In July 2007 I, along with my contractor Max Putman of Trademaster West, began the project of extending my existing 2-car garage into a 3-car garage. I've always wanted that extra stall for my motorcycles and workbench and it was much cheaper to do an addition than it was to buy a home with a 3-car garage. This is the picture story from start to end of this project:

This is the original end of the garage. After taking measurements I found that I had enough room to build the addition.

This is the original interior wall. We are going to place a 16' pass-through here instead of knocking out the complete wall. The short walls at each end of the pass-through will provide locations for light switches and wall receptacles.

This is the first piece of equipment brought in to start excavating for the new footings and foundation walls.

Here's the first shovel of dirt. There's no turning back now!

Oh-oh! First problem. We came across this unidentified 2" pipe. We never did figure out what it was as the electrical service comes in from the back of the house and the natural gas line is at the opposite end of the house. The only theory that made any sense was that a lazy construction worker threw this section of pipe into the hole around the foundation before being back-filled. We never did find out how long it was. However, when the inspectors were called out to check it out we all found out we didn't have the proper digging permits so digging stopped on this day and didn't begin again for a week.

As long we couldn't do any digging for a couple of days we decided to prepare the existing exterior wall for the beam supporting the pass-through. Here's Sam (Max's apprentice) starting to tear out the studs.

Here is the microlam beam in place after a lot of back-breaking lifting. This was my first opportunity for "sweat equity" in this project.

This is the other end of the beam showing the short wall that will house a couple of receptacles.

Alright! After the prescribed waiting period we're back to excavating again. This is a bigger backhoe because...

...the stump and roots of a pine tree that was cut down two years earlier proved to be too big for the previous backhoe. Even so, this thing was tough to remove!

Now we have this big pile of dirt. We had to be very careful as to not let any dirt end up in my neighbor's yard. They are my "good" neighbors and I won't let anything ruin that relationship. All the vegetation and the tree on the left will be removed once construction is done.


The forms for the footings go in and the footings are poured. Now we're getting somewhere!

This is Bob, one of the owners of the concrete company, guiding the pour for the footings. Bob did so much more extra on this job I don't understand how he made any money. He's a tireless worker.

I was off gallivanting around the countryside on a bike rally when the foundation walls were done so there are no in-process pictures of them. This is how they came out and it gives me a better idea how much more room I'll have in the garage.

Now it's time to start framing.


The walls are going up! This house was built in October 1969, that explains the color of the siding! The permit was pulled on October 15, 1969, the day I entered active duty with the Air Force. There's something to be said of coincidences.

Here is the almost-finished exterior. During framing Max's nailer failed and instead of getting it fixed he trained Sam in the lost art of framing with hammer and nails. They definitely worked their butts off!

Here is the finished front of the addition. This shows the new triple-wide driveway. I now have a snowblower because after taking one look at this my shoveling days are over!

This shows the side of the addition. The stack coming out from the wall is for my propane-fired garage heater that I installed. The roof shingles really show their age in this picture. The ones over the original roof are quite faded. This is a result of our high UV because of our elevation here in Colorado Springs (6,200 feet). The age difference between the shingles is only 5 years!

Here is the workbench end of the new addition. I'll be upgrading the existing lighting in the original garage to match the 8' fixtures you see here. That's my propane bottle in the center of the picture. That will sit outside behind the back wall to provide gas for the heater that's hanging from the ceiling.

Here is the other end showing part of the reason for this addition, my motorcycles. With the 16' pass-through I'll be able to close off part of the garage in case I decide to paint something or I'm sanding or grinding a lot.

This project went off without too much trouble. I appreciate the hard work and hours that Max and Sam put forth to get it done. I also want to thank Bob Bingham and his crews of BP Concrete for the extra effort on their part. All the horror stories of the regional building department never materialized during this project. In fact, they provided so much assistance and information that they were a pleasure to work with. My hat is off to everyone who had a part in this job. I guess it will be time for a "garage warming party" in the near future! :>)