Davidson Garage Guest Suite Addition in Davidson, NC

The Story

What we actually did.

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The garage roof came off and a full second story went up in its place: a self-sufficient 500-square-foot guest suite with its own kitchen, laundry, living area, bedroom, and full bath, reached by a private exterior staircase. Elevated above the trees, it works as guest quarters today and flexes into a rental minutes from Davidson College whenever the family wants it to.

The invisible work is what made it possible. The attic couldn't fit a conventional air handler, so the HVAC was engineered around the constraint while preserving parking and storage below. We trenched a new sewer line to the home's lateral with an ejector pump to push waste to the street, and ran a dedicated electrical circuit from the main panel so the suite carries its own load.

Outside, a stamped concrete walkway wraps to a fire pit, and the addition reads like it was always part of the house, which was the whole point.