Garage Addition - Finally Started!

I've finally started work on my garage addition project!

What should have been a simple and straight forward project became an expensive and frustrating one because of the hassle that I received from my County planners. Despite being on 7 acres, the County insisted that my garage addition be limited to 600 square feet (accessory structure limit) rather than the 950 square feet that I had requested. I won't get into all the details, but it was a classic case of "let's find out how we can deny this guy his garage" rather than trying to find a way to make it work. At the end of the day I decided to move forward on the 600 square feet that I could get approved rather than spend the time and money going through additional hearings with uncertain outcomes.

I don't love the economics on the project at 600 square feet as the cost is not much different than the 950 square feet plans and I'll end up with three somewhat compact spots on the ground vs. the four car build out that I preferred. I do plan to put lifts in, but will hold off on that topic as I'm interested in feedback on how and when to proceed on that front.

I will share photos as the project unfolds and am hoping to tap into the collective wisdom of the board with ideas and suggestions about how to get the most out of what I'm doing.

 

Here is a picture of the site before construction. The existing four garage has a guest house overhead and that building, which is attached to the main house by a breezeway, will not be changed. This driveway area is at the rear of the property and is not visible from the street, as it is accessed by driving under the breezeway that is to the right of the photo.

The new garage will go into the hillside behind where the basketball hoop is.
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The lawn in the foreground of the prior picture was destroyed by wild boar and here is a picture of what it looked like the morning after they did their work. Part of this project will be completing a perimeter fence to include a gate so that the boar cannot ravage our front and rear lawns again (already been taken out 2x!). The garage will go into the area at the back of the photo where the river rocks are. The lawn will largely be removed to make way for driveway to allow us to more easily use the garages.
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Excavation progress

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It will be for car storage. I have the four stalls you can see in the existing garage and these are in addition to those. The county has restricted my building to 600 sq ft. With the goal of having 3 cars on the ground and two on lifts, I don't have much or any room for work space. I'm in No. Ca and am not planning to install any hvac, although the interior will be insulated and sheet rocked.

Here are a couple of additional pictures of the progress.

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Retaining wall at rear
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Here is the front elevation. The new garage doors will be 7'6" vs. 7'0" on the existing doors. I like the look of the shorter doors but the utility of the taller doors. I am open to ideas on final finishing touches for the garage as we haven't spent a great deal of time on this building.

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I've been thinking about glass doors. The obvious benefit is that I get to see my cars whenever I'm near the garage. This garage area is behind a gate and not visible from the street so I don't have privacy/security concerns other than the occasional worker who would see what's in the garage even if the doors are closed.

Some of the downsides that I can imagine are 1) higher cost; 2) glass needs regular cleaning; and 3) everthing is visible, including any mess inside.


The glass doors might be a bit pretentious for me, especially on a house that doesn't have other modern design elements.

Who's done it? What do I need to know?

 

Right side stall is set back (see plan view below). We are restricted by code to 600 Sq. Ft. and needed to design in a manner to get three cars in. The right hand stall is only 18.0' feet deep and the pair on the left is 20.3" deep. None of them are ideal depth, especially the right side stall, but fortunately sports cars aren't long
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The foundation prep is now complete and we're just waiting for the pour. It could be a couple weeks as we're coordinating the garage pour with another concrete pour at the site. All the crushed rock in the middle is part of the backfill for behind the retaining wall.

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Had an unexpected delay to sort out an issue with our drainage plan but we're back on track now. Footings now poured and working on retaining wall forms. Retaining wall should be poured late this week or early next.

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Retaining wall complete except for wing wall on left.

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Drainage and waterproofing of wall is next.

 

Progress delayed as the crew has been working on other parts of the project. They are back on the garage now, although we may now have weather delays.

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