Since we moved into our house we wanted to use the garage for something more than a garage. I find the concept of a garage a tad redundant these days as most of us will simply use the driveway (if we have one) to park the car, and the traditional dimensions of garages are really not suitable to store a regularly used car anyway.
We were fortunate with our garage that it was already longer than the usual garage and had been used previously to house a gym area, so has lighting and a few windows installed.
Marta had a thought about turning it into an industrial kitchen at one stage -somewhere to run a catering business from. But once we had thought about doing something so that her family could potentially stay for extended periods, she was sold. I too was well up for the challenge of designing and creating a studio flat.
So, what do we have to work with? Here are some pictures of the garage currently (after I cleared out the front half - we still need to find places for the stuff in the rear!):
We were fortunate with our garage that it was already longer than the usual garage and had been used previously to house a gym area, so has lighting and a few windows installed.
Marta had a thought about turning it into an industrial kitchen at one stage -somewhere to run a catering business from. But once we had thought about doing something so that her family could potentially stay for extended periods, she was sold. I too was well up for the challenge of designing and creating a studio flat.
So, what do we have to work with? Here are some pictures of the garage currently (after I cleared out the front half - we still need to find places for the stuff in the rear!):
We decided that we would enlist the help of a local architect, Kevin, to help us along the way. We have a very tight (Kevin would say it was unrealistically tight!) budget, but thought the advice and guidance an architect would provide would be well worth the expenditure.
We had a couple of initial meetings with Kevin to discuss what we wanted, and he set out to draw some plans. The plan was for Kevin to initially produce drawings sufficient to submit for planning application, and then later a more detailed plan to help me actually build and fit everything. Here is the submitted drawing:
You can see we hope to include a living area with kitchenette, bedroom and bathroom to make this a self-contained space. If we had builders to quote for this, it would be double our budget, so we have decided to try to source materials in innovative ways, for free where possible, but not at the expense of design or style. We will keep you informed of progress on this front! We are already thinking about external cladding (to maximise the current internal dimensions) with wooden pallets to insulate the walls.
So, this is the plan - let's see where we are by the end. I hope you enjoy following the progress.
So, this is the plan - let's see where we are by the end. I hope you enjoy following the progress.