Less is more

In Tremonton, UT the basic lots are 50 ft wide and 150 ft deep. Setbacks are 30 ft from the front and 20 ft from the back. Fortunately, every block has a utility road that gives access to the back, so you can completely hide the garage.

Most of the older homes have a single car detached garage hidden behind the house with a long driveway.

The newer homes (in subdivisions with odd lots), however, have caught the McMansion disease and look ugly.

In designing a house for this lot size, I ended up with the house being 24x40 (4 BR 1 Bath for 6 people: cozy and livable). The garage is 24x24 -- more than half the size of the house! I would really like to drop down to a single-car garage (We've been married for 16 years and never needed two cars), but then everyone would look at me funny ;-)

I am also not completely sold on the overhead rolling garage door. Why not make them REAL carriage house/barn doors that swing open? Is the 45 seconds you spend getting out of the car to open them really going to kill you?