It’s not uncommon for us to get a few email and comment questions about the way our house is situated on our lot. Many people can’t figure out where the patio leads or where our garage is located in relation to our house so we figured we should whip up a little exterior diagram for ya. We actually have almost an acre of land and an extremely deep woods behind our house for privacy, which we love (it’s actually one of the main reasons we bought our seen-better-days ranch home). And we were also lucky enough to have inherited some great privacy hedges and fences that keep our yard feeling nice and secluded from our neighbors on either side. But on with the tour! Here’s our looooong and skinny lot (to scale):
You might not believe that this rendering could possibly be to scale (is your house really that small? is your lot really that long?) but we traced over a scaled blueprint of our property (found in our giant file of papers from the closing). Isn’t it funny how TINY our house is compared to the acreage that it’s on?! You’ll notice a few things right away. Poor John has a lot of grass to mow (love ya honey!), we have an extremely long driveway with room for a whole bunch of cars at the end, and we have more than enough trees and shrubs to feel like we live in the middle of the woods. You can also see how the sunroom stairs lead down to the patio, which leads out to the driveway, which is where we added our little herb & veggie garden (in one of the only full sun spots we had thanks to all the aforementioned foliage).
And because we get quite a few questions about where all of those sliding glass doors in our sunroom lead, we’ll clear that up once and for all…
Only one set of doors leads out to the back patio while the rest lead absolutely nowhere. Really, if you stepped out of them you’d fall about 5 feet into the edible garden or the bushes on the side of the house (see diagram above). But we love that they’re there for the view and the cross breeze that they provide when we slide ’em open. The one that leads to a few brick steps that take you to the back patio is just out of frame to the right in this picture (see the corner of the doormat?):
And here’s a view of the patio from those stairs that lead down to that area:
But let’s rewind and start from the street. Here’s the house pretty much from the edge of the long driveway where it meets the street:
And if you walk up the driveway towards the house, here’s the side view:
Then as you enter the big part of the driveway in the back you’ll see where we had the tables set up for our backyard wedding:
Of course we’ve since painted the garage black, so on an ordinary day without 75 people back there it looks like this:
Here’s the view if you turn slightly to the right:
And here’s the scenery when you turn even more to the right and walk towards the gate (which leads to the patio). You’ll notice our little edible garden just outside the gate in front of the brick stairway that’s tucked away behind that lamp post. It leads down to the private entry basement (which is primed for a major makeover, stay tuned…)
Once you enter the back gate you’ll find yourself on the cobblestone path that leads to the patio. Here’s a shot looking back at the garage from inside the fence:
And here’s a shot looking up at the back of the house and the patio from that cobblestone path by the gate:
Of course we can’t forget the view of that crazy deep woods behind our backyard. We love that we have a nice sized grassy area for Burger/future babies along with the privacy and seclusion that the deeply wooded area offers.
Lot, we love you.
Can’t you see why it was the lot and not the house that stole our hearts and wooed us into making an offer? All that privacy and green was just so seductive after many years in the concrete jungle that is Manhattan.
So there you have it. A tour of our home’s exterior. What about you guys. Do you have any unusual features? A long skinny property? A detatched garage? A separate entry basement? A chicken coup? (We actually inherited one behind the garage!) Do tell.
Angela says
Ok, now I am dying to see what you’re going to do with the private entry basement.
Jill Stigs says
Very cool………now we get a better idea of the lay of your land! Thanks for doing this.
So when John comes home from work or you guys come home from shopping you walk thru the sunroom past the laundry then?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Jill,
Yup, we’ve probably entered the house through our front door a total of five times in three years (not counting all the in and outs to relax on the newly spruced porch). Regular guests even know to come to the back and enter through the sunroom since that’s where the driveway turnaround is (although people just staying for a bit sometimes park in the front/skinny part of the driveway and walk to the front door). But that’s why our mudroom in the den and our bathing suit hooks in the sunroom make so much sense for us, since it’s our main entry point. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Blair says
Chicken coup? I think we need more details on that one! :)
Jen Z. says
I can see why you bought this house. Gorgeous land!
The only thing we inherited was the previous owners mess and unkept house. But just like yourselves, we have made our home ours, one day at a time, one room at a time.
Check out our before and after pics. {fainting}
Abby says
I’m so jealous of your privacy. We are practically on top of our neighbors. From our kitchen window, you look directly into our neighbors kitchen. We wave to each other sometimes. We always feel like we need to have the shades drawn.
Carol says
Love the lot! We have around 2 acres on our property, most of it still wooded. We can barely see a corner of one neighbors house on the right and there is no one to the left or across the street from us. The closest neighbor behind us has 5 acres so all we see is their horse pen. Of course in the winter we can see a little more but for the most part, it is wooded bliss. We built our home in 1986 when we fell in love with the area. The best thing is we are less than 5 minutes from an interstate and we can get to work in 10 minutes taking the side streets. But yet we feel secluded in our own little piece of heaven. I wish we had more sunny spots to have a vegetable garden but love the tree cover too much to give them up. And it really helps out on the cooling bills in the hot summer (we are in Alabama). Even in the worst heat, our power bills are fairly reasonable (around $150) when some of our friends have several hundred dollars worth of power bill. So that is a nice added benefit of the tree cover.
Can’t wait to see the basement!
kim says
I don’t have anything interesting to say about my yard since we live in a 3rd floor apartment, but I do have a question about the table set up in the driveway for your wedding. How many tables did you have to rent? We’re having our wedding in a backyard that has a strict amount of space too, and I’m starting to worry about how I’ll fit enough tables for about 60 people.
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Kim,
I believe we rented ten tables that each seated eight people to ensure that we had enough seating for our 72 guests. We ended up pushing two tables together to make what appeared to be four longer tables and left two of the shorter tables in the back with the photobooth (making an aisle that people could walk up in the middle and on both sides of the table helped everyone mill around more easily). We would just suggest getting table measurements and using a tape measure on your area beforehand (maybe even using blue painter’s tape or cardboard shapes to make a layout to ease your mind). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Jenny @ Words On Wendhurst says
Hey, this was great! So nice to put everything together so that is makes sense. We also have a super skinny lot, although we have about a tenth of the land that you do, so you know it is skinny! Our driveway is so narrow that we are constantly doing “musical cars” when anyone comes over. Is your entire lot fenced in?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Jenny,
We actually have a fence that wraps around the entire perimeter of our lot (except for when the 9′ hedges take over on the right side). See those little blocks around the edge of the diagram? That’s my feeble attempt at a fence. Luckily, the previous owners also had a pooch so the backyard also has its own fence to keep little Burger easily wrangled (so he’s not getting into trouble on the side of the house or escaping down the driveway). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Focipresley says
I adore your sunroom. If I had one with a daybed like yours, I’d sleep out there on hot summer nights to enjoy whatever available cross-breeze there was. *sigh* so romantic.
Gorgeous property – good on you for scoring it!
Cheers,
Bon
Emily says
We inherited a house with only TWO closets, no storage in the attic and NO basement. Needless to say, my husband and I are becoming experts at creating our own open storage (since there isn’t place to hide much of anything) Although, a little tutorial on ideas for storage in a small kitchen, bathroom/laundry room, or open living room would be fab. Thoughts?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Emily,
Check out this post all about how we store tons of stuff (hidden in ottomans, stashed in boxes and bins). We also have a bunch of other tips and tricks on our How-To page under Organization Options. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
mrslimestone says
This is why I could never live in the burbs. A big dark wood in the backyard would totally give me nightmares. Im such a city mouse. (Although I would love to have access to free branches all the time so maybe I could get over it? Not to mention all that free space to spray paint things!haha)
My property isn’t unique at all for someone who lives here but it would be very weird for anyone not used to such close quarters….narrow lot with tiny backyard.
Julie says
Oh how I long for the day we can try to find a lot like that. I really like our house but often say that I wish we could pick it up and move it to a more private setting. (we live in a mass developed developement:( ) My husband wants like FOUR acres. I keep telling him that I’d rather a half acre in a private setting than more land and still have people on top of us.
Katie says
my unusual feature is my pointy elfin ears…oh were you asking about our exterior? then it would have to be the wonky hill that is the thorn in our house’s side.
also…thank you for making your map to scale. Your standard of excellence was a refreshing reminder of my marginal mediocrity :)
You rock Sher. like a lot. like your lot :)
Laura says
Oh this makes me want a house so bad. Sigh. Sadly it will be a few more years at least until I can call a place home. I hope to have a yard like yours though! So pretty!
Alicia says
Gorgeous! Simply Go-wa-geous!
Seriously fantastic property you have there. And great landscaping thanks to past owners and a lot of your hard work too. A property with so much green land is definitely a dream property for me. No wonder it’s your forever home!
Sarah S says
Basement primed for a major makeover? Here’s the plan, and now for the mood board breakdown…sorry, I couldn’t help it, those sentences are lodged in my subconscious now!
Becky says
Can’t wait to see your plans for the basement!
Delightful Dwelling says
I’m so jealous of your large lot. It is just what I want with the privacy, trees, and flowering bushes, yet you are still in the city and not too secluded. Land around us is too expensive though. Someday we hope to build a house or find a house with a lot like yours.
Delightful Dwelling says
And you need to explain what happened to the chicken coop!
YoungHouseLove says
OK, ok here’s the chicken coop scoop!
It’s still back there, just a chicken-wire square behind the garage held in place with some tall 4 x 4s at each corner. I’ve wanted chickens and fresh eggs for a while but John has his reservations about it. I did recently hear a scary story from our cute neighbor who used to keep chickens (about one “giving her the eye” and going crazy and biting her) and since then have been a little nervous about the idea as well.
As much as fresh organic eggs appeal to us, they’re not that expensive at the store, so we also wonder if the cost of keeping chickens and caring for them is more trouble than just buying fresh organic cage free eggs at the store (plus I must admit that I’ve heard they’re kinda smelly). Anyone out there with experience with chickens? Do tell!
xo,
s
Audrey says
Wow, your lot is super enviable! Even though John has to spend countless hours mowing, I bet it’s all worth it. I only say this because I don’t mow the lawn, but I can imagine it would be worth it to have all of the space and privacy! :)
Erin says
We have the *perfect* sledding hill in our large backyard, with a little patch of woods at the top of it. And in the winter when there are no leaves on the trees, the tallest tree in that patch of woods has a crooked branch projecting from the top, which makes it look like a tree from Whoville. We call it the Whoville tree. And the woods we call The Poo Woods, thanks to our dog who likes to do his dooties in private.
Melissa says
We also have a wooded lot and it is one of the major reasons we chose this house over others. The actual house, though I love it, is on the smaller side for us but the lot won me over over. Another house we were debating against was bigger but I didn’t love the outside. We also have an acre of land but our house sits a little further back and is about the same wide as it is long and our wooded lot is brush cleared with just the large trees.
Jenn says
My husband and I are moving out of state and took the opportunity to find the perfect lot, not the perfect house. We currently have a tiny yard and knew that the most important thing for us was to have a ton of trees and a much larger yard. We ended up buying a 6 acre heavily wooded lot and love it. It has no house on it, so eventually we can build the perfect house for us on it.
Alicia M says
What an awesome lot! No wonder you fell in love! My husband wants an acreage something fierce…there just isn’t much for offerings around here, so we wait. With our quaint, fenced in back yard!
I never noticed that your sun room has all patio doors. My dad built a sun room on my parents house and used all patio doors. I originally thought he was nuts, but it’s awesome! It gives the room a nice and clean look.
Great job guys!
Elaine Kasten says
The best part of our house is a sunroom (a lot like yours with sliding glass doors all around) that is built next to a deck on the main floor. It looks like a glassed in treehouse since the house is built on a hill and there’s a full basement. We have woods behind us and a creek.
erin fudge says
We actually were wooed by our yard/lot as well. Sadly we don’t have the veritable forest you guys have but we scored a big, grassy acre in the middle of the city of Memphis! The downside (and reason for the odd lot)is the large drainage ditch (culvert I guess) running alongside our property. We have designs on getting a privacy fence installed along that side but at 350 ft…the sticker shock is a little…well, shocking!
Love your sun porch!!
-e
Megan says
Love the lot! I’d want the place too if I saw it. I’d love to have a large open yard, plus woods, plus the privacy you have. Very jealous! I have a detached garage, painted similar to your garage – black door and all. I also love how you’ve used the little spaces to your advantage – such as the garden. The two of you are so creative!
Megan says
I just read your comment about the chickens… I grew up with various chickens. Some were more ornamental and they were great (until our dog ate them!), but other chickens (raised more for meat) are TERRIBLY MEAN! I would go in there (when I was about 10) with a giant stick to beat them off me. I wouldn’t really have to hit them, but it was for peace of mind if they got within the stick range of me. There are good things about chickens besides the eggs, but I can only think of one – they eat a lot of bugs! Which is great if you can have them wandering around, but with them being far away from your house, that wouldn’t really be a big selling point, to me at least. I say just support your local farmers and buy eggs from them! Now, if you got into raising some for meat and had some for eggs, then it might make it worth it.
D Young says
We also have a long yard. We call the landscaped part the “back yard” and the further out part the “back back.” Our back back has some trees but more cactus since we are in Arizona.
I raised a few chickens in a homemade coop. I think how successful you will be depends on how realistic vs how idealistic you are. For example, what will you do when the chickens get beyond laying age?
YoungHouseLove says
That’s so funny D Young. We call the deep woods behind the backyard the “back back” too! Very descriptive of us, eh?
I totally appreciate your realistic vs. idealistic chicken question. I totally would want to keep my chickens forever and couldn’t ever see myself hurting my “pets” after they stop laying, so you’re totally smart to bring that up. I also love Megan’s point that it’s nice to support local farmers so for now that’s the plan!
xo,
s
Elena says
Do you ever use the hammock?? I would LOVE a hammock in the middle of the woods for some reading or a nap (however, since i myself live in the concrete jungle that is not going to happen)….
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Elena,
We do use the hammock every so often on weekends (it’s a double so we both fit on it) and it’s nice to just sway while Burger plays in the backyard. Burger does not like getting in the hammock with us. We’ve tried. I used to go out there after lunch some days to just relax for about 15 minutes before getting back to work, but since switching from freelance copywriter to full time blogger I haven’t had any free time to relax out back. Bummer! The fact that the internet is a 24/7 thing digs into my hammock time!
xo,
s
Cheri says
LOVE it all, think you could find me a house in metro Birmingham since we are having trouble finding one on our own???? LOL
Shaunda says
Your house is so beautiful! I am so jealous of your beautiful view!!
How close are the neighbors on either side of you?
YoungHouseLove says
Shaunda,
Good question. Hmm. The neighbors to the right of our house (as you face it) have a double lot (two of ours next to each other) so their house is a ways away from ours- probably around 200 feet? I’m terrible at estimating that sort of thing. The neighbor to the left of us has the same lot size as us (and an almost identical house without the addition of the den and the half bath and the sunroom) and she’s probably about 80 feet away? I don’t know if that helps, but neither neighbor can see into our windows or our backyard thanks to the greenery so it feels nice and private even though we have a house on either side of us. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Emma says
Figure out a way to get wifi in the “back back” and blog from the hammock!
Lindsay C. says
You guys should just do a video tour, that would be fun. :) I’m way jealous of all of your land…our lot is tiny, but we’re surrounded by other people’s fields which is nice. But my husband’s family has an 800 acre ranch 14 miles away so I guess I’ll get over it.
Lindsey says
Your sunroom is fantastic!
Jen says
no chicken coop here. although we do have a rather large yard for a city subdivision lot. we also have a rather large garden area. i’ll have to send pics when i get some gumption. bought paint today to paint the front door RED! and to paint the shutters black. we have a brick ranch amazingly like yours and i’ve been wondering how to paint for a while. don’t want to do green shutters like the across the street neighbors. thought that would be too matchy and really lame. i’ll send before and after pics when we’re done! too hot to paint today, over 90 degrees. hopefully soon. thanks for the inspiration.
Joyce says
I love the diagram. Needless to say, you two have such a charming house. Any plans to expand in the future?
Brighton says
Our home is a 1960’s ranch that is shaped like a U with NO windows in the front, but the whole house opens up onto a courtyard. Kinda cool : )
Blair says
VERY random, off-topic question for you:
A while back, you had those mosquito trap sort of things posted. How are they working out for you? Is your yard typically a mosquito-heavy place? Ours definitely is, and I have at least 24 bites from the last few days of just taking our puppy outside. I’m desperate for a solution to our problem that does not involve an ugly blue zap light in the corner of our yard!
Sandra says
ooo, foreshadowing to basement improvements? I honestly cannot wait!!!!
jbhat says
May we have a picture of the hammock in the woods? What else goes on back there? What’s on the other side of the wooded area?
Sophie says
I’ve only lived in California, Seoul (major city) and Manhattan, so the concept of this much land is absolutely foreign to me.
Very cool!
Letty says
I loved the drawing! Did you guys make it? Seriously adorable. I think it’s even cute enough to frame :) Thanks for sharing!
YoungHouseLove says
Letty- The story about the drawing is that we both made it together. Romantic, eh? Or dorky. You decide. John traced the to-scale property sketch from our closing file and added things like the driveway and the patio which weren’t in it (he’s much better at scale and layout than I am). Then I traced all of his pencil marks with a pen, added some bushes and trees, scanned it into the computer, and brought in some color (and the typed labels) in Photoshop. Glad to hear that the group effort fried your bacon!
Jbhat- We don’t have a photo of the hammock around (maybe we’ll get one up soon?) but here’s an old post with the fire pit that we moved up to the patio when it used to be in the back woods. We created those awesome wood benches with tree stumps covered in planks of wood that we stained, which are still there but no longer surround the fire pit.
Blair- You know, our land is super super mosquito-riddled (since it’s so shady and there’s a huge forest behind our house) but we have noticed that we’ve both gotten fewer bites thus far. Maybe it’s the fact that we’re so busy with the blog that we’re indoors more now (haha), or maybe it’s those awesome My Mosquito Deleter things we set up around our house’s perimeter. We definitely still see them flying around and suffer the occasional bite but it’s been noticeably better so far!
Joyce- We go back and forth about expanding since we’d love to have a bedroom in the back of the house with our own attached bathroom (we definitely have the room for it). The thing about our house is that we like it small (I spend enough time cleaning the two bedrooms we don’t use, so we certainly don’t need more anytime soon) but maybe once our family grows we’ll take the plunge and add a small addition. Time will tell!
xo,
s
Dana Miller says
OOOOhh… you totally got me on the unfinished basement spot primed for a makeover. Hmmm? Rec room, gardening room, in-law quarters, home gym, studio/printing room for your biz or a playroom for Burger? I’m staying tuned.
I had chickens growing up. Yes, we did eat their eggs (and eventually them also) but they ARE dirrrrty and stanky. And you have to walk through all that to gather eggs.
Chrissy says
Ohhh…I’m green with envy over all the green. We relocated three years ago from the midwest to the dry and hot high desert. I’ve got 2 acres with mountain views, but I do so miss the green. I love your grass and plants! We’ve attempted grass (bermuda…only to find out my son is allergic to it). I’ve attempted plants and the bunnies here think they’re a treat. At least I’ve got juniper trees (just found out my son’s allergic to those too). Thanks for the lovely green and colorful eye candy! Do you have any critters you have to deal with on your property? How do you keep your lawn looking so lush? It’s so lovely!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Chrissy,
We have lots of critters on our property since we’re so close to the woods but they’re all sweet and never a nuisance. My favorite sightings are tiny chipmunks but we’ve seen everything from bunnies and squirrels to racoons and deer- but they never mess with our plantings or our recycling bins when they’re out (and for that we’re eternally grateful). Even having two compost bins doesn’t seem to attract any trouble, which is great! Here’s hoping your bunnies lay off your landscaping!
Oh and as for how we keep the grass so green, we overseed it (add a bit of seed right over the grass) every fall so the autumn rain helps to naturally establish it for a lush lawn for the entire year. Hope it helps! Maybe we’ll do a post about it this fall when we do it…
xo,
s
Katie says
Sherry-
Per your conversation about supporting local farmers vs. raising your own chickens, I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend the book “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver. The author (yes same lady who wrote Poisonwood Bible, Bean Trees, ect) decided to feed her family of four for a year only on food grown and raised by themselves, or their local neighbors. It’s a great read, has excellent lessons and will surely give you more to think about as they raise both chickens and roosters. Anyway, I certainly can’t do that hear in Washington, D.C. but it was an excellent read for anyone interested in local food issues!
SJ says
That driveway just begs for a basketball hoop!
Anna See says
This is seriously fun! I knew I liked floorplans, but plot plans? Never thought about it. Thanks for sharing.
Averill says
I had no idea you guys had that much land — how completely awesome! Here in TX, the lots are generally small (which I find odd since we have SO much land).
Bev says
Love your property, love your house! I am new to your blog and find it TRULY TRULY inspirational!
Our property is long and skinny too, except it is about 0.26 acre (gotta love NJ). I am constantly trying to come up with ideas to expand our outdoor entertaining space. Right now we only have a tiny deck off our kitchen that holds a tiny bistro table and two folding chairs. The problem is that our garage doors face the back of our property, and (attached) garage itself is tucked underneath the house at basement level. So if you can imagine, our driveway slopes down toward the back and you are supposed to do a hairpin U-turn in order to make it into our “2 car garage” that is simply not sized for today’s SUVs (maybe if we owned 2 Mini Coopers we could park in there). Needless to say, we park in the driveway. The driveway also cuts off the house from the yard, where we have a combination of lovely stone walls bordering the lawn and ugly wood retaining walls bordering the driveway. Yuck! And our thin side yard (opposite the driveway side) does not provide for enough room or privacy to add a patio there. The only plan I can come up with (while keeping the access to the garage for resale) is installing a small paver patio in the lawn (we would also replace the wood retaining walls in a matching material). But do you think it would be weird to have an entertaining space that doesn’t have direct access to the house? Plus, how do we do this economically? Landscaping services in our area (northern NJ) are SOOOOO expensive.
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Bev,
Yeah it sounds like it could get expensive! But if you really think you’ll use it and it will increase the value of your home, a little patio might make sense. I’d do a bit of research and get bids from local landscapers and patio companies to see what kind of numbers they’re tossing around and go from there. But I definitely think that a smaller patio on part of the lawn creates a little oasis for relaxing and enjoying the spring, summer & fall. Just really know yourself before you get into it (ex: if you have a huge mosquito problem and never spend time outside it could be a bad idea in hindsight). Hope it helps!
xo,
s