Sidewalks in urban Texas?

[stargazer]

We have wood fences due to the Spanish that occupied Texas hundreds of years ago. If you study their culture and architecture, you will find that they value their privacy and design their homes to lend hand to a private serene setting. I learned this when I took southwestern history at The University of Texas at Arlington.

[ColdCanadian]

Thanks for all the replies! This is very interesting to me.

I'm still confused about how those neighbourhoods look with alleys, rear exiting garages, front sidewalks etc.

Where I'm from I've only seen driveways going towards the front, sidewalks in the first 1/3rd of the front yard and no alleys. I suppose I'd have to see it for myself to understand.

Are the fenced yards usually just fenced backyards or are they fenced all the way around?

Up here fenced backyards are common, but front yards are always open-looking. Sometimes people add decorative short fences in the front yard. The front yards here typically have little to no privacy but the backyards often do.

Our house has no solid fencing except for a portion of our pool fencing, which is separate from our backyard. Our backyard is screened by a cedar hedge up to 20 feet tall on 2 sides and the rest is just open grass to the property line.

I could be happy with a fenced backyard, but my entire yard fenced in to 6 feet with a solid board fence would make me feel like I'm living in a barrack.

[Muhnay]

El Paso, has fenced yards in the back, but with crime here most everyone has a rock wall or some sorta fence in the front now too. Also there are very few house that dont have bars on the windows. and Steal security doors.

[momof2dfw]

The front yards are not fenced in. Around here any house w/ some kind of fence or hedge in the front looks oddly out of place. Those pics in Southern Living or Better Homes and Garden are not of homes in the Dallas area. There are some older areas where you will see the picket fence but not in the newer burbs. Or on large estates will there be a fence around the entire property.

I'll see if I can find a pic of a rear entry type neighborhood. It's not that odd looking and actually makes it look neater and more clean on the front side. The backyard fence typically goes from one back corner down the side to the alley, down the alley and then up the side of the drive to the house. Some people have the fence going all the way around the entire backyard, drive and all w/ a large electronic gate across the drive (what I want and several neighbors have). Then in some areas the fence on the opposite side of the yard from the drive extends to the front corner of the house w/ a gate on it going to the front.

[ColdCanadian]

Originally Posted by Muhnay

El Paso, has fenced yards in the back, but with crime here most everyone has a rock wall or some sorta fence in the front now too. Also there are very few house that dont have bars on the windows. and Steal security doors.

That doesn't sound very appealing, plus without a gate to secure the fence it really wouldn't be effective as anything but a visual barrier.

I suppose that's a positive to southern Ontario is I don't recall seeing bars over any home windows here. Same for steel security doors. I have seen them for businesses though.

[ColdCanadian]

Originally Posted by momof2dfw

The front yards are not fenced in. Around here any house w/ some kind of fence or hedge in the front looks oddly out of place. Those pics in Southern Living or Better Homes and Garden are not of homes in the Dallas area. There are some older areas where you will see the picket fence but not in the newer burbs. Or on large estates will there be a fence around the entire property.

I'll see if I can find a pic of a rear entry type neighborhood. It's not that odd looking and actually makes it look neater and more clean on the front side. The backyard fence typically goes from one back corner down the side to the alley, down the alley and then up the side of the drive to the house. Some people have the fence going all the way around the entire backyard, drive and all w/ a large electronic gate across the drive (what I want and several neighbors have). Then in some areas the fence on the opposite side of the yard from the drive extends to the front corner of the house w/ a gate on it going to the front.

Large estates have fences around the perimeter to, but usually they're nice looking fences. As far as fencing goes, I like the tall wrought-iron fencing with a low brick/stone bottom part on some of the historic homes I've seen.

I guess that does make sense about the cartoon. It seemed strange that their kitchen's sliding window opened up to what I thought was the front of their house. (since it had a walkway to the garage)

[Muhnay]

Im gonna go take a couple snap shots for you and link them.. so you can see what I mean. =)

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by ColdCanadian

Large estates have fences around the perimeter to, but usually they're nice looking fences. As far as fencing goes, I like the tall wrought-iron fencing with a low brick/stone bottom part on some of the historic homes I've seen.

I guess that does make sense about the cartoon. It seemed strange that their kitchen's sliding window opened up to what I thought was the front of their house. (since it had a walkway to the garage)

Yes, kitchens opening up to the backyard is a big thing. It may not always be the kitchen but it could have the backdoor in the breakfast or family room which are all typically open to the kitchen. Being able to see out to the backyard living space is a nice thing when you have a pool and kids. Most garages are entered from a door in the house. One does not need to walk out a door into the backyard and then to the garage. There are few instances where this is the case though. Usually the laundry/utility room is a pass thru from the garage to get in the house. If you can pull up some floorplans of builders in the area and you should be able to see what I'm talking about. Some even have maps and pictures of their developments so
you can see where the alley is and the layout of the homes. Try dreeshomes.com and you can even see the difference of styles of homes from Dallas to Austin. Look at single family home developments instead of multi family areas to see what it is we are talking about.

[ColdCanadian]

Thanks again!

In our neighbourhood, kitchens also come with sliding glass doors opening to the backyard. We just don't have driveways in the backyard.

On my street many kitchens open to a raised deck in the backyard. Since we all have basements and my side of the street is on the bank of a creek, from the backyards our houses appear three stories tall, with the kitchen in the middle. We have a wrap-around staircase leading to the backyard from our deck that I helped my dad build.