We're kind of passive construction customers, and we're starting to think maybe we shouldn't be.

Mentioned previously, we're rebuilding our garage. It's forty years old, has been beaten by animals and weather to the point where it leans a little in the wind enough to not allow the people door to work, or to make the car door sometimes groan as it goes up.

We decided to go just a little bigger, turning our 20x22 foot 2-car garage into a 22x24 foot 2-car garage, expanding the 16-foot door to an 18-foot door, to allow our big Jeeps easy egress. I think we have too much junk, but we also added "attic" storage (although it is basically a half-floor above the cars, not walled at all) to help reduce the clutter of longer stored items, like winter or camping gear, from the main floor. Additionally, as part of the weeks-long clean-up before demolition, we removed a bunch of clutter that had gathered over the last 20-some years, so we should start with a lot less stuff.

They did an impressive one-day demo of the garage, removing the walls and floor. They were supposed to take the sidewalk along its north side, but didn't, which I think leads to head-scratching we have now. The sidewalk was supposed to be removed because there wasn't enough room to make the garage two feet wider with it there.

They came in a week after demo and in a half-day construction, laid the floor and row of bricks that go under the walls. This is where our "hmm" started.

The new garage seems to be a foot or so closer to our south property line than intended. It's still well within our property, but this seems to have been predicated by the lingering sidewalk on the north side. There's about a six inch gap between that sidewalk and the new floor and walls, just enough for the forms they would have had to place to pour the concrete for the floor. This has resulted in an unexpected gap in the apron, which they also cut into to not have to move the whole garage two feet into our yard. And on the south side, there's now about a foot of garage "lip" that extends beyond the apron.

Further, it seems they only left a 16-foot door opening, instead of the expected 18-foot opening. This will lead to a bit more squeeze putting the Jeeps inside. We might just have to be more careful than we thought we might getting in and out with the long cars and the short driveway. From the alley to the garage is only about 12 feet, which doesn't leave enough room for our 15-foot and 17-foot long cars to straighten out before entering the doors. And there will be a little more squeeze between them after parking. That two feet might be missed.

And, my fault, when they placed the opening for the utility door (where people go into the garage, not where the cars go), we discussed lining it up with the sidewalk that cuts through the yard, although the plans had it over a bit more. This isn't a deal-breaker for me, but I didn't realize the wife would have preferred it to be that far off to the side, because then the door would open a bit more away from the car space and be closer to the interior wall than it will be now. There's a small concern that the door might be far enough over to potentially be blocked by the longer Jeep parked on that side, especially if the nose is turned a little that way to allow some between-the-vehicles room.

We dropped our contractor some questions and notes on Tuesday, when they finished construction and we first noticed these (except the utility door) concerns. We haven't heard back yet. We haven't actually heard back from previous questions, between demo and construction, about the sidewalk remaining.

I'm sure it'll work out fine. It'll be a garage, after all.