PARKING SPOT (2025)

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The area BEFORE... ... and AFTER. It's wider so the car fits and we have space for some storage on the side. The garbage cans will hold water that comes off the roof and down the downspouts.
Before we started, we tore out the plants around the bottom that were climbing up onto the roof. The 15 years of vegetation debris on the roof was over a foot thick. The first man took the aggregate tiles. Then three people came and dismantled and carted away the redwood structure, right down to the brackets.
They were planning to make an outdoor pottery area by reassembling the wood in their backyard.
We have a wonderful handyman/general contractor who can handle just about any job except electrical and plumbing. He dug out the area, poured in and compacted sand, and laid the bricks. That big pile of dirt on the left? A good portion of that went into a new gardening bed (see below).
Post holes and posts, frame out the structure, new metal roof.

FINALLY - the last part of the project. The roof on the original 1922 garage was starting to fail. The structure itself was probably being held up by the stucco and the cross beams a previous owner had installed in 2005. There was a fear that taking off the old roof would bring down the garage.

We opted to put a "hat" on the garage. It sits on top of the old roof, keeping it from further deterioration from rain. In addition, the new metal roof has downspots in five spots so we can collect the rain water that comes off the roof!

Our local artist who has already painted three mini-murals for our home is going to augment the front of the garage some time in 2025.
As the trash cans fill with water under the downspouts fill from rain coming off the metal roof, I'll pull out buckets full and transfer them to other storage containers around the garden enclosure.
He also built a new gardening bed and a lot of the dirt from the parking area went into it (so far the critters have not bothered the veggies in it). We stilll have a pile hidden in the corner that goes into pots and is added to the old gardening beds as the soil needs replenishing. It's 'virgin dirt' and is producing awesome veggies!