OK...Here goes. I added a basement under my garage which doubled my storage and workshop. In fact I moved my entire workshop down below. Here's how I did it. Since my garage was a 2 car model I decided to run an 8 inch block wall down the center. I started by making a cut in the floor just on the other side of the center line and removerd all the concrete from one side only. Next I began excavating the dirt down the center line. I did this all by hand by the way. When I got to within 6 feet of the east wall, the garage runs north and south with the door facing south. I dug a 4 foot trench to the east foundation. There I found out there was no foundation, the entryway and family room shared the same slab, so with the help of coworkers we excavated out the dirt and put in an 8 inch conctete block wall running the entire length of the east wall. We did this by laying up a 32 inch wall with a saw tooth and then excavated to the left and laid in the block we moved left to right until the entire wall was done. The tricky part was digging around the footings of the center wall, the house, and the south footing. A friend showed me how to dig out only enough to set in a footing with 2 8 inch block. We stacked these up saw tooth style and poured them full of concrete. Next we dug out next to the block and proceded to add block and footings as we went interlocking the saw tooth block. We made sure we only took out enough dirt to allow for 2 inches of rigid ins. behind the block. The footings along the door and west side as well as the interior wall poised a completely different problem and that was solved by the same process the difference was triming the foundation even with the block and laying up a new wall that when it got even with the foundation and exsiting block we drilled holes and inserted 5/8 rebar which we filled with concrete. This was done in a saw tooth fashion. Adding only a two block type wall each time. First we would do the right hand side and then the left hand side etc. As the basement took form we continued tying the new block to the old block which was 5 block deep into the ground. When we got to the top or the garage floor we laid in a half block so we could pour a 10 inch rebar floor. Since I had a wall running down the length of the barage we poured the floor in 2 pours. The wall had an eight foot opening with double 4 foot steel doors comerical grade. This allowed access between the two rooms that were created. The second pour wasn't as hard as the first because I put in a subterranean car lift that allowed me to store a third auto in the basement. I even excavated 10 feet under my driveway for additional storage and a storm shelter. The entire project took over 18 months. But the good thing about the entire project it was inside work and we only took out that dirt that allowed us to lay in block to support the existing foundation. My friend brought over his Heavy Const. book and showed me how the big boys do it and we followed their examples. The book is called Principles and Practices of Heavy Construction by Ronald Smith. There is a chapter addressing just such problems. Its called underpinning. But instead we decided to lay up a completely new wall and tie the existing wall to it. Once the concrete floor was laid the entire structure was tied together. The work was done during the evening hours with a trailer in the next bay that was filled with dirt. A friend needed the dirt so getting rid of it was easy. This is NOT a project for the faint hearted. It takes time and patience because you don't get a second chance if it all falls down. But with planning and slow steady work you can do it. My project costs about $13,000 but I had a lot of help and after it was done a few contractors said they wouldn't even consider the project. I did have to move my water line and a sewer line but as luck would have it they fit neatly behind the new block wall. The only outward appearence of the entire project was the PODS sitting in the driveway storing my STUFF while we worked. We stored the block, sand and mixer in the garage. I only purchased the amounts that would fit into the garage. I looked for sales too. This allowed us, me, to work 24/7 rain or shine. I now have a dust collecting system for the shop. No more dust in the house and my wife can get her SUV in the garage!!!!! The footing was 12 inch vee block laid sideways and filled with concrete and rebar with the ends sticking out to accept the next section of footing. This also allowed the new basement floor to be tied to the wall via the rebar. There are no cracks. YET.

Thanks for the ideas, I had never considered finishing off the whole garage, maybe when we adopt 4 more kids ;) That would totally work with our house too because we have a cape cod and the garage is strangely under the left dormer on the main house where the symmetrical window should be ...any how we are planning a basement finish in the future too when our kids (all 5 and under) are bigger and adding a 4th bedroom and 2nd full bath. My main concern is resale if our garage is only 18.5 feet long (double checked and our garage is actually 23 ft deep) I think we are going to go for it. I know our electrical is good because it was upgraded right before we bought the house. Hopefully our plumbing will last, we already monkeyed with it once opening up the kitchen to the dinning. Thankfully all our plumbing is on one wall, easy if something becomes a disaster :)

The wall there is partly garage which is unheated and (probably) uninsulated and partly (where the windows are) a chunk of garage that was carved out during construction to serve as a potting room with an open doorway. It's a little weird. Anyway, it's not quite the same as your friend is proposing. It has ceiling vents (which are stuck in the open position) for ventilation and looks like it was a pretty nice kit when installed, although it's just single-paned glass. I'm not sure I would have chosen to install it like that, though. It's slightly higher than the roof and presented a challenge for the roofer. Once we try growing things in there and using water in it we'll have a better idea of the humidity. I'm hoping it'll be more like a sunroom or enclosed porch than a swampy hothouse. I'm looking forward to cleaning it up after the earthquake. No wimpy acrylic ceiling glass here! :P (Don't let your friend put glass over his head--you guys are due too!)

It's called box blight, looks like the plants were gone over with a torch. Different kinds of box vary in susceptibility. For suggestions of specific shrub varieties indicate your geographic location. Otherwise since the rest of the planting is informally arranged plants in an informally shaped bed I would not plant a low, straight line of any kind of shrub at the back of the bed, in front of the foundation. A feature that in addition to not coordinating with the rest of the layout would draw attention to the base of the house, including the foundation. Rather I would plant several different kinds of shrubs, of differing mature sizes that would serve to soften the angularity, squareness and jutting out appearance of that end of the house. Such as a ~ pyramidal kind at one corner, a different kind of similar shape at the other corner, more than one kind of lower stature between these as well as beneath the windows, and so on.