It was our homeowners insurance putting more restrictions on how much gasoline we can have in our attached garage. While we are still within the guidelines (we can have up to 3 gallons combined between storage and what is in the tanks of various 'toys'-- the car is not included in this total). We can easily see this eventually being reduced to zero. Nothing like being SOL when your house burns down and the insurance denies the claim because you had 5.1 gallons of gasoline in your garage. Not to mention I get 'dinged' every year on my walk-though with my home daycare licensor because I don't keep my garage locked because I have a gas can in there. I could get a large cabinet, but keeping gas in a locked cabinet isn't the brightest idea in the world, either.
Another reason that hubby was open to the idea of a reel mower was that there was an article (Chicago Trib or Houstion Chronicle?) earlier this year about how there was an increased demand & not as bulky as years past. Plus the article featured a guy who basically gets his lawn mowed by people walking by since everyone wants to 'try it out'.
An alternative to the gasoline storage issue would be to build a shed, which is costly and would use up a good portion of our backyard. Not to mention our 'approved' shed by the HOA is ugly. No character. We would be the ones with the bright red to match our almond siding. So what?
We have a tiny front yard and a tiny backyard. We tried it out on our front yard after we bought it, and it works nicely and easily. Jason had already mowed the front yard with the regular mower, so we didn't do the whole thing. It will be interesting to see the neighbors' reactions when we do our first complete lawn mowing adventure with the new reel.
