Re-Siding Attached Cottage Garage and Adding New Entrance Door

Re-siding our attached cottage garage and adding a new entrance door was a project we wanted to accomplish for a long time.

ADDING NEW ENTRANCE DOOR

We knew for a while that we wanted to add a side entrance door to our garage. That way we had a separate door besides the main one. Especially if that main door malfunctioned for any reason. Then we would have another way to access the garage. 

One of the neighbors in our historic district allowed us to salvage an old door from their property. And that’s the one we used as our side entrance door. It’s always nice when we can use salvaged materials that are from around the time period our house was built in the 1930’s. The door is probably older though.  

The first thing Nate did to prep the old salvaged door was to cut the right side of it as it was wider than the left. Perhaps the left side was previously cut down. We had to get them to be even. 

Then he would dry fit the door in the opening and make a few adjustments so that it would fit properly.

The final result turned out really great. Having an additional side door into the garage is very convenient with all the projects we have going on. It also looks really cute and compliments our little pine cottage so well. 

Some of the details like the window in the door and vintage style light above it on the outside gave it a cozy and nostalgic feel. 

We previously received approval from our heritage commission to install the side door. Since there was not one there previously. There was what seemed to be a window there. But we are not sure if that was even original to the house and attached garage. 

It’s a nice feeling to get approval to change the exterior of our structure. And to make it more our own in a meaningful and functional way. 

PREP WORK FOR RE-SIDING ATTACHED COTTAGE GARAGE

Another big project we were facing was re-siding the garage. Apparently the old school way the siding was originally done was to place it right over the studs. Nate would remove all the siding and set it aside and then place OSB sheathing over the studs. It actually reminded me of sheets of plywood. 

OSB tape was added to the OSB sheathing and then vapor barrier on top of that. And finally the actual siding over all of that. We tried to use the old original salvaged siding as much as possible. Yet, we needed to purchase some new pieces that were replicas of the old since we didn’t have enough of the old to go around the entire garage. 

He even took time to work on details like cutting out the OSB sheathing placed under the little rafter tails to fit the shape on the front and back of our attached cottage garage. This took some carpentry work especially with the pine siding that went over it. 

RE-SIDING WITH SALVAGED OLD ORIGINAL SIDING

We were trying to reuse as much of the old original siding as possible. There were boards that were in bad condition, but Nate salvaged them by repairing some of the cracked and broken pieces of siding. He used glue, clamps, and caulk to get the job done.

It was a lot of tedious work, but to buy it brand new or even salvaged would’ve been a lot of money. We were trying to stick to a budget while renovating our house. That’s ultimately what helped us to cash flow all of our renovations and pay off our mortgage in three years. 

Plus, I’ve talked about this in past blogs and videos. That the act of our salvaging efforts has prevented a lot of reusable materials from ending up in a land fill. We are proud to give these old gems a new life to continue to shine on for several more decades to come, hopefully! 

FINAL ATTACHED COTTAGE GARAGE RE-SIDING 

After using as much salvaged and reclaimed wood as we could, there was still a need for more siding. Nate ran to our local lumbar store and picked up about 12 boards of new pine dutch lap siding to match the old original siding. 

We always do our best to use old reclaimed materials when we can, but there are times of course, where we need to purchase new materials since we don’t have enough. On some occasions, we come across more salvaged materials on Facebook Marketplace, but that doesn’t always happen and we can’t solely rely on that. 

Then a fresh coat of primer and paint on the siding made it all come together and look spectacular. A job well done and long time coming. 

We have posted many blogs and videos about our garage renovations and repairs. Now that we have accomplished so much with our little attached cottage garage, we can move on to other areas of the house that also needed some priority attention. 

Another thing we have talked about is putting down concrete over the whole garage floor. That would make it so much more functional and finalize the space. We are not sure if and when we will actually get to a project like that. If we do, we’ll be sure to share it in an upcoming blog and video. 

CHECK OUT OUR VIDEOS

Thanks for joining us on this journey! We hope that you will find inspiration watching us learn as we go while we’re attempting to renovate and rebuild this old small historic cottage mostly on our own~ while working full time jobs! Stay tuned for more progress updates ahead. Read more about us here.

You can also watch a video about this here.

To see more adventures of our fixer upper journey, click on the links below.

💪🏼🧰 PUTTING UP OLD GROWTH PINE BEAMS ON GARAGE CEILING 🌲🪵

💪🏼🧰 REPAIRING OLD SAGGING AND BOWING ROOF ON ATTACHED COTTAGE GARAGE 🌲🏚