There is a bookstore next to my house.

[teacherjapan]

There are a couple of grammatical questions I’d like to ask you native speakers of English.

1) Next door to my house is a bookstore.
2) A hundred kilometers from here is my sister’s house.

Are these both correct?
If so, how are they different from
1) There is a bookstore next to my house.
2) My sister’s house is a hundred kilometers from here.

 

[SoothingDave]

Your second set of sentences is natural. The first set is inverted and unnatural.

 

[jutfrank]

They're both grammatical, yes.

The difference is that the first two are inverted. That means you're starting with the location and mentioning the subject at the end of the sentence. Since that's not the 'default' way of talking, you'd need a reason to do so.