Thought these pictures would be interesting for everyone. As with all picture, click to enlarge.
This is our driveway. These pictures were taken a few weeks back when it was hot and the grass was dry.
When I took this picture, I was on the mower just at the spot where our driveway starts after coming in from the road on 2nd Family's driveway. This shows how far down our house is from their house (behind me would their house).
The little white spot is my car parked by our house. Side note, I need to trim a few trees back before next Spring, they are encroaching on the driveway area!
Now this one is is at the house next to my car so you can see where it is in relation to where I was (by the arrow) when taking the first picture and I said the little white spot was my car.
It's about a quarter mile from from our front porch to the mailbox on the road (it'll be a nice walk to get the mail for now we pick it up on the way out, ha!). You can see, since we share the first part of the driveway, we're what you would call landlocked. We own everything on the left side of the arrow all the way to the road so we have room to make a new driveway and connect it to this part. All it takes is $$, ha. For now, as long as a member of 2nd Family stays there in their house, we're OK. We' just have to save back up some money and work on something with the house.
I'll catch up on comments tonight.
Here's hoping that both of your jobs are secure so that you can rebuild your savings and then embark on getting a new driveway and a new house. Roderick
ReplyDeleteHello Roderick! Thanks for stopping by. I know you asked on another comment about jobs, I'll update that one too. Yes, we are so ready to get to the next phase but hey, we're still in our 50's so we have time. Good things come to those who wait, right? Ha. Thanks!!
DeleteHopefully you have a deeded easement or right of way on the shared driveway.
ReplyDeleteWe do with them but I don't think it transfers if they sell. I'll have to check on that.
DeleteI’m glad someone in 2nd Family is still there so you have time to make plans.
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in the country, the county was responsible for putting in the bridge from the road onto my property. It was no cost to me.
Hmm, never thought about that, I need to check that. I mean, we only have a drainage ditch but it would need a culvert under the drive way to connect it to the road. Will check that out.
DeleteYou should have legally assured you would have access. You probably do. But, you can fix that with money for a drive...lol. That is a long way to walk for mail!
ReplyDeleteWell, when we bought the house originally it was the house and 3ish acres. But because they considered it landlocked, we had to buy a strip along the edge of the two properties from the road to the house so that it would legally not be landlocked, even though there was no driveway on the strip. Of course a couple years later we bought all the land that adjoined their property so that was a moot point. So we definitely own the land to build a driveway but it's just getting the expense of that done. Now of course this wouldn't be an actual concrete driveway, I'm pretty sure that would be cost prohibitive but clearing the land, compacting it and putting down gravel or something will cost too. We'll figure it out, the hard way, ha.
DeleteI don't think you can be legally land locked. This is Florida though so I don't know about your state.
ReplyDeleteTechnically we were landlocked and you're right that was not legal here either. We didn't even realize that. The appraiser said "oops, the mortgage company will probably want you to have your own driveway". I mean, we do have a driveway I hope I explained that above correctly. It's our driveway on our property AFTER you drive through 2nd Family's driveway and ours connects (the house use to be their mother's). So anyway, we thought 'oh no we can't afford a driveway while buying the house'. The guy who came out said all we had to do was show on the plat of the land survey that we owned a strip from the road to our house. So we added that (since we were buying from an almost family member he was ok with us adding that since we were going to buy the rest of it a few years later. So when we closed everything was fine. Now there is no legal issue at all we just don't have the actual driveway from the road to our existing driveway. But it's all ours to put that in and we should do that. It's the right thing to do. ;-)
DeleteI'm confident that the two of you will have what you want with some time, but it can be hard to wait.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Awww thanks. You are so right. What we are meant to have is what we will have when it happens, ha. IN the interim we enjoy going out and enjoying it and you know me, I LOVE gardening and planning and working the fruit trees. Planning is half the fun! :-)
DeleteWhen installing a driveway on a shoestring budget, gravel would be your best choice.
ReplyDeleteYou might also may want to check in your area in using recycled materials
( Recycled concrete, mixed with our recycled products) to use in driveway. (I think it's even cheaper than having gravel)
No matter what you decide, your driveway would probably have to be graded out before hand.
Our driveway is made up of crushed, recycled materials. The more it's driven on, the better it packs.
DeleteOne thing to remember; when having a driveway put in; make sure that you have a run-off for the water to drain so that you don't have a driveway filled with water.
Usually, easements transfer with the property. When you buy a property, one of the things the title company does is find all of the known easements on your property and also any easements that you have to access the property. Once an easement is created, you usually need the consent and agreement of all the affected property owners to remove or change it. If you don't understand all of the easements associated with your property, it might be worth it to go to a title company and have them go over it with you. A really good real estate agent could probably do this too. It will give you either peace of mind or the chance to have 2nd family create any necessary easements to give you access while they still have title to the land.
ReplyDelete