The Sad, Sad Story of the Garage

So, after 2 months of deliberation, half a dozen contractor estimates and multiple discussions with the city's Code Enforcement office, we've realized we can't save the garage on our New Englander.  It breaks my heart, because I have really come to love the funky old structure.  But the cost estimate to save it has gone into the stratosphere and it just doesn't make sense to keep it.  As a reminder, you can't actually pull a car into it, because of the angle of the driveway - so it is essentially a large storage space, that takes up most of the backyard.

While we're sad to see it go, the demo process was pretty fascinating.  It had to be done carefully, since it's attached to the 120 year old home.  The Plan:  The first step was to disconnect all the electrical power to the garage.  Then, the carpenters cut away the building from the main house.  The most dramatic step - pulling it down.  After that, the slab had to be broken up and pulled out - one piece at a time, so as not to disturb the foundation of the house.

When the big day came, the guys from Lawn Enforcement showed up with their heavy equipment.  I was a bit worried when they introduced Brandon, their backhoe driver, as their 'most careful and fearless operator'.  Well....that's an interesting combo!!!  But he did a fantastic job, the garage came down without a hitch.

And it was so fast!  Take a look at this one minute video we shot: you tube garage demo video

And just so you can get a feel for how much it has changed the property - here's the space with and without the garage.  Eliminating the garage has actually created a nice, sunny backyard.  Now there is room for some plantings and there's so much sun, a little vegetable garden would be perfect.  And it will benefit the interior of the house as well.  We can now have 4 new windows, which will flood the rooms with lots of sunlight!

Before: With Garage

After: Garage Demolition

Best of all, with the money we saved from the garage rehab, we can afford to do a few more nice touches in the rest of the house!  But more about that later......



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