Yes, Virginia, There Will Be A Garage
As evidenced by the super high home prices in the Bay Area, residential remodeling is booming. This means that processes like drawing plans and getting approvals from structural engineers takes a lot of time, more than you would think. We knew that these processes would be slow, and much of 2000 was either taken up by designing the house or waiting for engineering approvals.
Our first step is to re-build the garage and store our stuff in there while we rebuild the house. So, the first step in the design process was the new garage/workshop. Our house designer, John Salomito, did a great job in creating a Bungalow and Craftsman-style structure that will integrate really well with the main house, and the historic homes in the neighborhood. Some folks in the area have been stripping away the historic nature of the Willow Glen neighborhood when they remodel, but since the historic homes are the reason we chose this neighborhood, we want to support the beautiful style of the older homes. Our house currently has not one bit of visual interest, since it was probably slapped up in the post-World War II timeframe, and housing was needed quickly. The finished design for the house will bring a Bungalow style to a currently very plain house, and we're happy that this style will fit into the surrounding area.
And, while we're at it, we thought we'd show you what the existing floor plan of the house looks like, as well as the shape and size of the entire lot. Bill calls it our bowling alley, and that's really not too far off from the truth. Yes, it's really only 40 feet wide.
