Name: Rosie HILLSBOROUGH, NC (Zone 7b) If it sparkles - I'm there!
Jeeze...
We had a disappointment too...when we built we had a very small area where the driveway could go ...the land is shaped like a backwards flag the "pole" was the entrance onto the property and the "flag" sits behind another piece of property......that other piece of property has a nice long property road frontage to site a private driveway...it is an almost perfect rectangle.
Well...we "pictured " a nice skinny drive that begins at the bottom of the "pole" (our only road frontage) and swings left onto the main property (the "flag")... Well.....where do you think the folks that bought the land put their driveway? RIGHT ALONGSIDE OURS! A foot away ...those two side by side look like a wide landing strip. And they put their house...50 feet from the drive. The house is visually completely open to the road..( the 8 or so neighbors along the private unpaved road all have drives cut into the woods and their houses are obscured by woods) ...sigh......a young couple bought the land from a developer and sited the drive and the house as cheaply as possible...doing it the way they did...right on the road...involved less tree removal and so cheaper. The private little nook we had was destroyed. My husband did not speak for a week. Such was his disappointment. No way to get the private entrance back. We would have to purchase more land and cut another drive and replant the one we have..in a mature wood. We are retired...we should have bought that land under the "flag" rectangular portion...but we did not need nor want to manage it. The plus is that ..we really like and appreciate the neighbors. Wonderful couple. Great kids. MExcept for a toilet and sink sitting on that drive for a few weeks (he is a plumber ) 😝
What I am getting to is that sometimes there is no remedy for some dilemmas. You would not be happy with a big net covered with greenery no matter how appealing it sounds. Invest in curtains you love or shutters on the most visible view window.
May I make a suggestion? You can give yourself a sense of privacy and enhance that private feel for a future sale. Speak with a landscape designer and locate an area off a house exit or appropriately sited and build yourself a courtyard with a small water feature. The materials can be wood ..or cinderblock.. painted.. Or brick clad on foam block or structural insulated panels...and those can be clad in whatever your house is clad in (structural foam is a nice sound dampner and is very solid and dimensional..goes up quick!! ...with the water feature and perhaps a speaker or two ...you will forget all about what is beyond. You will have the added protection from the wildlife to grow anything you want in there. Any wall that does not look at the offending area can have a beautiful view of the woods cut into it via a round hole or an arch or decorative openings in the brick. A courtyard is a very desireable thing and designed properly..does not have to be $$$. When you are IN it you will see nothing but the views you want to see.
Edited to say I am in Orange county. In some parts of wake and orange there is little to no set back on the back lines...side and front rules are different
Don't squat with yer spurs on!
People try to turn back their "odometers." Not me. I want people to know 'why' I look this way. I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved
