My wife talked to the county this morning about plans for a major road near our property. Some of that becomes interesting as we try to place our house on the lot.

The north end of our property faces 107th street and is 335 feet wide. The east end is 1270 feet, and abuts a neighboring lot of the same size as ours. The likely location for the major road is through the adjacent property to the east. So we got interested enough to make a few calls to find out where this little project actually stood.

As far as status, there's not a completed design for this, it's just a planned thoroughfare intended to take pressure off of the nearby road (1/4 mile to the east) which can't be widened, at least not more cost-effectively as putting in a new road. The county told us it was intended to be a 'class 3 road,' which they described as two lanes with a shoulder on both sides, 150 feet wide overall. They told us a location we could see such a road as well.

This road will be a major avenue of access into the big park nearby, which will become a major attraction as the area become more developed. So there's some potential for considerable traffic. But it also impacts my thinking on positioning the house on the lot. The difficulty is that it may be 10 years or even longer before any road goes in, and really it may never happen. This is just a proposal right now. Having a paved road (107th is gravel) will improve my property values some, but my entrance is situated on the gravel road, and it will be at the east corner, closest to any future intersection.

Now I have to think about how this affects my views and everything. My main views now are north (into a wheat field) and south (into the main part of my property) with my garage opening to the east. Keeping that orientation means I'll be showing my garage door and not much else to the busier of the two roads (a guarantee, since 107th dead-ends a half mile farther west). But, I'd keep my north and south views. Keeping the current site is a good option.

Simply rotating my house to face east will make my garage open toward the back of the property, meaning a longer driveway, that's unpalatable. The west view is okay, but it's looking at someone else's property, not at mine. The east view is rather nice, looking into a large pond down a hill across some horse pastures.

Flipping the floor plan while rotating the house would put my garage back facing the entrance on 107th to the north. The master suite would get reasonably good west and south views. But then I have to think about how far toward the south I want to situate the house. We're currently planning on about 400 feet from 107th street. That's about 1/3 of way to the back of my property. Centering up would make me have to pay more for my longer driveway and utility runs.

Then if I move the house, I have to consider the fact that the planned road may never get built. (It's likely actually, but no certainty as to when.) It's a bit of a dilemma actually.