Willow & Twig

Over the past two months plans have been slowly unfolding to build a two-stall carriage house tucked in the corner of our lot. The best part? It would have a airy, light-filled little apartment on the upper story. In effort to manage the project myself, I have been working with the historic preservation commission to get plans approved, confirmed zoning and size limitations, I’ve interviewed architects – ultimately purchased an existing plan – requested quotes on materials, secured a framer, you name it. But I underestimated one mighty detail: the City Planning Department.

The moral of the story is always, always call the city planning department first. Dale the city planner gave me the impression he had been educating do-it-yourself civilians in the ways of municipal navigation for years and he wasn’t thrilled to be repeating it to me. I learned that adding an apartment above the garage would require three off-street parking spots (we’re on a medium city-size lot… along with the 40 percent green space requirement, three spaces is not going to happen). Additionally, state building code requires water and sewer to connect directly to the street. Our plan was the connect to the house. Moving forward with this new tidbit of information could require a driveway overhaul ($$$). Needless to say, this dream will be scaled back.

As an ode to Dale, the city planner who slowly dragged my carriage house dreams into the bog of bureaucratic clay… here are a few of my favorite carriage houses found during my planning phase: