to have it all finished by the end of the year.
If it’s in use it should be cleaned periodically. Sometimes that involves picking up the entire unit and replacing it with a different one if it’s still needed.
My first thought was the same as @DCnDC’s, namely that the resident has a rental business and it’s advertising.
But, I can think of another possibility, maybe, which is that it is there for use by gardeners or other outdoor workers because the owner is squirrelly about letting people they don’t know well into the house to use the bathroom.
The temporary kind of fence that sits on the ground? Or a permanent fence that has posts embedded in the ground?
I assume the first in which case the fence and john are likely from a construction project. Since it sounds like there isn’t construction, perhaps there’s a legal dispute and the contractor left it there to be annoying.
