I need something to keep my cars in. I just bought a house, and unfortunately it came without any storage buildings – no two car garage, no carport, not even a carport cover. I don’t regret buying the house, since we got a good deal. At the time we bought, I even said we are saving enough money to build a nice garage with the money we saved off our original budget. However, I am trying to decide if a carport will be sufficient, which will save us even more money.
Now that we have the house all unpacked and settled, we have 2 months before it starts to snow, and we have to make a decision about whether we should build a lean-to carport off of the back kitchen door, or build an attached garage.
The first and most important decision to make is whether the new structure will be a carport or a garage. I can see the pros and cons with types of vehicle shelter. When it comes down to it we are deciding whether the structure will be with walls and a door or without walls and a door. My wife is leaning towards having a garage while I am content with a carport.
A carport would be easier and cheaper to build. Either structure will prompt a property re-assessment and a property tax hike but the addition of a carport has a lesser value to the Ministry and therefore will result in a lesser tax hike. Maybe not a big deal in the short term but definitely will add up to bigger dollars in the longer term at the time we get ready to retire. I also think, selfishly, carport attract less clutter and therefore will be easier to keep clean and tidy.
My wife is drawn to the security of the garage. She likes the idea that her car and its contents are secure but she also likes the idea of storing items like bicycles and Christmas decorations in a secure garage. There will be access from the structure into the house through a side door off the kitchen. She thinks the kitchen will be too cold if the side door is used to access a carport. She might be right.
Building either a garage or a carport is going to give us the basic protection from the weather that we want for our cars, both in the summer and winter. We just need to decide whether the extra benefits of a garage are really necessary for us at the moment, versus the extra time cost and effort that building a garage would incur. Once we decide that, we’ll be able to start building, and have our extra storage in place for the snow.
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