To want to convert our garage into living space?

[EmmelineLestrange]

We (me, DP, and my 2 kids who are with us half the time and with their dad the other half) have a 3 bed house. It has a lounge, and a kitchen/diner. It's mid terrace, with a small garden at the back, off street parking outside the house for 1 car, and there isn't much storage space in the house. Low pitch roof so no opportunity to go up into the roof.

We have an integrated garage which is just used for storage, we don't put a car in there.

Kids are currently 12 and 9, and the lounge is a shared area to watch TV and they have their computer in there.

We are looking to either convert the garage into living space (probably a "grown up" lounge with a sofa bed to properly be able to accommodate guests), or to put a cabin in the garden, but that would be a lot smaller, take up a lot of the garden, and not get any direct sunlight.

As well as improving the living space for us, I'm mindful of what potential buyers might prefer in the future - this is not our forever home.

So, if you were buying a house, would you prefer it to have a garage, or another area of living space?

YABU - would prefer to have a garage
YANBU - not bothered about the garage and would prefer to have more living area

I just did this. Best decision ever. The space is so much more useful to us as a room than it was as a garage.

Thanks @CloudFormations that's good to know. Did you have a lot of "stuff" to rehome/get rid of?

Would a half and half work? Half ( or probably more) as living space and the rest as storage for all the accumulated stuff everyone collects. Would you have enough space for that?

It would make for a pretty small living space. I'll measure it to see what half would be

We had a house that had a double integral garage. We used to find the kids plying in the garage so we decided to make half of it into a proper playroom for them. It had a tv, storage shelves and a bed settee. It was heavily used when they were small. When they got bigger we took out all the toys and shelving, put in a much nicer sofa and tv on a unit so it became more of an adult space. We never had any problem selling the house even though you couldn't get a car in the garage space that was left.

I think if you've got parking I'd rather have the living space and the garden

We converted the back 2/3rds of our garage to an office as DH & I have now been wfh for a year, best decision ever! The front third has space for recycling bins and bikes and we had a door put in the partition wall so we have access. If/when we're back in the office we can use the room for something else (craft room!)

We did this about 4 years ago, was a great decision. We have parking for two cars already and never used the garage for parking just as a dumping room.

We did this with our internal garage. It's a guest room with a bed settee, TV, games console and a toilet.

Worth every penny for us, we use it for when family come and stay so they have more of their own space, if oh wants to play his games console whilst I watch the soaps, and I sleep in there when I'm on nights so dh and the kids don't have to feel like they are tiptoeing around the house to not wake me up.

It cost about £8000 for the conversion, I don't know if it has added value to the house as some people prefer garages (we don't have a utility room so the washing machine is in the kitchen which wasn't ideal but we made peace with that) we do have a drive way and a shed so that was a bonus. For our family, it was definitely the right decision.

I live in a row of 70s built townhouses and 3/4 of them have converted their useless garages into extra living spaces, including ourselves. It completely changes the function of the house, for the better

Estate opposite have all done this. Even the one with a free standing garage. And DS has just bought a house with a garage ... so he can play his drums in there. So there’s a lot of people around who like the idea

We have a big plot small house
Prior to buying our current house the owners did this and it’s our dining room which converts to a 4th bedroom for guests as it has a full shower room.
Wouldn’t have bought it without as the lounge diner would have been too small with the galley style kitchen

But we also have space for 4 cars out front and they built a double garage at other side of front garden.

We did it a few houses back. Our garage was too small for modern cars and we had off road parking.
My husband did it with an older colleague who had lots of experience building extensions etc. It wasn’t difficult and gave us a study/spare room and downstairs lavatory, plus a utility behind just outside the kitchen door.
It didn’t make it difficult to sell at all. I suspect it made it easier as it gave families more space.

Don’t put the sofa bed in the adult sitting room. When you have people over where will you entertain them? The adult living room. Then at the end of the night ask them to step out while you set up the bed for ten minutes? Makes no sense. If the sofa bed is in the other room you can leave it set up for them, leave it set up if they’re there for a couple of nights.

I wish we had done this, the garage is and always has been full of crap. Wish I'd just bought a big shed and converted it (not worth it now kids have left)

This is the layout of the ground floor.

We are just doing this. The garage is only ever used to put junk in and so now its turning into a family room/snug and study.

I plan to do this to increase the kitchen space in a holiday home.

I intend to keep the garage door (planning constraints as conservation village) and the first third as storage space then incorporate the rest of the garage into the kitchen to make room for a decent sized table. Will try and have an internal door into new storage area from kitchen if possible.

The problem with keeping part of the garage as a garage is that we wouldn’t get a lot of light in - we would have to put a window into the side wall but that’s where the car goes so would mean the room would be quite dark. If we converted the whole thing then the end where the garage door currently is we would put at least one window to make it light. The neighbours 2 doors down have done theirs and I think they have 2 windows at the end

We did this just before the first lockdown. In fact lockdown delayed the work. But its been brilliant since as an office space and spare room for my teenage boys to watch football together while I hog the living room with dd. We also installed a small shower room so when my sister stays over in my bubble, she has a sofa bed and bathroom. We had so much junk in the garage, some is now in the shed and also the loft. We don't miss the garage and have a driveway for the car. Do it op you won't regret it

Garage for me as I have motorbikes.

The non garage door end of that room has an area that is under stairs - can’t really explain it!

Thanks for the idea about keeping some as garage - I hadn’t really considered that.

Did this a couple of years ago. Great decision!! Got a shed for the garden and put and extra wall up in the 'playroom' so that we have a big walk in cupboard at the back of the room.

Do it. It will double your living space downstairs.

Get a small shed to rehouse any stuff from the garage you need to keep.

I would convert the garage and put a small shed in the garden for storage. You can rack them out cheaply