We’ve been talking about this project for years. Deciding if we were staying in this house or moving on, the pros and the cons, back when we cared about resell “do people really need garages?”

Happy to report that we don’t care about that at all anymore (because we’re the ones living here) which means we converted our garage to living space!

A space that has done nothing but collect goodwill donations, junk we think we’ll use but never do and literal trash is going to be transformed into:

• a wide hallway style entry and mudroom

• a laundry/storage/utility/flower cutting room

• and lastly a “flex space” which will likely be another family room overlooking an amazing view of our garden (or eventually an office, having trouble deciding - but how cool to live in a house that has extra space to decide?!”

DAY 1: BEFORE PICTURES

First step was moisture barrier / basically create a crawspace on the existing floor

Floor Joists, Insulation, Plywood the floors

Cutting the garage door opening hole to it’s new size

Then we started framing out the exterior wall

This decision was probably the biggest design one that we faced, maybe just as much as the general layout of the space and how it would be divided. I wanted so badly to make it look like it’s always been this way. So many garage conversions I found online looked so obvious that they used to be garages. After 900 sketches and countless hours stressed, we landed on this and I really couldn’t be happier.

It flows well with the garden, it feels like it’s meant to be a side entrance leading you to it rather than trying to hard to be the main. It’s just subtle and sweet countryside vibes.

We added an additional door leading out to our front porch here

Interiors walls framed, Electrical DONE

Siding DONE!

Drywall, Mini splits installed and paint samples!

Flooring, the start of our little side porch, a little front room staging just for fun and I think my favorite part to date: getting rid of that awful door off the dining area. I love the new space so much, but I love what it does for our kitchen even more. Before the kitchen felt like the end of the house and now it feels like the middle. The natural light, the flow. It just feels so good.

We have SO much more to do. Tons of cabinetry to build in the mudroom area, built ins in the front room. Cabinets in the laundry room, a sink, paint colors, wallpaper, paneling, light fixtures, trim.. but we’re finally to the fun stuff and it feels really really good.

And no, we don’t miss a single thing about the garage. At all. Ever.

More to come!