Where an open--door policy is encouraged

No more oil spots and old appliances-the garage is getting a makeover. And as for parking the car, some homeowners wouldn't think of it.

Chicago Tribune

by Dan Rafter

Bob and Nancy Carlson own the most famous garage in their Downers Grove neighborhood, not to mention the most unique.

The reason? In warmer weather, the Carlsons kick out their cars and replace them with lamps, end tables and a TV. They screen their garage's front entrance and hang curtains across it. And at night, they raise the garage door to reveal a fully functional screened-in room, where the Carlsons relax, read, eat dinner or watch the evening news.

"Whenever I meet someone and tell them where I live, they always give me that blank look," Nancy said. "But when I tell them that we're the ones with the screened-in garage, they'll go 'Oh, yeah. That is so interesting.' So far, though, no one's tried to copy us."

The Carlsons didn't have to convert their garage into extra living space. Their Downers Grove home, after all, includes 12 rooms. But turning their garage into a screened-in room has long been a treat for the couple, dating back to Nancy Carlson's parents, who had their own screened-in porch. "We'd go out there at night, after taking a shower, to enjoy the cool breeze," Nancy said. "It's just carried over for me. Soon as the weather gets nice in April, we take out the cars, scrub the doors and bring in the coffee tables, lamps and small TV, and start sitting out there at night."

The Carlsons may be in the minority when it comes to how they use their garage, but they're certainly not alone in using this space for something other than parking. Home experts across the country are noticing a new trend: a growing number of homeowners are transforming their garages into workshops, gardening centers, screen rooms or even apartments for their teen children. Some are turning them into outdoor bars, barbecuing centers or art studios. Others are spending big dollars to turn their garages into well-organized outdoor work areas, able to hold parked cars and all manner of rakes, shovels, hoses and ladders comfortably and neatly.

What's the reason for this outburst of garage creativity? If anyone would know, it would be Kira Obolensky, a Minnesota resident and author of "Garage: Reinventing the Place We Park" (The Taunton Press/ $32). While researching the book, Obolensky uncovered enough interesting garages to fill more than 202 pages with glossy photos of garages doubling as libraries, workshops and modern apartments.

To say she has become something of a garage expert would be an understatement.

“I think people are trying to maximize what they have," said Obolensky, who admits to having a "pit of a garage" herself. "People are looking to do something with the last place left in the house. We've redone our kitchens, our bathrooms and our master suites. People are now finally seeing the potential of the garage." It also helps that garages are steadily getting larger, something spurred on by the popularity of huge SUVs and minivans. According to the National Association of Home builders, almost 17 percent of new homes built in 2000 had garages that could hold three or more cars, up from 12 percent in 1991. All that space practically begs to be used for something more glamorous than parking. To that end, people are buying products to either spruce up or transform their garages.

Richard Clincy … says that many of his customers are buying finished white shelving, cabinets and indoor/outdoor carpeting for their garages. "People need more space, more room, but they don't want to uproot themselves," Clincy said. "So they're using their garages.”

“I've seen people use them as a grilling area. They'll barbecue there and then setup tables like a buffet, and everyone will eat right there. I've seen other people use their garages as rec-rooms, or as a place for their teen children to hang out. It makes sense. You can always park your cars on the street during the warm months. You don't need to have them in the garage." And then there are those homeowners who can't use their garages for parking even if they wanted to.

"Some of the garages are old," Clincy said. "They were built before we had these big SUVs.”

“You can't fit these big cars in there. I see a lot of people build carports alongside their garages and then use their garages for some other function."

 "Garages really are the last frontier of home improvement" Kaplan said. "People are done with living rooms and basements, and are moving on. They have these beautiful homes, but they can't bear to put their heads up when their garages are open. People always tell me that they don't want to be the ones with the messy garage."

Skokie resident Roberta Jorgesen called on Kaplan last year to organize her cluttered garage. She is now able to comfort ably store her garden equipment and car in her 2-car garage. "My garage is attached to the house, and you can get into it through the kitchen. The garage looks so nice now, I keep the kitchen door open as much as I can so I can look into it," Jorgesen said. "The garage and the nice, shiny red car inside it go together well now"

Pat Sklar, a Chicago resident gave her husband the gift of an organized garage as a Hanukkah present. "We have all sorts of stuff stored in our garage, and now it looks neat," Sklar said. "My husband loved it, but who wouldn't?"

While researching her book, Obolensky discovered that garages have always been multipurpose.

"When the first garages were built in America, they were multifunctional," she said. "They were large and beautiful and always designed for something more than parking. Really rich people were building them and there was some suspicion then that the automobile wouldn't last."

Obolensky also discovered that garages have long been the home for creative inspiration. For instance, Walt Disney in1923 began his Hollywood career by shooting a series of primitive cartoons in his uncle's garage, which he rented for $1 a month. Steve Jobs designed and built Apple computer from his parents’ garage in Los Altos "The garage has never gotten the respect it deserves in the book world," Obolensky said. “But that is changing, now that it seems garages are becoming extensions of living space."

"While writing her book, Obolensky discovered many unique garages. But one truly threw her, she said. Jim Hull, of Brent wood, Calif. collects rare cars and wanted a proper showcase for them. To create one, he enclosed the patio of his Craftsman bungalow house, added a higher ceiling to turn it into a great room and expanded the garage door connected to it. He then installed a hydraulic lift in the room. When guests arrive, he invariably opens his garage and drives his cars into the room and onto the lifts so that he can display them at eye level. "The thing that amazed me the most was the connections between an interesting person and an interesting garage," Obolensky said, "I discovered some wonderful surprises when writing that book.

Extreme Makeover: The Garage

New products promise to remodel an overlooked room cheaply. Our columnist's $2,500 challenge

The Wall Street Journal

DID IT MYSELF by Gwendolyn Bounds

LAST WEEKEND, I HAD dinner guests. My first question was the usual "Wanna drink?" - But the second was new. "Wanna see my garage?"

Even for a dedicated do-it-yourselfer, the garage is often the forgotten room or, worse, the dumping ground for the remains of other household projects. One Department of Energy study estimated that nearly a quarter of consumers with two car garages don't park even one car inside, presumably because they can't.  Until four weeks ago, I was one of them.

Garages seem resistant to organization, let alone beautification. How much attention and money do you want to spend on a room you don't expect to show off? And the options haven't been all that appealing. At one end were the glorified plastic bins that get your tools off the floor only to bury them under piles of junk; at the other, custom cabinets you need to hire a professional to install.

This summer, however, mainstream retailers and manufacturers are targeting do-it-yourselfers of both sexes with products that promise to make it easy to bring order and style to the chaos of the garage without breaking the bank. So I gave myself a challenge: three weekends and $2,500 to make over my garage, using some of what's new along with a, workbench, some metal racks and ugly brown pegboard that I had on hand. As it turned out, I learned that the simplest change can make the biggest difference.

My most transforming purchase was two cans of epoxy paint.

"We've found people will pay for a fashion piece, a look, as well as functionality."

For the industry, the goal is clear: according to Specialists in Business Information, a division of MarketResearch.com, annual growth for the $1.25 billion U.S. garage and shed storage market is expected to climb 15% through 2009, while other research suggests the rate of overall remodeling spending growth is slowing.

For my part, I needed to get my cars inside before winter and carve out a workspace that didn't feel like a dim, grimy cave, all without blowing my whole renovation budget.

On weekend one, I came up with categories for my stuff: sports equipment, hand tools, tiling, painting and so on. My local trash collector delivered a 12-yard dumpster, which I filled to the brim (cost: $279). It took the entire weekend to clear out the mess, organize the piles and scrub three decades of previous owners' grime off the walls and floor. I vacuumed, then slept 10 hours Sunday night.

On weekend two, I painted the entire space with remnants from other projects. The brown pegboard got updated with Ralph Lauren metallic gray left over from my faux-finishing in the bedroom. The color was warm, but dark enough that scratches from hanging tools wouldn't show. I whitewashed the other walls.

For storage, I picked only pieces that hung on walls or had wheels for easy maneuverability.

Ultimately, I came in under budget, at $2,173.32, though I still get sticker shock about dropping that on a room I'll inevitably share with mice and spiders. But this winter, my cars won't be covered in snow.

After $12,000, There’s Even Room to Park the Car

The New York Times

By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI

WESTBURY, NY. - Angela Alai used to begin a tour of her family's new dream house on Long Island the same way as any other proud suburban homeowner.

She would guide her visitors to the icons of affluence adorning her colonial-style home: the two-story foyer, the granite kitchen counters and stainless steel appliances, the cedar deck and slate patio. But when she reached the family room - just past the big screen TV and marble bar, she would quickly pivot, using her body to seal off the door to the garage as If she were a human deadbolt.

“No one was going to see that mess If I could help it," she said. "It was a 'landfill.’ Christmas decorations, bikes, clothes, little league equipment, box after box of junk, and six hammers, because every time we needed one we'd have to buy a new one because we couldn’t find the others" I'd tell my husband, 'That garage' is the sign of a sick, sick mind'

But late last year, Mrs. Alai, her husband and their three children finally managed to conquer their family dumping ground and turn it into the latest suburban status symbol, 'the designer garage’.

The indoor landfill was replaced by bright floors made of durable, easy-to-clean plastic tiles and a clutter-free matrix of plastic storage bins. The arrangement is so tidy that there is room for the family S. U. V. and enough space for a pantry, lawn and garden supplies, sporting equipment, tools and even a weight bench.

Hoping to avert an onslaught of relentless renovation jokes, the Alois have avoided telling neighbors that they spent $8,000 to have a professional organizer perform the makeover.

But they might be surprised at the sympathetic response: Suburban homeowners are so full of angst, guilt, despair and frustration over their bulging garages that they spent $800 million on garage organizing products last year, double the amount spent in 2000, according to the market research firm Packaged Facts. Alleviating that garage guilt could easily cost $12,000 per job. The amount of money spent on garage makeovers is expected to rise by 10 percent a year for the rest of the decade, making garage organizing one of the fastest growing segments of the home improvement market.

The "National Association of Professional Organizers estimates that more than 500 Organizing businesses specialize in garages, twice as many as in 2000. But for those who want to tackle the job themselves, there is an assortment of new storage systems that make your grandfather's pegboard seem absolutely Paleolithic. In the 80's, it was California Closets," said Bill West, author of "Your Garagenous Zone: Innovative Ideas for The Garage," one of a half-dozen books on the subject of messy garages, "But today garages are where it’s all happening.

In some ways, it’s odd that suburban homeowners would be turning to garage feng shui just now. According to the National Association of Home builders, the size of the average new house built in the United States increased by more than 50 percent between 1970 and 2004, even as the size of the average family grew smaller. Internet sites like eBay were supposed to help homeowners turn their clutter into cash by feeding the habits of pack rats across globe. Even garages themselves have grown: 83 percent of all new homes built in 2004 had two or three car garages, double The number in 1970. But the surge in online retailing and a flood of inexpensive imported goods has made it all too easy for recreational shoppers to overfill their McMansions. So the landscape of countless American subdivisions now features a peculiar anomaly: three-car garages so crammed with junk that the three cars are parked in the driveway.

At the Costa home in Shrewsbury N.J., the decision to spend $12,000 on an intervention for their wayward garage was born of equal parts exasperation and shame. Barbara Costa, her husband Vincent and their three children, had packed so much into their garage that their cars would frequently get scratched by garbage cans and bicycle handle bars. To make matters worse, their next door neighbor’s garage was a portrait of orderliness.

You could eat off the floor over there, Mrs. Costa said. He’s a fanatic about it. You always see him tidying up and keeping after people to pick things up. But when you seen how beautiful his garage is, you’ve got to give the guy credit. The Costas tried a home remedy at first, renting industrial size trash hauling bins to clear out anything expendable. But in a matter of months, the garage was once again a cluttered confused mess.

Late last year, the situation grew so dire that the Costas considered a radical procedure, adding a third bay to their two-car garage. That is when they received a flyer in the mail from a garage organizing company and decided that the steep price was still more economical than a construction project.

"We just have to be certain to keep it that way," she said. "Or else I'll have to go ask my neighbor for advice." There are no reliable numbers to determine how many overhauled garages manage to stave off the inexorable tide of possessions over the long run, but the National Association of Professional Organizers web site offers a provocative bit of encouragement, citing a survey taken by the Ikea furniture company in 2001 that inexplicably asserted that 31 percent of respondents got more satisfaction from cleaning a closet than having sex.

Barry Izsak, the association's president, said that while some consumers can be reluctant to pay for professional help, which can run upward of $200 an hour, he rarely hears complaints from garage owners who do take the plunge.

ORDER IN THE HOUSE

Reclaim the garage for your car.

Chicago Tribune

By Ann Tatko-Peterson

Fill in the blank: garages were built for?

Most everyone knows the answer is cars (or whatever other vehicle you're driving). Yet across America, cars are relegated to the driveway.

Blame it on clutter. As closets burst at the seams and families outgrow their homes, garages become a dumping ground for everything from the gardening tools and sports equipment to seasonal decorations and plain old junk. Before you know it, the garage has become a maze of mess. But it doesn't have to be that way. The trick is decluttering so that the car and the essential junk can both share the garage.

Before forming a plan of attack, you have to sell everyone in the household on the need for organization.

It's not as hard as it sounds.

Professional organizer Bill West, who wrote "Your Garagenous Zone: Innovative Ideas for the Garage," suggests playing a game of scavenger hunt. Put together a list of three to five things you know are somewhere in the garage. Give the list to your reluctant-to-organize significant other. Time how long it takes him or her to find the items. If more than 10 minutes pass, you're in business. Now comes the more challenging part: planning and executing the "Great Garage Cleanup." A few professional organizers and other garage organization experts have shared their do-it-yourself tips. (And if that fails, you can always hire a pro to provide a helping hand.)

Getting started

All of our contributing experts agree that you should set a goal before you begin. Not everyone may have the same goal. Some may want to move the car back into the garage; others may want to just clear space on the floor so stored items are more accessible.

Meg Connell of the Organized One in Oakland, Calif., offers some sage before-you start advice: "The basic rule of thumb when designing cabinets or shelving for your garage is to clean and organize the space first." In other words, decide what you plan to keep so you don't buy more shelves or cabinets than you need.

Tip: "Set a time limit. Giving yourself a deadline such as four hours or by 3 pm. helps you stay focused and in action. Scheduling 1-800-Got-Junk? to show up that same day is good motivation to be ready for them," says Breeze Carlile of It's a Breeze Moving & Organizing of Sausalito, Calif.

Game plan: 1-800-Got-Junk? isn't the only hauling service in the area. Check out the phone book under Hauling. Most companies offer free estimates. It's also a good idea to pre-arrange pickups for donations and run classified ads in advance if you plan to hold a garage sale. You don't want to store your get-rid-of items in your newly cleaned garage for too long.

For donations, the Salvation Army offers a value guide online at www.salvationannysouth.org/valueguide.htm to help determine your tax deduction. For items in good condition, you also can post a note on Freecycle.org.

Tip: Label four distinct areas:

Toss, Donate, Sell and Keep. To prevent the Toss, Donate and Sell items from becoming an unruly mess, organizer Beth Levin advises using heavy-duty garbage bags to corral the contents as you sort.

Game plan: You may not need separate piles for Donate and Sell unless you plan to hold a garage sale or auction items online. As a rule of thumb, if something is broken and can't be repaired, put it in the Toss pile. If something is in good condition but has gone unused for more than a year, consider selling or donating it.

For your Keep items, as you sort, divide them into subgroups based on how you plan to store them. Groups can include tools, gardening supplies, sports equipment, seasonal decorations, camping, paints, car accessories, etc.

Cleaning Tip: "A fast way to sweep out all the dust, dirt and leaves: Use your leaf blower to garage quick. Make sure to close all nearby windows and doors so you don't blow the dust and dirt back into the house," Connell says.

Game plan: If you don't have a leaf blower, a good old-fashioned broom will work too. Reorganizing the garage should start with a clean space.

Shelves Tip: "Sometimes open shelving is preferred to closed cabinets and pantries. Open shelving provides storage flexibility for objects of various sizes and shapes," says West in "Your Garagenous Zone."

Game plan: Connell suggests starting with makeshift cabinets or shelves you may already have-an old dresser, changing table or file cabinet. For new products, check out the phone book under Closets & Closet Accessories. Some businesses specialize in garage cabinetry and shelves. If you're more of a do-it-yourselfer, you can find easy-to-assemble systems at retailers such as Home Depot and Lowe's.

To add more organization to your workbench, try installing a pegboard to hold your tools. Hookstore.com offers innovative products designed specifically for pegboard storage.

Also consider adding storage space to your workbench. Maximize underneath shelf space by using small stackable storage bins and glass jars. For the latter, hang glass jars-in which you can store nails, screws, bolts and other small objects by affixing the jar's lid to the underside of the workbench.

For high-ceiling garages, consider adding lofts. Murray recommends alloverheadgaragestorage.com. Connell recommends www.hyloft.com. "Think of your storage in terms of A, B and C zones, where A is items you need access to frequently, B is less often, and C is once or twice a year. Overhead storage would be a C zone," Murray says.

Place seasonal items and camping equipment on the highest shelves. To reduce chance of injury, try storing lightweight items on higher shelves. Finally, invest in a sturdy collapsible step stool or small ladder so you can reach high shelf items without difficulty.

Storage Tip: "Use clear bins for storage to see what's in them fast. Also, don't be afraid to label them for quick perusing," Connell says.

Game plan: Place the label on the side of the bin so you can read it, even when placed on a high shelf.

To save money, use containers you may already have-especially those taking up space in the garage. You can store items in everything from packing boxes to shoe boxes and Tupperware.

For some great storage products, check out organizes-it.com/garageorg.php. A favorite is the collapsible crate, a stackable plastic storage bin that folds to 2 inches high. If storing items for children, make sure they are accessible on low shelves, while dangerous household products and. tools are stored high.

"Get pet food off the floor. If you have an open bag of pet food, it provides an open invitation for rodents and insects to go for the food," West says. '

Pimp My Garage

Time Magazine

BY COELI CARR

HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY FOR AN EXTREME MAKEOVER of your garage? For Michael Cardenas, a restaurateur in Malibu, Calif., the bill hit $30,000. That's a steep price, you might think to remove some junk and add some luxuries.

Yet before the transformation, the place was a disaster zone: crammed with catering equipment, an antique bar and dozens of cases of wine including bottles Cardenas he would have loved to uncork, if only he could find them. "It was definitely ugly;' says his wife Madoka.

Now the space exudes Zen calm, reflecting the couple's Japanese heritage and their recently redesigned home. The garage floors are finished in stain-resistant granite, a wall system holds baskets and shelves, there's brushed-aluminum cabinetry-and Cardenas' prized wines are organized in a 2,000-bottle room.

"I had so much stuff that I couldn't get in or out;' he says. “Now I can navigate the place without killing myself' How many homeowners can make that claim? Even as the housing market cools, one segment of it appears to be bucking the trend: garage remodeling. The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University estimates that homeowners spent 82.4 billion on replacing or improving their garages in 2003-more than double the average annual spending over the previous decade. Companies that specialize in this niche, which barely existed a few years ago, say they're expanding exponentially.

Indeed, says Greg Alford, a senior partner with the Peachtree Consulting Group, a market-research firm based in Atlanta, "garage-organization projects are the fastest-growing segment of the home [renovation] industry: The average cost of a Home Depot makeover is in the $1,000 to $2,000 range,” says Mullinax, adding that the chain is "trying popular prices" to target the majority of its customers. But the fastest growth is coming from high-end jobs in the $10,000 range, according to Alford.

Top-of the-line garages tend to get fitted with doodads and gizmos, including custom-made shelving, enclosed cabinets, work benches and high-tech wall grids made of materials that can support hefty garage paraphernalia like bikes and lawn mowers. Some business owners are growing profits by manufacturing and distributing those products themselves. Often, however, the only way consumers can get those products is by hiring the companies to do the remodeling project.

The iffy housing market might be cause for alarm, but some garage remodelers see in it as a signal for growth. Total housing starts dropped 6% in August, according to the Department of Commerce, and the pace of new-home construction was down 19.8% a year earlier. But, says Loberg, "if people stay put in their smaller homes when interest rates go up, it will be more critical to use the space available to them meaning bigger, smarter garages.”

All the better for specialty remodelers, who can target deep-pocketed consumers like Mike Engel of Bend, Ore. When he decided to fix up his three-car garage, he characterized it as a "dumping ground and completely dysfunctional:' So extreme was the clutter that of his three vehicles, he could fit only the Porsche inside.

Maxwell added stain-resistant rubber flooring, cabinetry, recessed lighting and a hot-and-cold water faucet so Engel could wash his cars. "Now it looks like a finished room-a place I'd want to go to hang out:' says Engel. His once curbside SUV and his boat fit comfortably alongside the Porsche-well worth the price of a little nip and tuck.

Vroom Rooms

Business Week

Ellen Hoffman

The garage may be the last frontier of home renovation, but you don't have to be a car collector to see the potential in this once cluttered space You've already overhauled the kitchen and bathrooms, added a pool house with outdoor kitchen and bar, and organized the closets with modular storage systems. What's left to improve? Hint: Have you looked in your garage lately?

Once a cluttered repository for garden tools, miscellaneous junk, and maybe even your car, the humble garage is going designer. For many, it's the last frontier of the complete home makeover, a big open room that can be converted to a spacious showplace for a car collector or an activity center for the hobbyist. You can go as far as your imagination and budget allow. Baton Rouge architect Kevin Harris is designing a $1 million, 4,OOO-square-foot, four-car garage for a client who wants walk-in storage closets, elevator access to the house, and pet condos for 10 dogs and cats (with videoconference facilities so the owners can keep in touch with their animals when they travel).

In part, garages have gotten bigger to accommodate such multiple roles. Today, 15% of new homes have a garage large enough for three cars or more, according to the National Association of Home Builders. In 1992, it was just 6%. Archway Press, a New York company that sells detailed blueprints for houses and garages, has been ramping up the size and complexity of its garage designs to meet demand. For example, one Archway blueprint gives plans for a free-standing, 10 car structure with a 2,700-square-foot apartment above it.

A garage's main purpose continues to be storing cars, but that doesn't mean it has to look like a garage. Driving into David Rodrigues' four-car garage is like entering your family room. The Pewaukee (Wis.) builder spent $20,000 just on wood paneled walls, red alder pantry-style cabinets, and a bronze stained floor. There are also wall-mounted racks for golf and ski gear, and a lift system to keep his Heritage Harley-Davidson motorcycle off the floor.

Lawyer Bob Wade spent about $275,000 to build an unassuming 2,400-squarefoot cedar garage at the foot of his driveway in Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania. But inside, it's more like a museum to house his collection of six classic cars, including a 1965 Porsche Cabriolet. The space features a 130 square-foot work area and a hydraulic car lift. It even has a shower so Wade can clean up when he's finished working on the cars.

Increasingly, though, owners are revamping their garages, or at least part of them, into livable spaces where they can spend time on everything from hobbies to hosting wine tastings. Zev Pomerance, who owns garage outfitter Potomac Garage in Gaithersburg, Md., says his clients want to spiff up the garage because it's the real gateway to the home. "Neighbors, friends, family -- they all enter the house from the garage," he says.

A lot of people keep an extra refrigerator in the garage. Now, entire kitchens are sharing space with the Volvo and Harley. Dan Lajoie, who runs Gourmet Garages in Wallingford, Conn., says he's currently designing a garage for a doctor who loves to cook. It includes a butcher-block food prep area and storage for pots and pans.

In a few weeks, Michael Cardenas, who owns eight restaurants in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, will be moving his 2,000-bottle wine collection from a spare bedroom in his Malibu (Calif.) home to a new temperature-controlled wine cellar in the garage he's having renovated. The project, which cost around $35,000, also includes cabinets for storing pans, plates, linens, and other catering supplies.

If you would like to create your own Ober-garage, start by checking out Bill West's Your Garagenous Zone: Innovative Ideas for the Garage. The book includes architectural layouts for garages that can "enhance the appearance of the home" without it being the first, biggest thing you see when you look at the house. There's also a section on garage-appropriate materials and accessories, such as flooring and shelves, with information on the companies that sell them. …

You can buy the products and do it yourself, or the companies can arrange for installation. For the really big project, you may want to hire an architect and contractor.

It's one thing to equip your current garage with such showstoppers as marble countertops, skylights, and humidity controls. But if you want to build or expand a garage so it's more like an extension of your living space, be sure to check the local zoning laws. In older neighborhoods, you may be thwarted by rules that limit the amount of space structures can occupy to 50% or less of the lot size. If you want to build up instead of out say, to add an in-law apartment above the garage, you may encounter limits on the number of residential units allowed in areas zoned for single-family dwellings. Another issue warns John Connell, an architect in Warren, Vt., arises if your plans include a built-in automotive lift or pit. It will raise building inspectors' concerns about the disposal of oil or other hazardous substances that can cause environmental problems.

Of course, if everything you want to do in your garage adds up to more space than you can legally create, you always have an easy way to get better use from your existing garage. Just park your car in the driveway.

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