opportunity knocks, on your garage door...




Nice garage adaptation with glass garage door.

I recently posted about adaptive re-use and utilizing under used space in your home to increase the value of your home.  Continuing this theme, and about adapting (or renovating) your garage specifically, there should also remain a sense of beauty in your house.  If you have a view from your garage you should use it.  The connection to the outdoors in our homes is vital to the value of our home, but also vital to our personal well-being.

Your garage conversion lends itself to great opportunity.  It provides the possibility to connect to your environment because the opening that has been created there is a natural place for accessing a view or creating a physical connection to nature.  In this pre-made structural opening you have a chance to create a place, not just a space for storage.

Ok...you want ideas.  Keeping the garage door is a completely viable option.  Be careful about the ceiling space this will utilize.  You will notice that there aren't any lights above where the door retracts so if you keep the door lighting from the ceiling will be an issue.  The other issue about your standard garage door is they are minimally insulated.  You may have to add insulation to make an inviting space to hang out in.  Also, the tracks and motor are not the most attractive pieces of decor for your house.  A glass garage door can be an amazing addition that provides a view and allows for an operable wall (essentially) when the weather permits.  Again the same issues as above, but lighting will be less of issue and the temperature in the zone will be more of an issue.  The glass garage doors are not exceptionally warm zones in the winter.



Anybody got any large wheels laying around?

 Another option could be simply to add some windows and a door, or a sliding glass door.  The post "adapt, re-use, increase the value of your home..."  had pictures from a project that used two large doors with glass.  These provide operable openings, but don't have the ugly track and motor that go with a garage door.  Another amazing, more expensive option is NanaWall.  NanaWall is a system that you see in many high end residential projects (see picture below) because of the seamless transition that can be created from interior to exterior (whether the doors are open or closed).



The key is to remember that the reason you are adapting your garage is opportunity.  The opportunity to create a beautiful additional space in your home for fractions of the cost to add-on.  The added benefit of having a structurally ready-made opening to your home and to your budget can be breathtaking at most, but at the very least can add value to your home while increasing your livable space.



If you have a view like this from your garage, we need to have a talk.