"We spent $68k converting our garage into a luxury apartment for our son"

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A couple in Florida spent $68,000 transforming their garage into a luxury apartment for their 21-year-old son, allowing him to save on rent while maintaining independence.  The three-month renovation created a stylish space just steps away from home.

Transcript

00:00We converted a garage apartment to a rental for our son, and I didn't think it would be as incredible as it ended up being.

00:06I truly think it's because we handled every little bit of space

00:11with love and affection.

00:12We all knew going into the project that it was a small space, and we were asking a lot out of

00:17360 square feet of what used to be a single-car garage.

00:21Our main goal was to carve out a living space, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a separate bedroom space.

00:26And we were even able to create a back seating area totally separate from our shared backyard,

00:32which was right behind the utility closet off the garage.

00:35We own our own contracting company where we work on historic homes for other people,

00:39but this was our personal labor of love.

00:42We all pitched in and worked on this project for over three months, and I know, I

00:46feel like we just wanted to make it special because it was ours, and our son was going to be living in it, like a

00:52part of us was going to be given to him as a gift, or sort of speaking, you know, like a gift

00:57you would give your kids. I guess you could call it a love offering of some sort. Yes, I know,

01:04he's not going to live in here forever.

01:06It's just to serve as a very nice peaceful space to help him get his own business off the ground,

01:12which is stressful enough. But for right now, we're enjoying him being nearby.

01:17We do love the space. It turned out great, and it'll be a fabulous rental someday.

01:22But having your 20-year-old son share a cup of coffee on the back porch or dinner around the table when he gets home from work

01:27is super nice to have right now.

01:30Because I know all things change, and it's never going to last forever,

01:34but for now, I just feel grateful for the space, and to have him around a little while longer.

01:42I'm going to show you some special stuff inside what used to be my garage. Now, it's an apartment for my son.

01:48So let's go in there while he's not here,

01:50and I'll show you some really cool stuff that we've got going in here. First of all, fridge.

01:54It's a tiny fridge. Not too tiny, but just big enough. Over here, it's a tiny stove.

01:59Just enough to do everything, and then also an 18-inch

02:03dishwasher. Behind that right here, here is

02:07where we store everything. It's in between studs, so it's behind the wall, or level with the wall, and it doesn't stick out.

02:13Right up here, right up here, this is an antique, how should I put it?

02:18It's all bamboo, and it's a handmade light, and it looked like it'd be perfect there. All the

02:24beams that you see in here are actually wrapping the 2x8s that, I'm sorry, they're 2x10s that we couldn't wrap

02:30or make good looking, so we decided to put something on it and just stain it.

02:35Right here, we have our A.C. That's not, that's not abnormal. It's not normal, but it's a Mitsubishi A.C.

02:41It does great. Over here, we captured some space because there used to be a garage door here,

02:46and, I'm getting out of breath,

02:48we captured that space and made a little closet so you could put a

02:51vacuum in there and stuff. You'll notice we put an arch in up here also. Just made it architecturally

02:57interesting, and then above that, some books because we wanted to make it look like our kid was competent and read books, and he does.

03:04Follow me in here. Here's the bedroom.

03:07You'll see an antique window right there. It's actually an antique door.

03:10We didn't want to have a solid wall there,

03:12so we had to put something you could see through, and that was perfect. Up above here,

03:15you're going to see some lights. Those are hidden track lights, not, I'm sorry, not hidden track lights,

03:20they're hidden tape lights, and they dim and everything and make it kind of bloody in here.

03:25Out there is a courtyard, so you can open the door, and we put a screen

03:30in here so you can enjoy that, and a screen on the other door so you can get cross breeze.

03:35Here's our small washroom with huge benefits. These are, this is

03:39full size in a 370 square foot garage apartment. Crazy. Here's the closet. The closet is small,

03:44but you know what? He needed to pair it on his clothes anyway,

03:48and just behind me is the bathroom, and it's fully tiled. It does have a step up here.

03:55We have, let me see, what do we have? We have a shower over here. It's like five by three, huge. We have a built-in wash,

04:02or I'm sorry, a built-in

04:05medicine cabinet.

04:07I'm losing my words. We also have, tucked in here so you don't have to have a full size,

04:11ironing board, which hopefully gets used more than once a week. Hope that was enough.

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