PSA: Please stop calling your 'back yard' the 'front yard' (1 Viewer)

[BobbyLayne]

My mom lives on the lake.. 99% of the time in the yard is spent on the "lake side".. I call that the "front yard"... 

This is the way.

We had a summer cottage on a small freshwater lake growing up. Years later dad bought a Lake Michigan home on the top of a dune. The lake side is where everything is happening. Yard games, grilling, friends driving by waving hello from the boat (or dropping in if there’s room on your dock.)

Complete list of activities on the road side:

• walking to/from the car
  
• picking up the mail
  
• mowing
  

Ove the three summer months you might spend 10 minutes on that side. When you have a lakefront home, that’s the backyard. The lake side is the front yard. 9/10 the house looks better from the lake side - more windows, the decks, the roof pitch, et al. Lot of lakefront homes look as plane Jane you can imagine from the road and nobody cares bc that’s the backside. The entire lifestyle choice is oriented toward the water.

Where Amazon turns up is not dictating anything.

At a lot of lakefront homes, friends know better than to ring the doorbell. Just wander around front bc that’s where everyone is at, nobody inside to answer the door unless it’s raining. Learned that the hard way. “Stopped by, nobody was home.” Been here all day. What’d you do, ring the doorbell?

 

[JaxBill]

This is the way.

We had a summer cottage on a small freshwater lake growing up. Years later dad bought a Lake Michigan home on the top of a dune. The lake side is where everything is happening. Yard games, grilling, friends driving by waving hello from the boat (or dropping in if there’s room on your dock.)

Complete list of activities on the road side:

• walking to/from the car
  
• picking up the mail
  
• mowing
  

Ove the three summer months you might spend 10 minutes on that side. When you have a lakefront home, that’s the backyard. The lake side is the front yard. 9/10 the house looks better from the lake side - more windows, the decks, the roof pitch, et al. Lot of lakefront homes look as plane Jane you can imagine from the road and nobody cares bc that’s the backside. The entire lifestyle choice is oriented toward the water.

one question - if your friend/neighbor said "Thanks for the restaurant recommendation.  I left a bottle of wine by your FRONT DOOR", which door would you check?

 

[BobbyLayne]

what’s going on with the thread title? what sort of sociopath writes PA when issuing a Public Service Annoument?

 

[BobbyLayne]

one question - if your friend/neighbor said "Thanks for the restaurant recommendation.  I left a bottle of wine by your FRONT DOOR", which door would you check?

depends if they live on a lake or not.

 

[El Floppo]

Complete list of activities on the road side:

• walking to/from the car
  
• picking up the mail
  
• mowing
  

Is that much different than non-lake houses?

Most private activities take place in the backyard.

I would quit being an architect if people threw this front door in the back nonsense at me.

 

[skol asylum]

This is the way.

We had a summer cottage on a small freshwater lake growing up. Years later dad bought a Lake Michigan home on the top of a dune. The lake side is where everything is happening. Yard games, grilling, friends driving by waving hello from the boat (or dropping in if there’s room on your dock.)

Complete list of activities on the road side:

• walking to/from the car
  
• picking up the mail
  
• mowing
  

Ove the three summer months you might spend 10 minutes on that side. When you have a lakefront home, that’s the backyard. The lake side is the front yard. 9/10 the house looks better from the lake side - more windows, the decks, the roof pitch, et al. Lot of lakefront homes look as plane Jane you can imagine from the road and nobody cares bc that’s the backside. The entire lifestyle choice is oriented toward the water.

Where Amazon turns up is not dictating anything.

At a lot of lakefront homes, friends know better than to ring the doorbell. Just wander around front bc that’s where everyone is at, nobody inside to answer the door unless it’s raining. Learned that the hard way. “Stopped by, nobody was home.” Been here all day. What’d you do, ring the doorbell?

I'm just disappointed Ozark never cleared this up. Maybe in season 4.

 

[Galileo]

If you eat a hot dog in the front yard, does that make it a sandwich?

 

[Caveman33]

If the front door faces the lake then it would be the front yard. 

I mentioned a house that was built so that the front door faced the backyard.  I still think that is the backyard, including homes with waterfront property. 

 

[Caveman33]

This is the way.

We had a summer cottage on a small freshwater lake growing up. Years later dad bought a Lake Michigan home on the top of a dune. The lake side is where everything is happening. Yard games, grilling, friends driving by waving hello from the boat (or dropping in if there’s room on your dock.)

Complete list of activities on the road side:

• walking to/from the car
  
• picking up the mail
  
• mowing
  

Ove the three summer months you might spend 10 minutes on that side. When you have a lakefront home, that’s the backyard. The lake side is the front yard. 9/10 the house looks better from the lake side - more windows, the decks, the roof pitch, et al. Lot of lakefront homes look as plane Jane you can imagine from the road and nobody cares bc that’s the backside. The entire lifestyle choice is oriented toward the water.

Where Amazon turns up is not dictating anything.

At a lot of lakefront homes, friends know better than to ring the doorbell. Just wander around front bc that’s where everyone is at, nobody inside to answer the door unless it’s raining. Learned that the hard way. “Stopped by, nobody was home.” Been here all day. What’d you do, ring the doorbell?

In suburbia, most things typically happen in the backyard just as in your example, everything is happening in the backyard.

 

[skol asylum]

In suburbia, most things typically happen in the backyard just as in your example, everything is happening in the backyard.

Exactly. I don't think you go by where activities take place just as I don't think you follow the surrounding roads or lake fronts. The orientation of the home itself determines front and back and I'm sticking to that.

 

[Drunken knight]

But what if it doesn’t self identify as a “front yard”?

What if it is a side yard trapped in your definition of what a front yard should be? 

You can’t dictate how it is supposed to feel!

It’s truth

 

[Caveman33]

Exactly. I don't think you go by where activities take place just as I don't think you follow the surrounding roads or lake fronts. The orientation of the home itself determines front and back and I'm sticking to that.

Dang it, I'm just gonna shake hands, but I'm still not sure if we are agreeing with each other.

I think it comes down to road frontage.  Whatever part of the yard faces the main road is the front yard.

 

[BigJim®]

I’m going to start calling my 2nd floor my basement. That’s how I designed it.

 

[BigJim®]

Exactly. I don't think you go by where activities take place just as I don't think you follow the surrounding roads or lake fronts. The orientation of the home itself determines front and back and I'm sticking to that.

So you are saying me and my neighbor can have front yards on opposing sides, depending on design? Not in my neighborhood.

 

[skol asylum]

So you are saying me and my neighbor can have front yards on opposing sides, depending on design? Not in my neighborhood.

Yep

 

[Acrobat7]

Well, „you guys“ (US Americans) park in the driveway and drive on the parkway… 

 

[El Floppo]

So you are saying me and my neighbor can have front yards on opposing sides, depending on design? Not in my neighborhood.

Yep

I can design the back facade to look like the Taj Majal, but its still the back facade and back yard.

This insanity has to stop.

 

[shuke]

No one says this.

 

[-fish-]

Dang it, I'm just gonna shake hands, but I'm still not sure if we are agreeing with each other.

I think it comes down to road frontage.  Whatever part of the yard faces the main road is the front yard.

It comes down to your front door.  

 

[In The Zone]

Hmmmmmm….I grew up on a corner lot. Address was the main road. Mailbox on the main road. Front of house and front door facing the main road.
 

Driveway, garage and main entrance on the side road. 

Tell me, which was my front yard? 

I grew up similar. 

My parents house, where I grew up is on 3 streets. A double corner lot. The front door is facing the main road, which is the road listed on the street address. The mailbox and driveway are on one of the side streets. 

 

[ShamrockPride]

But what if it doesn’t self identify as a “front yard”?

What if it is a side yard trapped in your definition of what a front yard should be? 

You can’t dictate how it is supposed to feel!

If your yard is self-identifying as anything, I'd suggest getting off the shrooms.

 

[nirad3]

Now that I think of it, when I go to my parents' place, I typically enter through the side door.  They almost always have the front door closed/locked.

 

[Raging weasel]

There are a bunch of people in my neighborhood that use their front yard like its their backyard. Having people over for a bar-b-que- grill on driveway with chairs and tables on the front lawn. Kids birthday party- inflatable bouncy house and temporary swimming pools in front yard. There is even a tool that does all his exercising in the front yard-weight bench,stationary bike. 

 

[nirad3]

There are a bunch of people in my neighborhood that use their front yard like its their backyard. Having people over for a bar-b-que- grill on driveway with chairs and tables on the front lawn. Kids birthday party- inflatable bouncy house and temporary swimming pools in front yard. There is even a tool that does all his exercising in the front yard-weight bench,stationary bike. 

Only time I'd do something like that is 4th of July.  I have a pretty active street that day; folks will bring their pop-up shades out to the front yard, some even their grills, and we'll all just chill outside in the afternoon leading up to a massive fireworks display.  I've done that the past couple of years.  It's fun.