After the master closet reno you’d think it would be time to take a break right? Well not for us! The very next weekend we got started on converting the carport into a garage. Having a garage was incredibly important to Mace because always he dreamed of having a true workshop (I might have a lot of shoes but he has WAY more tools!) and a protected place to store his motorcycle. We had known from the beginning that the garage would be at the top of our “to-do” list after we moved in… lucky for me he agreed to do the closet first! Here are some pics of the carport before.
We looked into the permit situation and our county guidelines said that if you weren’t increasing the livable square footage or extending the foundation of the house a building permit was not needed (I’m sure guidelines vary in different places). We weren’t doing any of that and were essentially just putting walls around an existing space which already had a strong enough foundation for a car. First up in the demo stage was getting rid of the railings.
Then we had to remove the cement foundation overhang so that when the new siding was hung it would be flush and run smoothly along the house (you can see where the siding runs below the carport foundation). Here is Mace doing some recon.
Then he drew a line on the overhang so he could make a straight cut with the concrete chop saw.
He couldn’t wait to operate the chop saw!! We lucked out and he was able to borrow one from his work so we didn’t have to rent one.
It created quite a lot of dust (hence the mask he wore for protection) but after about an hour (including the chop saw dying and needing to be fixed) the overhang was all removed.
Mace also did more investigative work into the existing structure to determine how he would tie the new and old walls together and make sure everything was properly supported (that engineering degree at work folks!). He also researched the new siding and got it on order.
He also found that one of the posts was rotting under the vinyl which we would need to replace.
Next up it was time to go shopping for materials to frame out the new walls!
And that is the beginning of creating a permanent home for the Harley!
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