I have a double-wide driveway and two car garage, so did not think getting out of my drive for shopping and errands when the aide is here was anything to worry about. There is plenty of room in the drive. However, Stuff Happens as they say. I backed my car out of the garage and my left rear corner barely touched the aide's car's right front corner. There were literally a couple tiny "rubs" on her car and mine--didn't look like anything--but her estimate was $1093, and my estimate was $1297. I have good insurance, and it will all be covered except for my $500 deductible. It's just extra aggravation that nobody needs, so I am going to put my vehicle in the garage facing out from now on…so whenever staff or anybody else is here, and I have to go out, I will pull out facing forward. Many of us are in the same situation with aides or other respite people coming over, so I thought I'd suggest parking so you don't have to back out, if possible.
The problem I would have with parking facing out, is that then I would have to back into the garage! Not my strong suit. I'd probably back right into the house—through the wall!
When we first started having aides come, I parked far to one side of our two-car driveway so they could park on the other side. But that meant that either DH or I would have to get out in the grass, which was often wet (or snowy, in this part of the country). It also meant that it was very tight if I ever had to unload groceries and carry them in. Finally, I just started parking in the middle of the driveway, so we had plenty of room to get in and out, and the aides parked on the street. We lived in a subdivision, so it's not like they had to hike down a long road to get to the door. It made things a lot easier for us, and the aides only had to take a couple dozen steps more than they would have if they parked in the driveway.
I'm still having chills at the idea of backing into the garage.
elizabeth, You are not alone in this concern. We also have a wide double driveway but there have been more fender benders there than on the street in front of our house. Both I and my husband have hit other cars and our guests have hit the cars of other guests. During the last few years, there have been some close calls with aides’ cars. Unfortunately, I could no more back into our garage than I could fly.
Jan, What you wrote about backing into the garage made me laugh. Even backing out of our garage has been a challenge for me. We have 2-car garage with a center post and there is not a lot of clearance on either side of the car. In the past ten years, I have torn the side mirror off the car twice (at a cost of $1,200 each time) and damaged it once (at a cost of $300).
What about painting a line in the drive-way and having them park on one side. That way you would make sure the other car is not 'creeping' onto your side. I have the little concave mirrors on both our side mirrors. Would not drive without them.
She was parked far enough over, but I was in the middle of the garage, and she had parked fairly close to the garage door--didn't leave me enough room to get my car over to my side of the driveway, and I forgot her car was there anyway. Just one of those dumb things. I was surprised at how hard it's been to back the SUV into the garage, but it is our only vehicle, so there is plenty of room. Practice makes perfect.
I have had an aide at the house for two weeks now. She park sunny in my driveway. I too have a large turnaround. She parks in the middle, but not right behind my car. It is kind of in my blind spot when I am backing out. I can back down. Driveway with my eyes closed. I course I don't. But the funny thing is I have backed into the garage door many times. Think that it was raised. We have windows that are right where you look up to back out it looks like it is up. It is a big joke in my family. No, my windows are not that clean.
Not proud of this but, backed into my moms car (she even said watch out for my car), backed into garage door 4 times, backed up with my door open and hit garage wall (put home in Sheetrock did not damage car). I promise I am a good driver. I just need to slow down when leaving the house.
I tell everyone if these are my accidents I will take them compared to one on the road.
You can hang a tennis ball from the ceiling to mark when you have backed in far enough. A mark of some kind on the wall will work too. My mom always lined up "Body by Fisher" with the drain in the garage by holding her door open a tad. It was so cute; I will always have a soft spot in my heart for "Body by Fisher!"
No garage and driveway can only hold 1 car. When we had aides I would park my car on the street and leave them the driveway. Our street has restricted parking on weekdays so this way we wouldn't have to bother having the aide put the parking plaque in our car.
We had one aide whose car had leather seats. She wouldn't park in the driveway because she was afraid that the sun would damage the leather. But we could not guarantee that a spot would be available in front of the house. So L might have to walk down the street if they were driving somewhere. She was also worried about L becoming incontinent. Leakage did not become a problem during her tenure.
There is plenty of room to park on our quiet country road, but there really isn't any reason they can't park in our wide driveway, especially in bad weather. I have figured out a couple points of reference for backing into the garage, and after a couple comical first attempts, can now do it easily. I have family vehicles in the driveway most days, too--cars, kids' little bikes and scooters--so it is safer and more sensible all the way around for me to park facing out. It occurred to me that it lessens the possibility of backing over a child…yikes, too horrible to even think about.