Living in NC Morrisville- Cary area

[SWayman]

My wife and I are interested in retiring to the area. Seems like the garage space is not big enough to put the boat in. Is this normal? Do I have to buy a house with land and build a seperate garage? Any other nice areas I should look at?


Thanks in advance.

[Badfish.rb]

Cary is an abbreviation for Calling All Retired Yankees.
Only joking, its a nice area.

[Borderman]

Cary is an abbreviation for Calling All Retired Yankees.
Only joking, its a nice area.

Many a Truth is spoke in jest!!

[mike28nc]

Well, it is not just Cary. We were looking to move and seems like all the garage spaces was 19' or maybe 20'. good luck with your search. If you have the money find new development and have house built.

[riverhawg]

We just moved in the Raleigh area twice within the last 6 months. I bet we looked at 50+ houses and I can count on one hand the number of houses with a garage big enough for a 20ft triton. It seems that older Homes had a little more space. We just moved into a house built in 1968 because it was closer to where we work but it has lots of storage. I think you would be easier to find a house that has had an extra garage built as oppose to one built into the house that will fit a boat. Of course there are exceptions but that was my recent experience. Another thing to keep in mind is there are many subdivisions that will make you store it off site if it is not enclosed in your garage. Good luck with your search!

[berudd]

Yeah, unless you go higher end you're odds of finding a newer house with a garage big enough for a bass boat are pretty small. Most people here use the garage as storage and the few that do park cars in them have smaller cars so the size works for them. I have my TR186 turned sideways in my two car garage. If you have to stay in Wake county try the areas to the south (Fuquay) and to the north near Falls Lake. If you go north of Falls into Granville county you can find some bigger garages and some with a second detached garage. Also going west into Chatham County might help. In Chatham you can hope on 64 and be in Apex\Cary very quickly.

What are you looking for in a retirement location? Maybe that will help us a bit. FWIW, I have lived here since 1999 and I'll be retiring to the Murray\Benton KY\Paris TN area. I'd rather spend my time fishing KY lake that our lakes here.

[imbatman]

My first house was in Cary back in 1989...Never again, but I did buy before Cary blew up like it is now. I have owned in Cary, Holly Springs, and now Zebulon... The yuppies and the "holier than thou" are chasing me away every time.

The house I am in now was built in 1969. It has a 24' 4" garage deep. I can get a Skeeter 21i in there, motor down, tongue collapsed. Garage "standards" are about 22" now it seems in Wake County but in all fairness I think a Yukon is smaller than the Oldsmobuick land yatchs from the 70's.

If you have a choice get a single garage door that is two cars wide... Two doors really cuts down the maneuvering you can do.

[imbatman]

Cary is an abbreviation for Calling All Retired Yankees.
Only joking, its a nice area.

The ones I have heard are:
CARY: Containment Area for Relocated Yankees
CLAYTON: Cary Like Area Yankees Trying Out Now

[imbatman]

One other thing.

Cary/Apex are good areas but they really are "holier than thou" and before anyone jumps on me for saying that get a map of the townships for the two and see what they annex and what they don't. It is non-contiguous patchwork of more well to do areas while skipping others. Been a point of contention around Wake county for a LONG time.

[JJS]

I had to modify our house plans when we built to make the garage bigger. I had them make the it 27 ft inside length. We were going to do additional garage but it was out of the budget. We have been in Clayton for the 17 years we have been in NC. When we were looking at houses and lots we just more bang for our buck here in Clayton.

[berudd]

My first house was in Cary back in 1989...Never again, but I did buy before Cary blew up like it is now. I have owned in Cary, Holly Springs, and now Zebulon... The yuppies and the "holier than thou" are chasing me away every time.

The house I am in now was built in 1969. It has a 24' 4" garage deep. I can get a Skeeter 21i in there, motor down, tongue collapsed. Garage "standards" are about 22" now it seems in Wake County but in all fairness I think a Yukon is smaller than the Oldsmobuick land yatchs from the 70's.

If you have a choice get a single garage door that is two cars wide... Two doors really cuts down the maneuvering you can do.

Everywhere you move your neighbors chase you away. Hmmmm, yeah, its the neighbors. Definitely.

[crank68]

Go a little farther out in the country and build your house and garage like you want it. I’m 45 mins to 1 hour 15 mins from Falls, Jordan, Harris, Gaston, and Kerr. There’s no way I’d would wanna pay for my size house and garages in the Cary/Raleigh.

[RdRngR]

it is possible. There are so many new developments being put in. Find one in the area you like and get with the builder. We found a small development that had a few a few lots left and worked with the builder. We had the standard 22 foot garage lengthened to 32 feet for a small charge and it was really easy. We have a 32 long by 22 foot wide garage Z520 and the truck fit in nicely plus the bonus room above the garage gained 10 feet.

[imbatman]

Everywhere you move your neighbors chase you away. Hmmmm, yeah, its the neighbors. Definitely.

There could be something to that.

[berudd]

it is possible. There are so many new developments being put in. Find one in the area you like and get with the builder. We found a small development that had a few a few lots left and worked with the builder. We had the standard 22 foot garage lengthened to 32 feet for a small charge and it was really easy. We have a 32 long by 22 foot wide garage Z520 and the truck fit in nicely plus the bonus room above the garage gained 10 feet.

You can do that with a small outfit but very unlikely with the large builders that have developments all over the country. They build everything off site in a factory-like setting and stick to their plans. No customization beyond what they list. We have one floorplan in our neighborhood that has a decent sized garage. I think the house itself comes in around 3700 sg ft. Of course, it was not an option when I built mine.

[Cape Fear]

Also if you buy a house and it has land to build a detached garage make sure the neighborhood homeowners will allow such a thing. My daughter and her family moved to Holly Springs last year and the homeowners assocation gets bent out of shape at the mention of cutting down a tree.

[Badfish.rb]

Why are all the commercial buildings roofs blue in cary? Only McDonald's i have ever seen with a blue roof? Democratic party? Lol

[Neilslure]

I go in a bunch of new construction homes every day from alot of different builders, everything from mass produced starter homes to high end custom. To be honest I see the garages and wonder how you can even fit a compact car in them let alone a boat. Most of the new construction closest to Raleigh is tightly packed subdivisions, houses so close you can barely set up a ladder between them. The further out you go the more spacious the lots get.

[Bairn]

How’s Pittsboro?

[lilbuddy]

How’s Pittsboro?

Pittsboro is a nice area. You can find some land and build what you want. I've been in NC since 93 via New York. It was a huge change for me at first but now I would never go back up north. One thing to consider is you're moving to the south so a place like Pittsboro, Clayton, Roxboro, Henderson....etc etc will have a small town feel and may still have the "good ole boy system". Cary is too freaking crowded for me and same for Raleigh.... I have plenty of friends that have kids in the wake county school system and they generally dont have much positive to say....that may not be a factor for you.

Places like Apex and Fuqay were next to nothing 10-15 years ago...now they're crazy busy and more and more people are moving there. That being said they have a lot around there to do. Where I live Im probably 30 minutes from a decent mall and about 35 minutes form bps. Pretty much all of our lakes Im roughly an hour from..give or take.

We have plenty of great lakes in this area. If you can swing it look for a place on the lake. Once my kids get out of high school Im moving to the lake...my wife has already agreed :-)