This 74-Year-Old Man Lives in His Old Garage — But Wait Until You See Inside!

Behind the old door

When Walter pulls up the old garage door, there is no lawnmower behind it; there is a second wall, built of wood, with a glass door and a wide window in it. On sunny mornings, he leaves the old door up, and daylight pours into the room. At night and in winter, he pulls it down again. From the street, it is still just a garage. Inside, it is a real home of about 240 square feet, which is roughly the size of a single-car garage.

The first thing you notice is the floor. Walter did not want to live on cold concrete. A builder laid a moisture barrier and a raised wooden subfloor over the slab, and Walter put down light oak planks on top. The walls and ceiling are insulated and covered with wooden boards, painted white. On the side wall, facing the backyard, they cut a new window. That is where his reading chair stands: an old brown leather armchair, a small side table, and a shelf of well-read paperbacks. "This is my spot," he says. "Coffee in the morning, the newspaper, and I can see the grandkids play."

The room is full of Joan's memories. Her blue-and-white quilt lies over the back of his chair. Her sewing box sits on the shelf, still filled with her threads. Her small radio stands by the window, and their wedding photo hangs over the door. "I could not take everything," Walter says. "So I took the things she used every day." But the cleverest part of this little home is at the back of the room. Walter fitted a whole kitchen and a bedroom into the space where the car used to be. See how on the next page.