What a *sweet* house!

I wouldn't do a thing until you can extend the house and add that garage, back hallway/mudroom/(laundry?) -- and tear out the driveway and landscape! There is a post on the "Buying and Selling Homes" forum where someone converted a garage into a kitchen. Now they are having trouble selling the house because...there's no garage!

I appreciate the advice! I think I left out some needed information. I live 1.3 miles off the main road so curb appeal was probably the wrong word. LOL I just hate the look of converted garages and was hoping for ideas on closing it in without it looking so obvious. My dh would rather build a master suite onto the other end of the house and put a two car garage underneath it. I would rather spend my money on a new kitchen.

Most homes in our community do not have a garage as a matter a fact I am the only one that has an attached garage in our neighborhood of 10 homes.

I am a real estate agent and can tell you that people(men) love garages, however, we bought our first house because the p.o. converted the garage to being very nice living space and would not have bought if they hadn't. It gave our layout such a lift that when I see the same model without the conversion, it looks wrong to me, lol.
About 1/3 of the time, people buying talk about converting the garage at some point for more living space. It depends on what you do when you convert (how nicely) and how the layout works. It also depends on the size of the house and the neighborhood. If the house is already large, then it is less of a benefit to convert. If it is smaller, it can really open up the space and be a real asset.

Personally, I like it best when you leave the old garage door on and just put a wall behind it. That does not disturb the look of the house. Almost all houses in my area have front load garages, so it fits in. I was surprised a few years ago when looking out of state and hearing that side load garages are preferable. I think side loading wastes property, and around here, we don't have acreage to spare. The average lot is 70 x 100.
If you leave the garage door in place, it also can be converted back more easily if the next owners want to.

One option is to use the current garage as living space to include a mudroom, large master bathroom and a large walk in closet. None of these rooms would be options to put in the front of the house with an all glass wall.

Are you sure about that? Have you decided on a layout for that area?

How about a set of French doors surrounded by glass blocks?

Graywings
The front of the garage would be beside the master bedroom so it probably would need to be the master bathroom or a large walk in. The rear would be the mudroom coming in to the kitchen.

If we did this there would be a two car garage built onto that end of the house with front facing doors so I won't need to leave the current garage door. I hope that makes sense.

Thanks so much for everyone's advice. I just can't picture how to make the current garage door area not look like a former garage door. Also the front of the two car garage would need to blend with the brick and I don't like a vinyl addition so that was why I asking about mixing stone into the pic.

You are right to worry about the garage door looking like a converted garage door. It will, and the reason is the placement of the framing. The header is considerably lower than the upper edges of the other openings in the facade, and there is nothing below the bottom edge of the door.

The architecturally consistent thing to do (and it's not the cheapest way by a long shot) is to resize the opening to match the double windows to the left of the front doors, and installing a matching pair in the rebuilt wall. That means tearing out several courses of brick and replacing the structural elements inside the wall to support the narrower opening, adding the lower section of wall, reframing for the window, and filling in the brickwork. It's not easy to do, particularly when you will need to match the brick, but if you do it at the same time you build your addition, you'll have the trades already there to accomplish it.

You already have a section of siding on the front of your house, and you could conceivably use the same siding to create the new window wall, but unless you are considering painting the house to make the old and new materials the same color (and that's a reasonable option), I think you will disrupt the balance of your front facade.

My parents did this years ago...they built a sharp-looking bay window into the upper part of the space, then siding (not vinyl) around the rest of it. By the time the ivy grew up and around it, it blended right in.

If I'm understanding you correctly, this is what you want to do? You can convert your garage to living quarters and make it look natural. The biggest challenge will be getting brick to match; however if you go with larger windows and then add landscaping it can be done effectively.

{{!gwi}}

Or this if you don't have any/many brick to match

{{!gwi}}

Or, if you didn't want to mess with matching brick and windows, just cover the area with trellis. The rounded top mimics the one above the other window. You get the idea. A new sidewalk would make it very welcoming.

{{!gwi}}

I am bringing this back to the top hoping hilltop will see it. I was looking for the post about my kitchen and did a search for my name. I had posted this back in September and never saw hilltops wonderful renditions of how the house would look by making the current garage into living space. I want to say Thank you over and over again! I can't wait to get home tonight for my dh to see these. I can't believe I missed them!

Alicia

bronwynsmom is right. It looks like your garage is a different level than the rest of the house. Is it a few steps down? Are the ceiling joists at the same level as the rest of the house? If so, you can make it look like the photoshopped pictures above, but you will have to take out the garage door header. If the ceiling joists are at a lower level than the rest of the house, I don't think you can make the windows look right.

I see what you mean. The garage is indeed two steps down but the ceilings in the garage are level with the other ceilings. My dh has a friend who is a brick mason so I will question him when I see him. My first impression was that I wasn't as drawn to the third option which entailed hiding the wall behind a trellis. However, in the scheme that the master bathroom could very well be in that area, it may be a viable option. I can't imagine being soaking in the tub and someone peeking in the window. LOL

I live a mile off the main road so that typically wouldn't happen.

Thanks!
Alicia

you could always plant bushes to keep people from walking right up to the window and then put blinds on your windows.

If I added a garage I think I'd want a gable garage on the side instead of a flat extension and put it a little forward or back as well to create some interest and minimize the look of enclosing the previous garage. If you have the room you might even want to do it as a side entry and put a couple of windows there to make it look like part of the house.

No matter what if you enclose the garage - the key is to remove the drive way right in front and curve it to the side of the house.

I agree! I haven't been able to picture the gable garage in my mind. Space is not an issue my home is in an 8 acre field I will try to find a pic from the actual private road so that you can have more of a "curb" view. The driveway that you can see is actually half of a circular driveway that already exist so it would be easy to convert it back to grass. As far as a side entry that would be fine but I was afraid of having too much brick on the front.