Look hard at your garage: If it's old, it could be drafty, crooked, downright ugly. If it's newer, it could be underused or overstuffed. Could it instead become a second home on your property that you could rent out, let a family member use or move in yourself?

Chris Wilson converted the old garage behind his 1910 Victorian house in Southeast Portland into a 367-square-foot dwelling with high ceilings and plenty of charm.

Over his yearlong project, Wilson served as his own general contractor, performed some of the work himself and installed reclaimed materials to cut costs and give this cottage personality that matches the era of the original main house.

"I had a steep learning curve but I honestly couldn't afford to pay to get everything done," says Wilson, who bought his 4,792-square-foot property in the Hosford-Abernethy neighborhood in 2001.

Wilson restores and sells antique house parts, which makes him handier than the average homeowner. His background and willingness to learn more on the job prompted him to tackle the big project of creating a small, second house.

Wilson's accessory dwelling unit (ADU), as it's called, was included in Kol Peterson's Fall 2017 Build Small, Live Large: Portland's Accessory Dwelling Unit Tour.

Peterson, a prominent advocate of compact, second homes sharing a city lot with an existing, larger home, has written a comprehensive book, "Backdoor Revolution-The Definitive Guide to ADU Development," that was released Jan. 23.

Not everyone is a fan of small, second dwellings. Critics don't like the added density and parking issues in established neighborhoods as well as the decrease in gardens, trees and creature habitats. Privacy can be intruded upon when single- or second-story windows in an ADU look into the neighbor's house or backyard.

Despite these and opponents' other concerns, Phil Nameny of Portland's Bureau of Planning and Sustainability says the city sees accessory dwellings as a viable component of its housing strategy.

In 2016, the city issued 615 permits for new ADUs created by building a stand-alone, stick-framed structure on a foundation, carving out space from underused rooms inside a residence, converting an unfinished basement or structurally sound garage into new living quarters with a kitchen sink, stove and shower, or adding a second story to a garage.

The most popular reason to build a second home on a single-residential city lot: People love their neighborhood or low mortgage, and don't want to move but they need more space or want to rent out an apartment for added income.

Homeowners like Wilson see other benefits in transforming a garage into a self-contained home.

First, it's easy to re-image garages becoming a habitable structure since they already have four walls, and in some cases, neighbors appreciate that a new building isn't going up.

Second, garages are usually on the end of the house or separate from it, so residents of the new home and the existing house have privacy.

Wilson submitted his plans to Portland's Development Services in July 2016 and started construction four months later. The work was completed in November 2017 and the new dwelling was rented by Dec. 1.

Since garages aren't as insulated or finished out as a house, making them airtight and energy efficient is expensive. There's also the cost of adding a kitchen, bathroom and windows, and making the most of the garage door opening.



Wilson's project cost $40,000. His DIY efforts -- valued at about $10,000 -- are included in the final cost. At the same time, he upgraded the plumbing to the main house and the sewer is shared between the two, so the largest costs didn't just benefit the garage conversion.

The garage was built a half-century ago using floor joists from the original carriage house. "It had a very early life as a green building," says Wilson.

All of the original studs, shiplap and siding were reused. The doors and windows added to the structure were antiques or newer, but purchased at used building material stores. The most dramatic feature: Exposed ceiling beams.

The city of Portland encourages homeowners to build a second home on their property by waiving expensive system development fees for ADUs. The waiver, which has saved homeowners up to $19,000 in building costs since 2010, expires in July 2018. Other permits fees can be $2,000 or more.



About half of Portland's accessory units are detached new construction, which is the most expensive type, costing about $200 to $300 a square foot.

Wilson's free-standing garage conversion was $108 a square foot.

Free ADU development talk

Kol Peterson, author of

($15 ebook, $25 print), is giving a free, public talk from 6 p.m.-7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 3, at 2120 NE Tillamook St. in Portland. Space is limited so registration is required at

More than saving money, Wilson feels he saved a part of Portland:

"A formerly wasted garage now comfortably houses a person and no trees were cut down," he wrote on his blog, AsItWasArchitecture. "Also, I feel this will make the house more valuable and therefore less desirable for a developer to raze should I decide to sell it."

-- Janet Eastman



jeastman@oregonian.com

503-799-8739

@janeteastman

Read Wilson's first-person account he posted on AsItWasArchitecture:



CREATING AN ADU ON A BUDGET by Chris Wilson

I told myself that once the final city approval was in, I'd write about my yearlong project converting an existing detached garage into an apartment.

Given the popularity of ADU construction in Portland, I figure someone might like to know my story. Keep in mind all projects are different and your experiences may differ.

I choose to take on this project because I had access to an underutilized garage and I wanted to see if I could change that. I believe ADU conversions are one way to add density to our city without much impact on neighborhood livability.

I'd like to encourage that not just because I love the architectural heritage of this city but because it's the "greenest" thing you can do in a city that claims to be "green."

I'm trying to be as open and honest about the costs along the way because those are numbers that are pretty hard to nail down when you ask around.

The story technically starts in 2001 when I bought my first home. I'm heading back this far, and bear with me, because there were some earlier updates that play into the later costs of the conversion that I feel need to be addressed. That said, someone else might start in on their existing structure with some of the elements already in place.

The home was a modest late "Victorian" in Hosford-Abernethy, near the train tracks and right behind a blue concrete warehouse.

The house and garage were clad in fake brick and fake raked siding. The house was dirty and boring, but it had everything I wanted. I could afford it, it had very little updating, lots of original details and it was close in.

Unlike the house, there was no original siding underneath the fake stuff on the garage.

I bought the house from a man who was born there in 1922 and he told me the garage was built in 1958 using the original beams from the Victorian-era carriage house that was on the site.

That seems fairly plausible given the fact that the beams, later the feature in the ADU, were heavier and darker than the studs and shiplap.

A few years into owning the house, I realized the fake siding had to go. There was quite a bit of work on the house replacing missing boards, but the garage needed all new siding since it was just super gap-riddled shiplap.

At the time, I worked for home goods store Rejuvenation and they carried a wide range of millwork. I ordered pre-primed "Dutch Lap" fir siding to match. The cost with my discount was still in the thousands. I seem to recall somewhere in the $4,000 range.

Rejuvenation no longer sells millwork and Blasen & Blasen Lumber Corp. that milled it for Rejuvenation does not sell direct, but you can buy it through a retailer like Brown Lumber in Southeast Portland or Milwaukie Lumber.

A few years after this initial garage restoration, I replaced the roof and added two skylights. The garage with its siding and roof cost more than the house to restore, about $7,000.

In 2008, I moved away and rented the house.

In spring 2016, I went to Portland's Development Services Center at 1900 SW 4th Ave. to learn if the old garage could be used as an ADU. After studying the property's location, building size, footprint and proximity to transit corridors, I was told it could.

The space needed to be designed to submit plans for permits and start construction. The city was waiving system development fees for ADUs, which saved me about $10,000.

Trisha Anderson of Abode Design drew the plans. She is a kitchen and bath designer and the 367-square-foot structure is basically half a kitchen and bath.

The city wanted changes to the plans and the back-and-forth to get different departments to approve the plans took a month.

Trisha had designed the south wall with two sets of windows to define the bedroom and living space. By not using the original header and adding two new ones meant hiring a structural engineer. Instead, we decided against the windows.

The insulation plan was a copy of an online drawing that matched the size of the garage. The building is 6 inches from the blue concrete warehouse's property line, so it needed a one-hour fire wall. The approved firewall plan was a circled page from the city website.

To save money, I was acting as the general contractor and all of this was new to me, so each time I hit a roadblock, I wasn't upset because I had no idea what I was doing.

Finally, I was given the go ahead. The permits to start were $2,000. I had to upgrade the water service at the street to accommodate the house and ADU. The city quickly replaced the old water meter.

It took quite some time to get workers lined up. I hired Alan Lake of North Lake Contractors and building began in November 2016.

The first step was to get water service to the house and ADU, and add a sewer hookup. The 1910 house had original plumbing so it was logical that a new drain and water service for the house would be done at the same time.

The city signed off on the sewer, which was two separate drains until about 15 feet from the sidewalk when they were combined together. This is not a "party line" since this is the same property. The new drain and water lines by American Drain Cleaning cost about $3,600, which included almost 100 feet of trenching and concrete removal in the garage.

Since the garage was already there, the structural inspections were easy. The mechanical, electrical and plumbing needed approval, too.

Once the rough-in plumbing was approved, I framed in the garage door, cut the entry door and framed the bathroom with the help of my friend. The bathroom was the only new framing in the space. All of the revised doors and windows used original headers.

The reproduction siding on the back was removed to create a firewall so I repurpose the wood on the front.

Plumbing and electrical work was done in stages; some before insulation and drywall and some after. The electrical bill for the whole project, which included new service from the street for both units (meter split), a trench, and all wiring in the ADU was about $7,000.

Plumbing inside the ADU was another $2,000, but at one point I fired the plumber and finished the work myself. Part of the plumbing issues were my fault in not ordering inspections with the right IVR numbers and not keeping better records, and the plumber's fault for being very unreliable.

One thing I did right is I took meticulous photos and measurements of the locations of wiring and plumbing because this garage had 20-22 inch on-center studs. This space was never meant to be finished.

I did the necessary mechanicals, like venting for the stove and bathroom. I became familiar with UL rated tape, which is thick, weird and expensive, and with a local sheet metal place where I paid a few hundred dollars for metal and a 4-inch bit to cut two holes in the shiplap.

After one failed attempt, I got all the mechanicals approved. Other than structural, you can fail many times without paying additional costs.

Next was insulation. I hired USI JB Insulation in Sherwood. The ceiling is spray foam and the walls are batt. Since this was an existing structure, the roof's 2x4s were grandfathered in and I didn't need to feather in 2x6 framing to accommodate more insulation, which is current code. This is one of many benefits to using an existing structure.

The total cost for professionally installed insulation was about $1,700, which included wrapping the beams in plastic since the spray foam is super sticky and it would never come off had they not.

I hired Oswego Drywall Installers because of all the old beams and the new firewall, which required a different thickness and different materials. Total cost: About $5,000.

Passing inspection almost didn't happen. The inspector wanted to see the drywall without tape but the installers had already finished the entire inside, smooth finish and all. I had taken photos but it was touch and go. He also thought the exterior firewall needed to be nailed into place and not screwed, but after calling his boss, he lamented that screws were OK.

I did the trim, closet and painting myself. Then came the fun part.

I restore and sell antique house parts for a living, so this is my jam so to speak. Most of the materials used in the project were antique or at least used. That included all doors, windows and light fixtures and most of the hardware and casing. Even the tile was mostly Pratt & Larson seconds.

There were some rare items from my personal hardware collection like the doorknob from the 1896 Morning Oregonian building and a fairly rare Linde antique copper sash lift used as the pocket door pull. I figured it was better to have them out and being used than in a drawer.

The queen-size Murphy bed was free, salvaged from the Waldorf Astoria in New York. I actually acquired it almost a year in advance and stored it in the garage until the drywall went in. I paid Portland Closet Co. $150 to install it.

I originally wanted a used or antique kitchen, but finding something that fit the space was impossible so I went with IKEA. The kitchen and counter tops were about $2,700 plus about $1,300 for the Danby fridge, Midea dishwasher, Kohler sink and vintage stove.

I did all of the assembly and installation myself. A friend sat on the counter tops so I could screw them down.

There's a washer/dryer, bought used for $350, and a new water heater ($380). The heating system is a DIY MrCool mini split, which cost $1,300 with bracket. The shower door by D. T. Glass in Oregon City was $2,200. It's the fanciest thing I've ever bought but I love it.

Lots of incidentals costs really add up.

The ADU was on the Build Small, Live Large: Portland's Accessory Dwelling Unit Tour on Sept. 10, 2017. I had about 400 people tour the space and I have to say I got a lot of positive feedback.

I was also the cheapest of the 24 ADUs on the tour. And you want to know why? I'd like to say it's because I'd been squirreling away cool old stuff like tile and that Eastlake pocket door and I sometimes got casing out of dumpsters.

Mostly, I love that I was able to keep the existing structure. My project created one Bagster of garbage. I gave away the garage door and salvaged the glass from it for other projects. I sold the human door, windows, leftover tile and the garage door opener button on eBay or Craigslist.

The project took longer than I expected and cost more than I wanted, but I accomplish my goal.

Projects like this, as well as lifting old homes and building apartments underneath to add space, are so important to save what it is we love about this city. I'm not a huge developer with a huge budget that can create a multimillion-dollar adaptive reuse project, but I did this to see if I could and to eventually make a little bit of money once I pay off my bills.

Would I do it again? Maybe.



--Chris Wilson

The author has been restoring and selling house parts for more than a decade. He is also a design consultant and does rewiring for lamps and fixtures.