Making Room

Here is our house.  Like most of the other houses in our neighborhood it was built in the late 50s and early 60s and it came with a large lawn in front.

And an imposing Douglas fir.  This photo was taken on a Wednesday (garbage day, of course!) in or around 2011.  We had moved in three years earlier.

We had always wanted some sort of accessory dwelling and thought the back yard would provide the best spot.  However, trying to get a trailer back here would just be too much of a nail-biter.  And then once she was back here, well, would we ever take her out again?

Getting her through this fence would be the least of our problems.

And that path is awfully narrow.

There's quite a slope leading down to the street, and on the right, a ten-foot drop over a very attractive rockery.

My landscaping friend Mike said no.  He'd said no just 15 minutes before, when I showed him my other idea for storing the trailer.

"That's your front entry," he observed correctly.  I'd removed a dogwood and an aged crabapple in anticipation of storing the trailer here last spring.  Now I deeply regretted losing the dogwood (although it was heavily infected with anthracnose and I promised myself I'd get another to put somewhere else).  You can see it in the photo below, taken about five years ago.  Mike said he couldn't get his truck in there, let alone a trailer.

We were back to the front yard.  I had never paid much attention to the yard before.  We kept the lawn mowed, but it was time to do something.  My Weed Warrior friend Grace had pointed out what she called "archangel" beginning to run rampant under the tree.  I didn't mind pulling it out--it always reminded me of camping out under that big tree.  And I began to get the idea that maybe a trailer out here wouldn't be completely out of place.

I read up on the regulations for parking a trailer in your front yard.  See the regulations here
The trailer must be a maximum of 28 feet long, licensed and operable.
Check.
The City of Bellevue allows front yard parking if the side and rear yards aren't reasonably accessible. Check.
Five foot front setback.
Check.
Must be fully sight-screened from the street and the closest adjacent neighbor.
OK. The sight-screening from the closest neighbor won't be a problem because the neighbor's yard is much higher than mine. They live to the right of the view below.  The tree is just out of view on the right.

The sight-screening has to be six feet in height and if it's not a fence, it has to be plant material.  They even offer a list of the plants they recommend.  It was time to draw up a plan.  And get rid of that ugly deck!  And how about a creek?