Okay, to answer peoples questions. So my neighbor and I were chatting a few weeks ago, I mentioned my plan on buying a hard top carport, likely a 10 foot by 20 foot. When he asked to see what I was looking at, he said that he would love to have one, which lead to my mentioning that they made wider versions. He said that he would love to have covered parking and would go halfies on a bigger one.
Then I was online browsing my usual sites to see if any deals are around and found the carport above. That lead to me discussing the idea seriously with my wife and then the neighbor as I wasn't sure if he was 100% serious. He's an engineer, so he definitely over thinks things from time to time. We measured the space between the two houses (this is the best picture I have of the space between the two houses). It's 25 feet from his exterior wall to our exterior wall and the length of the houses is around 28 feet, so basically it'll cover the entirety of the space between our two houses but leave space for our two heat pumps (both located on the driveway sides of our houses) and we should be able to get our snow blowers between the two rows of cars in the winter. So essentially my side will be 10X24 and his the same. If for whatever reason he were to leave (no plans of that) he would either give the option to the next owner to keep the arraignment or we'd sell it and split the money.
He's a single guy in his mid 50's, really nice guy and no trouble at all. He's respectful and will lend a hand when needed. While there is always the chance that this goes sideways, I don't think the probability is very high.
Being an engineer he wanted to know the snow weight limit and it's 35 pounds per square foot, which to me sounds decent but he said it's a little low. I have a hard top gazebo (strangely made by the same company as the carport) and we use a snow rake to take the snow off it if there is any real amount accumulated on it. We will just do that with this carport as well. He already has a plan in place on how to anchor it into the driveway. This is not out in the open, as you can see in the picture, it's sheltered on two sides with our houses and on the back side is our two sheds, mine being closer to the driveway than his. The wind in our area typically comes from my side to his side, so my house will block the majority of it. For reference, the hard top gazebo that we had was in our back yard and is much more out in the open, it's lighter, and the first year we just anchored it to 4 patio stones, it didn't budge, now it's screwed to our deck, again, hasn't moved.
Why did I choose to go with a big one instead of just getting a smaller one for my own yard? Well I knew he was interested, the price was amazing on this one, it gives me more room under cover, he'll help me put it together and maintain it, and there was a chance that I got a smaller one and then he gets a similar one which would mean less space between our two vehicles and more of a hassle to get the snow blower from the shed to the driveway.
For just over $1,600 I should have enough space to fit my Civic and maybe my future sports car (Supra should fit fine). Our neighborhood is typically very friendly and easy going, no disputes or fights that I'm aware of, so I doubt anyone will complain. This is out of the site line of the houses across the street as it's a court and the two houses are set facing the other way, coming down the street the structure would be hidden by our two houses, so really you'd have to be right in front of the house to see it.
