Feedback needed on 3 car to 4 car construction

[RichTJ99]

Hi,

I have a building on my property that is half office, half apartment. The previous owners had a caretaker living here for 25 years. It has a 3 car garage & its all mine (insert evil cackle). My house is about 150 feet away from the building.

My mother is getting older and we are very close. My wife has no living family & my mother is also her mother at this point. Her father died over the course of 8 years through a long draining illness & at that point we couldnt do much for him in terms of living space due to his illness. So with that all being said, thank god there is nothing wrong with my mom, but we both want her to live in the apartment.

She lives in Florida full time & will be staying in the NY apartment 4 months out of the year. - enough of the depressing backstory.

So, since we are adding on 14' to the building, it made sense to add another garage bay.

We are also adding a light duty elevator/lift so my mother can get from the garage to the living area, or she can drive to an outdoor parking spot if she wants.

My wife seems to think I should keep the new garage & let my mom have one of the bays in my original 3 car. I have seen my mother drive & I want to keep her away from my stuff.

What do you guys think?

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Garage Dog]

Hi Rich - looks like a great property, but what happened to the caretaker who lived there for the last 25 years, did he happen to disappear mysteriously? Are you hoping to get the excavation and fresh concrete poured quickly??? (insert evil cackle)

Alright, I know sarcastic humor is hard to follow here.

General observations;

Looks like you have an architect working on it which is great in my opinion, you shouldn't end up with some half-baked ideas, poorly executed.

Looks like you need the space upstairs to have a "full apartment" for Mom. That should be half the justification for an additional garage space right there.

Only you know your Mom's driving habits - we trust you on that. (more justification added)

Only you know what you have in the other garage stalls and if Mom's driving habits matter. (even more justification if you have anything that could be damaged by careless driving)

Only you know what space you need for your own stuff (I'm thinking at least 3 stalls for what you have now and what if you buy anything else).

What I don't see is where the elevator is going in the plans??? That takes up more space on both levels.

Tell your wife that safety and comfort are important factors and the addition highly beneficial to both!

 

[Scott H in Wheaton]

Mom can't live in the same amount of space as the caretaker did?

 

[RichTJ99]

So the main house has another 2 garages which is where I & my wife park the DD's. My mom is either just not a good driver, or likes to park by feel. I currently park one of my toys in the right bay & i have no problems pulling into it.

Right now, I am the only one with access to the bottom of that building so I always feel comfortable that the kids (3 & 6) arent inside playing scratching cars, etc. I cant help feeling that if my mom is in that bay, she might leave it open, or she might bang into one of the other cars, etc.

If she is in her own self contained bay, I can store 'things' in it & get some usage from that without having her on my side.

The caretaker and his wife lived in that area for the duration. I guess they got a job caretaking elsewhere. It is about 400-500 sf as it stands now on the current apartment. The expansion will put it at 900 SF & i am giving up one of my offices so she can have a larger living space. It should be close to 1000 when all is said & done.

The elevator is on the top right which is what i told the architect from the start. His original drawing had it in my garage bay (not what I told him to do) - you can see that in the second image. I had him move it to the top right like I had originally asked him to do.

Funny, I have no problem doing an expansion but giving up a garage bay is a deal breaker? I know I am in the right place for folks that feel the same way.

My wife doesnt care which one I take, she just thought if i had the chance to build it from scratch that might be nicer than using what is existing. I think I would rather have each of us in their own part of the garage.

 

[CNGsaves]

Kind of depends on how old the mom is, and expected number of years she will still be able to drive??

Also, what is intended use of the "apartment" (ie now a 1,000 sq ft house)when the mom passes away or goes to retirement home?? With all this work on the space above 3-car garage, will it then become rental house for a whole family and your idea is to forever give them that 4th stall in garage??

Finally, is the property zoned for multi-family with proper inspections, etc to satisfy whatever NY might require??

 

[nolimits76]

I like the idea of separating the space and letting mom have her own separate garage, and you have your own. When she's around, the boundary lines are clearly drawn. She knows where to park and store her junk. And you know where to do the same. Granted families can and should communicate well enough, but having let family live with me while they built a house, etc I can tell you it gets "testy" at times. Things like coming home to see my tools spread out and oil spilled in the garage. Not to say your mom would do that, but you get the point.

{edited to delete....after downloading pics and re-reading the info}

 

[RickP]

I'd keep the 3-bay and give up the new garage space. Personally, I like to spread out when I'm working in the garage, and then leave everything where it is until I can get back to it again. (read: huge mess...) I'm not sure if you're the same way, but my way just wouldn't work with an elderly mother walking through the garage -- I'd be afraid of her tripping over something. Besides, her parking spot in the 1-bay would be closer to the elevator -- everybody wins.

 

[RichTJ99]

Hi,

There is a CO for the 'accessory building' & it is a legal 1br apartment. I think part of how the last guy got the CO was that it was not supposed to be used for rental purposes. Not saying you couldnt have someone live there, ask them to take out the trash & then they become a 'caretaker' but since i have small children, I dont want to take a chance with a crazy.

I am also feeling like my space should be mine, hers should be hers.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[CNGsaves]

+1 then for the 4th garage stall (ie closed in), and be for mom next to elevator.

Since no long-term plan for rental, then I'd make the garage wall for that 4th stall easily removeable. That way if mom needs to go to nursing home, then you'd have your full 4-car garage back.

Sounds like awesome setup. Keep pics coming.

Good luck with the build.

 

[sublimate]

My mother is getting older... I have seen my mother drive & I want to keep her away from my stuff.

My mom is either just not a good driver, or likes to park by feel... I cant help feeling that if my mom is in that bay, she might leave it open, or she might bang into one of the other cars, etc.

Perhaps it's time to retest Mom / pull her license before she bangs into a bus stop full of kids,

 

[RichTJ99]

She had two low speed accidents, totaling two rental cars. One of the accidents was at my house where I have a number of cameras & caught the whole thing on tape. Pretty funny (to watch).

She actually bought two identical cars (one for NY, one for FL) so that where ever she is, she will be used to the car. I thought it sounded a little nuts & a big waste of money but I guess its her money to burn.

Shes not quite so bad during the day, but at night she is a little bit of a Mr Magoo.

 

[rsanter]

First, you seemed to have already identified a problem. Your moms age is effecting her driving.
Separate her into her own stall for several reasons.
Her safety being away from your tripping hazards
Your piece of mind
Safert of the building structure

You need to make her stall a stall and a half so she has extra space and construction needs to be done in such a way that it can tolerate getting bumped into without a problem.
Install concrete filled pipes at the opening of the garage so she can not take out one of the posts.
Install a parking bumper like in a parking lot so she won't pull too far foreword or not forward enough

Bob

 

[CNGsaves]

With this new information on mom's "driving ability" sounds more like OP should get a military version of the electronic disable of vehicle by zapping mom's car any time it pulls onto driveway !!!

That car can sit on driveway until OP or OP's wife has time to park it in that brand spanking new 4th stall of super garage / apartment.

You might be spending $50K (or more) on garage addition, and mom's driving wipe it out within the first week ???

Good luck.

 

[RichTJ99]

Lol, I will keep you guys posted.

 

[RichTJ99]

I had my local zoning board meeting & was able to get the 14x27 addition approved, so I guess the next step is finding a builder.

Any tips on going this route? Should I try to GC it myself?

I spoke to my mason who quoted 20K to dig out the hill, remove the dirt, pour the concrete foundation with rebar, etc, build the garage, cut a doorway into the exisiting garage, use 10" block with rebar, then add stoneface to the entire front of the building, and blacktop the new area.

I also spoke to my AC guy about putting in a new compressor & furnace, airhandler, and a number of other zoning features, and the new ductwork and he was about 12K.

Thats 32K so far & I end up with a stone front & the garage with no upper floor. Again this was more of a first quote.

 

[RichTJ99]

Hrmm, after reading crawlers thread about his GC & wall falling down, maybe I will just get a real GC...