Cost Effective Garage Conversion - Garage Conversion Pictures

Will a cost effective garage conversion be the answer to my problem? That was my question and my idea as we needed a bit more space and the best idea was a garage conversion. First I went to the village hall to ask about taxes and the answer was yes your taxes will go up but I was told that they would not be raised too much because I was not building anything new, I was just remodeling something that already existed. We were happy with that answer and moved forward. We had a small one car, attached garage in our ranch style house. When we measured it, we found that it was a good size for a den and it may be fairly easy and cost effective to convert the garage into that desperately needed extra room. We had checked into the cost of building on an extra room and then found out that the cost to convert the garage would be about half the price. The next question was how and who shall we get to help?

After talking with a couple friends who had done some contracting work we figured out a plan. The first step was to clean and strip the garage clean. We started by buying an Amish built shed for storage of our garage items since we would no longer have a one car garage. Then we stripped the walls and ceilings to prepare it for insulation and construction. Our garage was big enough to be turned into a 16x16 room and a 7x11 entryway. We began the garage remodel in our plan to convert the garage to a room.

My husband and I prepared the ideas for the do it yourself garage conversion part of the project. The room will then be ready for the contractor to do his part but from the do it yourself part we saved a little money. When we were finished, the contractor came in and made sure we had outlets where we wanted them and put them in, They removed the garage door and replaced it with a new entry door, they insulated and put up drywall. The window company came and installed new windows in the exact places of the old windows in the garage. We painted the room once finished, then the contractor laid a laminate floor for us. Basically, that's about it. No real con structural differences in the room. Just a wall to divide the den from the entryway.

Our room is now finished and we have a totally remodeled garage inside and out. We furnished the room woth two desks, a loveseat a chair and a TV and use it for a den and TV room. The pictures below show before and after photos of the conversion of the garage. The entryway part of the addition is still in progress.