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Last night discovered that my two rear tires were slashed (bay shore, suffolk county). Cops have informed me that it was a gang initiation thing as several of my neighbors up and down the block have had the same thing done to their cars on the same night. (this isnt the first time we have had to deal with vandalism of our car over the past 10 years. One time had our car stolen right off our driveway)
I have a driveway, but no garage to protect my car in. My house USED TO have a one car garage attached, but previous owner of the house renovated that into another room. I do not know what they used it for, as when they renovated it (they replaced the garage door with a wall and a window and put in wall to wall carpeting and a small closet), they did not include a vent attached to bring in heat. As a result, during the wintertime its like a freezer in there (and during the summertime its like an oven). Previous owners used to have a plug in electric heater in there (left it behind when they sold us the house...they didnt need it as they were moving to sunny florida), but who has money to pay for the electric bills of an electric heater? So we use that room primarily for storage of odds and ends. Record albums, books, bookcases, suitcases, cardboard boxes with all sorts of items, odd and end furniture pieces we really have no use for, etc.
Anyways, I was looking at what it might cost to have a new, unattached, one car garage built on the property to store my car in. The prices, even the cheapest ones, are way beyond anything we can afford.
But then it hit me, why not just renovate that old room back into an attached garage? Why not just carve out a hole in the wall where the garage door used to be and put in a new garage door? I cannot do this job myself as I am all thumbs when it comes to tools and carpentry.
Does anyone have an idea as to what this would cost, what a contractor would charge for such a job? And what would this do to the value of the house? Increase it, decrease it, or stay the same?
I have a driveway, but no garage to protect my car in. My house USED TO have a one car garage attached, but previous owner of the house renovated that into another room. I do not know what they used it for, as when they renovated it (they replaced the garage door with a wall and a window and put in wall to wall carpeting and a small closet), they did not include a vent attached to bring in heat. As a result, during the wintertime its like a freezer in there (and during the summertime its like an oven). Previous owners used to have a plug in electric heater in there (left it behind when they sold us the house...they didnt need it as they were moving to sunny florida), but who has money to pay for the electric bills of an electric heater? So we use that room primarily for storage of odds and ends. Record albums, books, bookcases, suitcases, cardboard boxes with all sorts of items, odd and end furniture pieces we really have no use for, etc.
But then it hit me, why not just renovate that old room back into an attached garage? Why not just carve out a hole in the wall where the garage door used to be and put in a new garage door? I cannot do this job myself as I am all thumbs when it comes to tools and carpentry.
Does anyone have an idea as to what this would cost, what a contractor would charge for such a job? And what would this do to the value of the house? Increase it, decrease it, or stay the same?
Question: Is there a CO for the converted garage? My guess is not, because there is no heat in the room, but you never know...
LOL little misunderstanding... No, a CO = Certificate of Occupancy, or C of O
Cant recall. I do believe that previous owner went by the book, all legal, whenever he had a renovation done to the house. (he also added on a fourth bedroom with an attached bathroom). Is it important either way for converting the room back into a garage?
What about a fence? Would be cheaper than a garage and might be just enough of deterrant to make the vandals hit the house next door instead.
A fence just doesnt provide enough protection. The local teens used to take a shortcut through our backyard to get around the corner, and they kicked holes in our backyard fence. Cant afford to go through the expense of paying for some meaningless fence, only to find my property still being vandalized. I need something more substantial.
Cant recall. I do believe that previous owner went by the book, all legal, whenever he had a renovation done to the house. (he also added on a fourth bedroom with an attached bathroom). Is it important either way for converting the room back into a garage?
If there was a permit/CO, and you want to go "by the book", you should get a permit again... might even lower your taxes, since it's not real living space - again if there is a CO.
Chances are the original framing for the garage door opening are still there. If thats the case, it would be very reasonable to take the sheetrock down inside, which you could do yourself, rip up the carpet, which you could also do yourself. If you are not handy, you could hire someone to "redo" the opening on the outside and install a new garage door. This could be done for as little as $1K-$2k.
They usually just add framing into the existing opening. It's not the biggest hassle in the world to convert it back, probabally cost a couple of grand.
You would need to open up the wall again and re-install the garage door and tracks for it, which means you would also have to tear down a good portion of the ceiling to put the tracks back in. If you're carefull you can remove the wall without destroying whatever the exterior of the house is finished with, and then just frame out the opening again with trim.
Basically a garage door, some sheetrock and molding...and labor.
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