Last year a man in Cedar Springs, Mich., was fined $400 for mooching off somebody else's wi-fi--a police officer spotted him laptop-surfing in a parked car.

At the wider end of the building, a storage space for the owner's surfing equipment and boat is situated beside the car port.

"Before I bought a car, I stayed at home surfing the internet to make friends, " she says. "Owning a car gets me out of the internet world. "