Upper garage door.


A reasonable question was raised in the comments to yesterday's post about the 2nd story door on my garage. There was some miscommunication between myself and the contractor as to the placement of the "man" door on the ground level. So at first glance the upper door looks off-center, but in reality is centered. Originally there was to be a hoist extending out above the upper door for the purpose of raising large or bulky items up to the 2nd story. With the inclusion of a wide open stair case inside, it was decide to exclude the hoist. So why was the larger than average door left? The 2nd floor was and is a gym. During the finishing process it was decided to finish it in such a way as to meet code for an apartment. It was wired to code and so can easily be converted to an apartment with the installation of partitioning walls. This was done too for resale value purposes in the future. The door was left so that in the event that an apartment was constructed a landing/porch and stairs could be built to accomadate an outside entrance to the apartment. In the mean time, there is a squat machine in front of the door inside precluding anyone inadvertently opening and exiting from the second floor.

The garage is 1800 sq. feet of space (2 floors) as is our house, below.
Below photo taken in Nov. 2003.