I wish more people would recognize the tremendous potential that all the underutilized garages in this country contain.

This one has the advantage of being in the rear yard, and opening to the south. By tucking a bathroom and a walk-in closet in the two rear corners, a bed loft that spanned between could be squeezed into the low attic.

Instead of the usual less-than-safe ladder to this loft, I designed a very compact winding stairway, whose landing at the top partially screens the loft from the tv circle and office area in the common space it overlooks.

When we had finished the layout, we discovered to our complete surprise that it would work very well as an in-law unit.