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Location: When things get hot they expand. Im not fat. Im hot.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Delron
Not sure - I'm still in the very early planning phase and will have to find out what is possible, you are more than likely right because the garage is within 5 feet of the property line of both that side neighbor and the rear neighbor...
The best example of a bank barn I can give you is its built like a house with a walkout basement. A bank barn is accessable on two levels even tho from the front it might look like a one story buiding. Wiki has some good examples.
Now this is new info. Five feet from the side AND the rear property line. Holy Moly. Do you have ANY yard. Maybe this would still work. Originally what I meant was to come in from the drive and dig out everything back to the house. Trees, bank, carport. All of it. If you dig out from the front/ drive you wont be on your neighbors property. But now you will need two retaining walls. One up next to your house and one in the rear. So maybe you need to go by basement rules now. The guys will know better on this.
You know this is looking more and more like an addition. Why dont you just do it as an addition.
The best example of a bank barn I can give you is its built like a house with a walkout basement. A bank barn is accessable on two levels even tho from the front it might look like a one story buiding. Wiki has some good examples.
Now this is new info. Five feet from the side AND the rear property line. Holy Moly. Do you have ANY yard. Maybe this would still work. Originally what I meant was to come in from the drive and dig out everything back to the house. Trees, bank, carport. All of it. If you dig out from the front/ drive you wont be on your neighbors property. But now you will need two retaining walls. One up next to your house and one in the rear. So maybe you need to go by basement rules now. The guys will know better on this.
You know this is looking more and more like an addition. Why dont you just do it as an addition.
LOL, yes we have plenty of yard, in the front and on the side. It's actually quite a big lot for Los Angeles...just weird how they built it. Hmmm, I'm thinking the garage may be exactly 5 feet from each of the property lines...that would make a little bit of sense. And possibly allow me some options.
Now I understand what a bank barn is - we have plenty of those here. Lots of homes built into hillsides, some 4 stories! That's what I've been thinking about originally, because this lot is just an odd shape...but the grading to do what I am envisioning would no doubt be very very expensive...thanks for all your suggestions though!!
Yes I'm planning on making this into an addition. And doing it exactly as you are describing (if you saw the entire lot, I think you would agree and say that's what you were talking about).
This is just so hard to describe, but the base of the driveway snakes up from the street, curves 180 degrees and leads up and into the left side of the carport, which is a 4 car carport. Really, it is ridiculous. But I didn't plan this, I only have to deal with it now so what can I do, LOL. The carport is 4 cars wide and the 4 openings open perpendicular to the street, starting near the top of another larger slope (about 20-25 feet up) from the base of the driveway. Don't know if that makes sense or can be visualized. Should have taken more pics, LOL.
Anyway, let's say you're looking head on into the carport, street to your left, 4 car spaces spread out directly in front of you, on the right side of the 4 car carport, you see the two stumps (larger one in front) and the neighbor's fence. The smaller stump, already cut into, is back towards to back corner of my lot, near the other neighbor's property line (a few feet from it, as previously stated).
I would love to just tear down the entire carport, and cut into the ground directly beneath it, take out the two tree stumps, and build what you are saying - a multi-level bank barn built into the hill, with a garage at the bottom right off the street where the current start/base of the driveway is, and have that garage leading to another couple of levels of living quarters. But the grading and building the retaining walls will no doubt be extremely costly. I'm just wondering if I should do it all in one shot (with the big big backhoe as the gentleman said), or waste more time and energy just dinking around with these giganto stumps. And how much something like that would cost all together.
I'd love to build a guest house/garage combo out of this. But if the grading, permits, geological, retaining walls, connecting utilities sewer etc. are just way too much $$$, then it may be more economical for me to keep the existing structure (not the rotten and eaten wood but the foundation and concrete walls), convert half the carport into the bottom level of a guesthouse and built the second level on top of both. I'd still have to figure a way to get the sewer line over there from the house. Man, what a headache.
Last edited by Delron; 11-11-2008 at 05:55 PM..
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Maybe this would still work. Originally what I meant was to come in from the drive and dig out everything back to the house. Trees, bank, carport. All of it. If you dig out from the front/ drive you wont be on your neighbors property. But now you will need two retaining walls. One up next to your house and one in the rear. So maybe you need to go by basement rules now. The guys will know better on this. 
