Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
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Notes -
I've forgotten the name of a writer, whom I think was introduced to via The Motte: The webpage that was linked to was a long piece on female physical attractiveness to men, with good examples of convergence in art (e.g., depictions of fertility goddesses) and less persuasive evidence from porn and sex dolls. The author also had an argument that almost no homes should be built with attached garages, and a zoning scheme that would purportedly accommodate everyone having a SFH with a detached garage. (He was much more persuasive that attached garages generally make facades ugly than that attached garages are a net negative. Part of the argument was that cars don't strictly need to be stored indoors, and other things could be stored in a shed. However, most of the things you would store in a garage are things that are designed to be used outdoors, but would benefit from being stored indoors, and cars are far and away both the most expensive of these things and the most likely to be resold to fund their replacement - if you can park in a garage, you should.) Anyone recognize this description?
Why on earth is a detached garage a good idea? Just complicates electrical service and makes the house insulation less efficient.
I really regret having so many shitty outbuildings, but it's optimal for property tax purposes. The only one I wouldn't rather be connected to the house is the wood shed.
Unless the house has a very wide and/or particular facade, attached garages are ugly. (And, if you have a large enough lot that you can spare the outdoor area, the indoor area might be put to better use.) In every other way, attached garages are superior, though he believes that most garages are unnecessary and detached garages are a lesser evil, more precisely.
This is a typical suburban street in the Pittsburgh area. Every house has an attached garage (technically an integral garage, but whatever). The garages on the downhill side of the street aren't visible, and the garages on the uphill side are below the grade of the main level. This is more a consequence of topography than anything else, but the whole problem is solved in flat areas by designing neighborhoods with alleys in the rear where you can have a garage and a place to put out the garbage and not have to worry about aesthetics.
And no, cars don't have to be stored outside, but it's still better to garage them. It was 3° this morning but my car was 55° when I left for work. It's also snowed about every other day since Christmas and I don't have to spent 10 minutes clearing my car before work, when I'm least in the mood to do so. I don't roast in the summer. I don't have to worry about punk kids trying door handles. When a storm rolls in and branches are blowing around I don't have to worry about them hitting my car. And blocking in a garage isn't the answer. Aesthetically speaking, you're probably not going to be able to match the existing exterior, so you either find something "close enough" or use something totally different; either way, it screams "this used to be a garage". And since most fire codes prohibit running ductwork in garages you have to retrofit it for HVAC. It's also probably not insulated so now you have that to deal with.
Tell that to the author!
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