Winter in Massachusetts without a Garage!

I feel proud of myself a little. I have endured what locals have proclaimed as the worst winter in Massachusetts that they have seen in quite a few years. And all that without a garage! Garage? You might ask. What does that have to do with it? Well, simply put, everything.

The garage in my opinion is the most important room (well, the bathroom comes close too) in the house especially in the winter. As a house owner back in Oregon where we had a huge 2 car garage with shop space enough for a third car, it was just heaven to come out of the house, walk into the car and drive off without being snowed on or drenched through! Going the other way was great too as it was a breeze to drive in to the garage with a remote controlled door opener and lights. Coming in to the house was so convenient, especially with hands full with groceries, art stuff that little Shoba did in school that day, lunch boxes, etc. And I never had to worry about being in the dark thanks to the automatic light switches. I also felt quite safe with no fear of intruders or strangers watching your every move.

Fast forward to after the big move to Massachusetts and we are now in a rented townhouse with no garage. We have a common parking lot which is open, not covered and that means snow piles up on your car and on the roads, pavements and sidewalks, basically everywhere! We have to keep shovels in our car to clean them after every snowfall which can be 3-4 times a week. And that snow that piles up on the roof of the car, needs to be removed as well which we found out the hard way when the block of snow slipped forward and covered our windshield completely when driving. We had to stop in the middle of the road to clean the snow off with impatient drivers beeping us the whole time.

To add to the inconvenience, we do not have a designated parking lot which also means that if we are late coming home, all the nearby parking lots will be taken up and we have to park elsewhere where there is an open spot. What's the fuss, you might ask? Well, have you ever tried bringing handfuls of groceries in with a very active five-year-old whom you are keeping from getting run over by other cars, while being snowed on in freezing temperatures and I do mean freezing, the temperatures can get in the negatives some days. All the while, you are trying to find your keys in the dark and once you've found them, blindly estimating where the key hole might be to put the key in, succeeding after the fourth attempt to finally unlock your front door. Yeah, you get the point.

Yes, for my next house, all I am asking for is a nice garage and bathroom of course. I'll be happy if I had both but if I really had to pick, I'd go for the garage. Especially in winter!