On one of the routes I take for long walks I pass by a house with a garage that has, for lack of a better term, a drive-through garage. It appears to be a typical one-car garage, except for the fact that there are garage doors in both the front and the back.
Now, when you live in South Austin, you get used to seeing some quirky architectural endeavors. So I just chalked the structure up to someone who had nothing better to do one weekend than install a second garage door.
Then, one day, I passed by the house and noticed that there was a long, flat trailer sitting in the garage. And the trailer was attached to a pickup truck, which was resting on the part of the driveway that extended beyond the back of the garage.
Ah, now it made sense. Perfect sense, in fact. The person living in the house had a construction or landscaping business. The garage allowed him to keep the trailer hooked up, yet secure once the front garage door was shut. Easy in; easy out. The back door remained open, but relatively secure given that the yard was fenced in.
This got me to thinking about other advantages of a drive-through garage. Many people have to back the car out of a garage before they can access a motorcycle or mower, for example. A second door would allow them to leave the car alone and get to the object through the back.
Alternatively, the area behind the garage could be turned into a patio, with easy access to furniture, grills and such through the back door. Keeping the front door closed would also ensure privacy. You could achieve the same effect with double patio doors, but a single garage door might be cheaper to install and it could be rolled up and out of the way.
Now, why didn't I think of that?
Photo courtesy flickr/Creative Commons
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