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Building a Home
mrspete

Thinking about driveways

mrspete
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago

One of the few things my husband requests in our new house is a circle driveway. I'm kind of ambivalent about this feature, but if we're going to do it, I want to do it right.


I grew up in a house on LOTS of land ... and we had what may be the world's best driveway. See my drawing. It was essentially a "double circle". We had a circular drive in front of the house ... yet it was set back from the house by perhaps 20 yards; thus, as people drove up, they could see the house from where they parked, and they had to walk up the walkway, which had attractive plantings on both sides -- in other words, they "approached" the house and could appreciate it at its best as they entered. The front door was clearly visible, so guests could feel confident about where to park and where to go -- even if they had never been to our house before. Also, the circle drive had a little "circle indent" where two cars could "pull off the circle" ... this meant that you could pull in and park in the circle without feeling that you were blocking the driveway. And, then a second circle extended behind the driveway -- this was for family, of course. We had no garage, but we had a large area for family parking by the back door. When you drove into the driveway, you could see the whole thing, and it was clear where you were to go. No one was ever blocked in this driveway. It was just well thought out.


The negative about this driveway is that it was LONG and would be expensive to replicate. The front yard of this house was about two acres and contained eight 100+ year old oak trees. Every couple years my parents bought a little more gravel, but still we had muddy spots because this was such a long driveway and they just couldn't keep it in gravel. Replicating this thing in concrete would probably cost half as much as the house. Without a concrete drive, we did often "drag in" leaves and gunk on our feet.


In contrast, a dear friend of mine has a circular driveway that doesn't work -- I hate her driveway, and I think her house is why I'm thinking of this. Her circular driveway is RIGHT ON TOP of her front steps. Literally, when you pull up to her house, you have to open the car door carefully for fear of denting your door against her tall, steep brick steps. It's uncomfortable. You CAN'T SEE the house from your car. There's no "approach" -- when you exit your car, all you can see is the bricks -- and you don't really know where to park your car. Should you park in the circle, blocking in other people? Should you go to the straight side of the drive, which seems to be the family's area? It's NOT a good circle. To make matters even worse, she doesn't have a "back up space" or a "three point turn" spot near her garage, so she has to back her car all the way to the street.


I want a high-functioning driveway like the one from my childhood home ... but I want it to be more compact. And I don't really need it to go behind the house. In fact, we're going to have a fence, so it CAN'T go behind the house.


So, my basic layout is much like my friend's bad circle driveway ... but I will not allow the driveway to be so close to the house -- I want guests to be able to see the front door from their parking area, and I want them to feel confident that they're parking in the right spot and are not blocking other people. I'm thinking that the guest parking spots will double as "back up space" for the garage parkers.

Thoughts?

Featured Answer
  • chicagoans
    9 years ago

    In case it sparks useful ideas, this is a picture of my friend's house. The driveway is kind of like a P, with the circle part in front of the house. The brown roof is a large basketball court (connected to the house via basement); smaller grey roof is a garage (3-4 bays; I think 3) and the larger grey roof is the house. He has lots of guys over to shoot hoops and they park either on the slab area in front of the garage (below it in the picture) or in the circle part. The driveway is narrow so they can't park on the drive and let someone pass easily. The layout lets people see the house as they arrive, but from the front door the view is yard and pond, not a big slab of concrete.


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