We’ve never lived in a house before that has a private parking area. All of our previous properties have had on-road parking, and because we lived in busy Mancunian suburbs, parking could be tricky. Often, our car would be parked away from the house as you basically had to grab a space when you saw one. So now, it’s a real treat to have space for not one, but two, vehicles – and our own private land.
Initially, this was a grassed area with a big elderflower tree. However, the tree wasn’t the most healthy and it blocked out a lot of sun, so in our early days this was chopped down, and the cars were parked on the grassy area. This was good, as it meant they were on our land, but parking on grass wasn’t ideal, especially when it rained. Fast forward a few years, and we had this dug out and hard-surfaced, giving us for the time, a proper parking area.
Potted trees – bamboos and olives – were stood in front of this area, providing a sort of screen, to detract from the cars, but we were sure we could better to enhance the garden and obscure the parking area.
With a great builder on site, who was constructing lots of walls for us, to clearly define all of our boundaries, we decided that another wall was the answer. This time, we opted for two separate block walls, with a gap in the middle, affording us easy access to and from the cars. The potted plants were redistributed around the gardens, as well as the furniture. The wooden planter of bay trees was moved closer to the new wall and turned around, so that it sat horizontally, so that you walk around the planter to access the parking area. This has meant that the cars are all but obscured from the patio area.
I think we are now more than happy with the exterior of our home. Especially when we look back to 2016 and this was the very same angle…
