2000: Garage & Diningroom
The garage was the opening gambit in the Mother of All Projects. In retrospect, the remodeling job that we did in the six months between my birthday and the Super Bowl in 1999-2000 was the kind of thing most sane people would have consulted an architect about. At the very least, they would have hired a contractor, who in turn would have suggested taking out a second mortgage.
But this is not our way. It was a runaway chain reaction from start to finish. It started when Craig decided to repaint the inside of the house (for the first time in 17 years). In a couple of weekends, he worked his way from the bedrooms clear through the entryway and pantry. Then he asked me what I wanted to do with the rest. He was looking at the still lovely but definitely aging wallpaper in the kitchen and dining area.
I said, "Do you think we'll ever remodel and build a diningroom in the garage?"
It was all because of the little Satsuma plates my aunt had given me. They were exquisite, and I was wanting a nice china cabinet for them and all the other dishes I had that I wanted to be able to look at. But I had no place for a china cabinet. I needed a diningroom.
We thought about building on to the back of the house, but we couldn't make much sense of that idea, and besides, all of the space in back is prime real estate for us. So we thought about building a diningroom in the garage. Craig had always hated the way the garage opened into the kitchen.
But if we built out the garage, what would we do with the cars? Craig said he thought it would compromise the value of the house if there were no place to put the cars.
We thought about a carport, but couldn't come up with a good design. I sketched and sketched, but couldn't make it work, and couldn't find a picture anywhere, though I searched magazines and books. So we thought about adding on an attached garage in front. We couldn't make that work either. Craig vetoed my every suggestion on engineering grounds.
We decided that nothing would do but a separate brick two-car garage in front of where the old garage was. One morning in early August, we raked, swept and measured a large square of ground centered in the old driveway and marked it with lines of white spray paint. When we stepped back to study it, I pointed out that this was without a doubt the ugliest, most useless piece of ground on our entire property. That decided it.
Craig called a contractor, who began to add up what such a job would amount to. We didn't like the sound of the cash register in this man's head, so we said never mind. We'd build it ourselves. The contractor said, "Will you build open or closed soffits?" Ha!
I think he was trying to intimidate us. He didn't know us. We knew what a soffit was! We had read about it in a do-it-yourself garage-building book. We were in for it now.
