Have I mentioned my house is 780 Square feet with 1 bedroom and 1½ baths? Not a house most people would consider having overnight company. Obviously, we are not most people. We love to entertain and have family and friends spend the night so we needed to come up with a plan.
We do have a large 2.5 car garage. Thankfully during the remodel, we put in new windows, doors and insulated it. Wade put in a heater so he could work on projects in the winter. He reinforced the floor joists for the attic space and put stairs in so we could store items above the garage. We sectioned off an area in the middle of the upstairs of the garage, put in walls, carpet, trim, and a door. There is finished space before you enter the room with the door. On either side of the finished space there is enough room on the sides for storage.
It is really quite roomy up there… hmmm a place where visitors can sleep. The walk-through room is big enough for a queen bed, a couch, rocking chair, bedside table and storage cabinet. The “bedroom” holds 2 twin beds, a dresser and bedside table. Once you are up there you don’t even feel like you are in a garage. One of our guests started calling it the Annex. We are now calling it that because we think that sounds better than a room above a garage.
I know some of you are asking what about a bathroom? The solution was to order a portable toilet and pop up privacy tent. The great thing is now in the summer we can bring it along on the pontoon boat for the coffee cruises!
The Annex is not for everyone. A few of our guests have slept on cots or our couch in the living room. The living room sleeping guests have to basically not mind being in the same room as Wade and I. Other guests have arrived in time for the coffee cruise in the morning; stayed until the sunset cruise at night and then happily retreated to a hotel nearby
We love our Little House on the Channel. We continue to learn new ways to “stretch” our space and enjoy it with others. We have added a remodeled camper to our sleeping quarters for guests. Click here to see that project:
We have learned that even though we are not big on square footage we can still go big on hospitality.