i know a few folks who have done it. the biggest problem you run into is that the exterior siding/brick/whatever may not match the rest when done. even if you bought the materials now they won't have the same weather aging as the rest of the house. of course, vinyl won't be as noticeable, but still may be a little. but after another 2-3 years you won't be able to tell the difference.

is the garage attached to the house or seperate? if attached weathering will be more obvious than if it is standalone.

and please post back when your craftsman GDO won't work! ;)

You may also have a structural problem--the walls hold up the roof. But the walls can't be partial--you'll need siding (plywood or whatever) to help them keep their shape and not get blown over.

What if you started with foundation, then walls, and use some sort of temporary roofing without trusses. Then put the trusses in later, shingles, siding, and finish up with garage doors?

you can design the roof and corners to support themselves without the walls. it costs more, but it can be done. and it may be cheaper to go that route right now and add in the walls later.

but yes, the best way would probably be pour the slab now and just get one of those metal carports until the fund are around for the garage.

Thanks for the responses.
what I am looking to build is something like this:
http://www.modernoutdoorliving.com.au/carports.html

by design, a carport roof is held up by its posts since there are no walls.
So i guess what i am asking is, are there any issues with building something like the picture linked, then later on, adding non-structural walls to enclose it?

thanks

Here is a link that might be useful: Sample carport

I can't see why not, provided it's allowed by code. I do wonder, however, how much you will actually save. I would think lumber is pretty cheap these days, in terms of material costs, or is it labour you're concerned with?

Anyway, I can't see why it's not doable but converting it will be a fair bit of work since you'll be doing a lot of fiddly infilling especially where the overhead door is concerned.

Another factor will be the electric, you need to make provision for it - running the service cable in or something at the very least, and that may complicate it a bit more.

I also wonder how expensive it is to dig in those columns.

I suspect that in the long run, doing it this way will cost you a fair bit more than doing it the usual way.

What about purchasing a prefab type carport for now and then building the garage in the traditional way around the carport? You can keep the weather off your car as well as your approach would, and you can build on whatever schedule. Get the slab poured first, this isntalled, and go from there.

Here is a link that might be useful: metal carport

That's a good idea, just one of those Costco tent things perhaps. Pour the garage slab, with the roughins for wire and any plumbing, and just set the tent thing up on top. That is probably your best bet. If you are using siding you want to match the house, buy it and any material you want to also match, and store it.

Build garage when finances permit. That would be the way to go.