West Wing Design Development

Sketching continues, but the brutal fact is that it's a garage facing the street, so it's going to look like it, and an apartment above is going to look like a million others. It occurred to me to ask the Internet what it thinks.

There are three use cases: 1) One house for an extended family; 2) a main house and a two-level rental; or 3) a house, a room rental, and an upstairs apartment rental.

As Marly points out, internal stairs work for UC1, but outside stairs would be a plus for UC2 or UC3.

I'm thinking that in addition to serving as an entry room, the breezeway functions as a kitchen for the backyard in UC1--a party central kitchen to keep guests from clogging the real kitchen.

Use Case 1

Especially with internal stairs, we get a 2000+ SF Broadview home with ramp access for aging-in-place and two remote bedrooms. Older parents in one side, younger couple above the garage, and an ensuite for a teenager.

Use Case 2

In this case, we separate the 2BR, 2BA main house from the West Wing, which becomes a 2BR, 2BA rental. Residents of the main house use the garage or they use the ramp entrance, so the breezeway is circulation with a locking door at the hall.

Use Case 3

Two tenants in the West Wing means the downstairs ensuite uses the breezeway kitchen and the upstairs laundry. Maybe it suggests a balcony for the upstairs apartment since the downstairs tenant "owns" the back deck.

I had planned to save Casey's room but build a new roof over the ceiling platform. The hip roof is sagging at the corners, the breezeway roof intersection is perverted, and with a higher plate and a gable instead of a hip, we could actually use the attic for storage.

But now I'm thinking that building the second floor apartment in the back instead of the front has appeal: The view of the canyon is much better than the view of the street; putting the attic in front lowers the mass above the garage doors; and "hiding" the second floor means it can be more utilitarian without affecting the curb appeal.

This, or something like it, was my first thought. How boring am I?

Isn't this awful? Let's try to avoid this.

Clip the garage doors all you want, it's still a carriage house