They say you don't know what you've got until you've lost it. And such is our case of not having a garage. Our previous apartment came with a small, but very useful private garage, which we used to store away non-essentials, boxes, and other miscellaneous items. Now we're envious of our friends who have the storage option of a garage, alongside the convenience of having a parking space waiting for them upon their return home.
But many Angelenos often re-imagine their garage spaces beyond just as extra storage space or a parking facility, and into home offices, gyms, workshops, rec rooms, and just about anything else they can't fit into their home. Such is the case of my friend Gerald, who converted his garage into an impressive equipped gym and martial arts training area, complete with built-in cabinetry for equipment storage, weight racks with complete set of free weights and kettle bells, fully stocked fridge, floor padding ontop of non-slip floor tiling, air conditioning...and get this...a face-to-face networked gaming and computing station powered by a PC and Playstation 3 hidden inside a self-designed custom cabinet inspired by his trips to Japan. I just about cancelled my gym membership and wanted to sign up to use his amazing garage-hidden facilities. It may not be amongst the smallest, be Gerald's garage is definitely ranked alongside the coolest!
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
In Seattle, I'm in the process of buying a house -- closing and moving in next week, FINALLY! -- with a detached garage. After some reno, the garage (or DADU, as we affectionately call it) will be the pimped out bachelor pad of my current roommate (soon to be renter... how weird is that, someone's gonna pay ME rent???). It won't be a true DADU, since there will be no kitchen/bathroom. She'll have to walk the 5 feet to the house to use the bathroom, which will unfortunately require going out into the elements. But it's more than worth it to her for the privacy. And someday I can see using it as a studio, home office, or place for my (now 3 year old) son's god-awful band to practice. I could care less about parking my car there; it feels like such a luxury to be moving to a place where street parking is available!
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