Just a few thoughts... Put a second floor in the garage and move the walls in so not to disturb the house foundation. Lay new walls from the new floor up to the house. Bu putting in a second floor should really drop the driveway down.
Just a few thoughts... Put a second floor in the garage and move the walls in so not to disturb the house foundation. Lay new walls from the new floor up to the house. Bu putting in a second floor should really drop the driveway down.
Sell it and move like recommended above.
What kind of shape is the garage in? Insulated? Updated wiring? I like the idea of lowering the driveway and garage floor, but I would consider at least taring the garage down (unless it is under a portion of the house) and rebuilding the whole thing from the ground up. A bit more money, but a whole lot easier. Plus you can get exactly what you want.
I would want to look a bit deeper before recommending a sell. Selling will cost 10% or move of the value of the house (6-7% sales commissions, concessions to the buyer, moving costs, points on new loan origination). Say he has a $500K house, that's $50 flushed down the toilet. Also it sounds like the existing driveway detracts from the value of the house. Would the new lower drive increase the homes value? Now, says the house is worth $200K, probably never make sense to spend what it would take to lower the garage floor and drive.
$50k is a lot of money to end up with the same square footage. Is there room to build a separate shop and just live with the driveway?
If you have to dig it out anyway why stop at two feet? Dig down deeper and have a basement for the ducting and storage with a shop on top.
Bill