Garage

It's ironic, really. The more we do to the house the less time we have to write about it.

It's been more than a month since our last installment, but that's not because we've slacked off. Just the opposite, actually. We're still working on the wood floors, finishing up the bathroom, we completely redocorated the master bedroom, worked on some details in the laundry room, and -- the big new project -- started remodeling the garage. Kathy's been busy with tax season and my racing season has just started. Never a dull moment.

You'll recall that the garage was, shall we say, butt ugly. Even the City of Pacific Grove agreed, granting us rare permission to demolish an historic structure, calling it "an eyesore" during the official public hearing. It hasn't been used as a garage in decades, acting instead as a storage shed for the most recent restaurant(s). It couldn't accommodate a car, much less two. There was a rotted man-door on one side and decrepit swing-out doors on the other that hadn't been opened in years. I replaced some of the rotted wood and put on new hinges a few months ago, which turned out to be a complete waste of time because we haven't opened the doors since.

We decided not to demolish the garage because we'd only be able to replace it with one exactly the same size. Even though it's undersized by modern standards (about 19x19 instead of 20x20), that's close enough for our two cars once we get proper doors on.

The really ugly part is the roof, however. It's flat-topped tar paper. The whole structure looks more like a concrete bomb shelter than a garage, and our neighbors (with one exception) seem thrilled we're redoing it. The plan is to put a peaked roof on top and two sets of swing-out carriage doors on the front. We'll cover the poured concrete exterior with wooden ship lap siding, just like the first floor of the house. When it's done, the garage should look more or less like it belongs to the house, and to the rest of the neighborhood.

Permits took several months, but demolition and construction finally started last week (late April). The flat roof came off in a few days, followed by framing of the new roof. Because we're removing the center concrete support from the front of the garage, it needs an engineered steel beam to reinforce the opening. That arrived yesterday and got installed under the watchful eye of an inspector. It's bolted, screwed, epoxied (and probably duct-taped) in place over the front opening where the doors will go.

From inside the garage, the "ceiling" is about a foot higher than it was before, because the new roof sits on top of the concrete walls instead of being set inside the walls. That will give us a bit more storage and headroom inside, but the real benefit will be overhead. The peaked roof will give us a few hundred cubic feet of much-needed storage.

The new peaked roof will cover only the front two-thirds of the garage. The back third will be flat, like a deck. That's because the garage is too close to the house to accommodate a peaked roof all the way around without interfering with the house's roof. It'll look normal from the street, and give us a small raised deck on the sunny side of the house. We're looking forward to it.