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Any experience or opinions on Garage Homes? These dwellings typically have 3 or 4 bays of garage space on the first level, and a 2 BR Apartment/Small Home on the second level.
I am interested in construction one on an empty lot in our neighborhood. It will be architecturally appealing to blend with existing home and have ~1200 of living space on the second floor. Second floor will be finished so as to qualify as a residential property rather than commercial. First floor will be used to house my/our extra automobiles and give me a space in which to perform maintenance.
Second floor may be used by our out-of-state children when they visit (location is one block from our home) and might even become our permanent home at some point in our post-retirement future. Considering including a residential elevator to reach the second floor, or at least reserving space for one in the floor plan.
Since car collecting seems to be an affliction suffered by retirees and pre-retirees, the same group often looking to downsize and move to single level living, I am hopeful resale will not be a complete bust.
The image below is the smaller version of what I have been looking at, only 3 cars and 1 BR in this one but it will give readers a good idea. The larger 2 BR model looks more like a split-level home, or home atop the garage, rather than a carriage house.
That seems like an interesting idea. I've met retirees, all single men who were basically looking for a large garage with a small living space attached. I'd expect an easy resale.
If your planning and zoning department approves it, go for it!
We have places like that where I live. They seem to sell fairly well (although I'm not a realtor and really haven't been following the market).
You're right that the market seems to be mostly retirees. One problem around here is the houses have steep stairs. If you could address that somehow I think you'd help your resale. Also, the pitched roofs, while charming, can mean closet/storage space is limited. Wealthy retirees who collect cars also tend to have lots of stuff and a fairly large wardrobe.
I'd work extra storage into the design, maybe pay special attention to insulation, and try to build them near a part of town where people like to drive their fancy cars. I think you have a winner.
I'd work extra storage into the design, maybe pay special attention to insulation, and try to build them near a part of town where people like to drive their fancy cars. I think you have a winner.
The local area is a hot-bed of car collecting and display. The local collector car warehouse charges ~$1K per car per year, so mortgage payment compared to potential storage fees is very attractive. I currently keep my special car in our garage and park my daily-driver in the driveway - which really sucks in Michigan's winter weather. Plus, this would allow for more than one special car!
I am assuming you would be paying cash? If 50% or more of the home is garage, chances are the appraisal will be a challenge, making a residential mortgage very difficult
It depends a lot on the town. We had a custom house built whose first floor was entryway and three garage bays. Two bays were in tandem. It looked like two bays from the front, to conform with various constraints plus avoid looking like it was all garage. Main living area (including a bedrm and bathrm) was on the second floor, with a big, attractive room on the third floor (also with a full bathroom).
When time came to sell, the number one complaint was about stairs. Our stairs were not full flights but broken up with landings. The lowest landing, half level from ground, contained a small office off the side. The second landing had the utility room/storage closet there. We are seniors ourselves but did not mind the stairs at all. Apparently, most older people feel differently. Our market was almost exclusively old people in that price range in that town.
However, a woman from San Francisco commented that in SF nobody thought twice about main living area above garage bays. They did it for the same reason we did: not enough space to spread sideways and still meet city code. Some people loved the garage space; unfortunately those people were not able to buy or a spouse disagreed with their choice.
We had intended that house to be our forever home. It turned out not to be due to reasons unrelated to the house or site. The sale took over a year. I won’t say don’t do it, because I think it is a great solution for small lots. But be careful about who your biggest resale market will consist of. I do think some people there disliked that style of house because they considered it auto-centric design. This struck me as hypocritical, given that we drove only 2 or 3 days a week and walked nearly everywhere for errands other than grocery runs. Meanwhile, we saw plenty of greenies driving daily (often back and forth several times) for extremely short distances, marveling at our “long” walks, while their non-car-focused lifestyles cluttered the streets with cars parked everywhere EXCEPT in a garage.
Now, IF the town had been commutable to the very large, high-housing-demand and high-income city across the water, things would have been very, very different. I would guess we could have sold it for at least another $100k on top, no joke. Maybe more, given the water views and site location.
YMMV, because there are so many car collectors around. Also, the tough winter climate makes garage-lovers out of many who would not care about them in a mild climate.
Good luck with your project. I think it’s great that there are different strokes for different folks. The raising-kids-oriented 4 BR 3 BA with media room etc plans never appealed to me at all.
If you could get a large lot, put the apartment and garage adjacent to each other all on the ground level. Retirees hate stairs.
Yeah, that is true. Perhaps put a firehouse pole in to cut the stair use in half (I am only half-joking ... I'd love to pick up an old, smaller firehouse in St. Paul or Minneapolis to convert into living space). Add a finished bathroom in the garage and you may only walk the stairs a couple of times a day.
I love this idea, but would add a second story covered porch across the front, or perhaps have it on the front and two sides connected to a much larger deck in back. Or a three seasons porch across the front on the second level that opens on both ends to uncovered deck that wraps around to a much larger deck in back.
Garage hobbies are not limited to cars. Lots of people use them for art studios, home brewing, wood working, run a small business, etc. A three- or four-car space set up so that it could accommodate your hobby and easily/quickly convert back to garage space for resale would be easy with some forethought.
I've sworn off ever working with a home builder again, but now you've got me rethinking the final home. Wonder if Mrs. Woody would go in.
Perhaps put a firehouse pole in to cut the stair use in half (I am only half-joking ... I'd love to pick up an old, smaller firehouse in St. Paul or Minneapolis to convert into living space).
Ha ha, I've always liked the idea of converting an old firehouse, too. But I'm a retired frefighter, so part of that is sentiment. On a side note, did you know those firepoles are extremely dangerous? We actually had one firehouse that had them and we were asked not to use them. It's very easy to injure your ankles and legs on those.
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