Behold, our glamorous story poles! This bright orange netting went up yesterday in preparation for the city's Architectural Review Board (ARB) meeting to discuss our planned remodel of the garage.
Our garage is, in a word, butt-ugly. It's not entirely original to the house, having been built sometime in the 1930s. Presumably, this is when the owners bought their first automobile and wanted a place to park it. The garage was inartfully extended a few years later when the owners (we think) bought a bigger car. It didn't fit, so they moved one of the garage doors a foot closer to the curb.
The structure is inelegant but sturdy. "Bomb shelter" comes to mind. When we first approached the city about remodeling it, their knee-jerk reaction was no, absolutely not, we can't allow you to remodel an historical structure. Then I showed them a photograph and, to a man, they all said, "do whatever you want." They'd be happy if we demolished it.
Short of that, we've decided to give it a bit of a face lift. We want to top the flat, tar paper roof with a peaked roof that more-or-less mimics the roof of the house. We'd also like to replace the two homemade (read: crappy) doors with real doors that, y'know, open. And close. Radical, I know.
The city seems perfectly happy to allow us to do this, and our neighbors are thrilled, too. But we have to go through the motions of an ARB meeting first, and among the requirements are these "story poles" that allow passersby to see what the new roofline will look like. We think it might partially obstruct the view from the B&B next door (the yellow structure in the background) but that's too bad. There are no "viewshed" laws in Pacific Grove, so you can't prohibit construction merely because it blocks your view. Besides, we think the pitched roof and shingle siding will offer a better view than the flat, tar-paper view they get now.
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