Our first house was like this. I had very young kids and I hated carrying everything upstairs. Our slope was front to back and we had a full walk-out basement. We talked to a few architects about making changes, but decided to sell and move to a house that had more of the things we wanted, including a garage that was not in the basement.

Your land isn't really level everywhere else or you wouldn't have that many steps to get into your front door. The builder did this to minimize how far down he had to dig for the basement. Done this way to save money, avoid a high water table and/or avoid rocks/boulders in the area.

Sure, anything is possible with time and money, but it will probably be cheaper to buy another house than to bring in tons of dirt and try to level out the whole property and then add an addition to the house.

What rooms are currently above the garage? Because that is where the entry (with steps) to any addition would be. Unless you pulled it back further behind the house, and took up some back yard.

The room above the garage is a living area in front and eat-in side of the kitchen to the rear.

Talk to a few local architects and/or builders to get ideas and cost estimates. You may be following chispa's path.

If I instead just build and addition with the 2 car garage remaining under and then having additional living space like a family room above can I reclaim the existing garage as basement space?

Thank you Beverly FLAdeziner for the pix! Perhaps an addition keeping the garage under and a family room above would be better use.

I know it sounds crazy, but you would be better off putting in an elevator. It would probably be a whole lot less expensive. Unless of course you want all the extra living space.

Something needs work.

Both the Garrison colonial and this one with the basement garage are still for sale according to Redfin. Images are from the listings.

OP are you thinking of buying one of these?

How many homes are you working on ? It seems they are all over the place on this forum

The Dutch colonial was the subject of some threads 2 years ago. Likely it is being fixed up for sale, while the other 2 are contenders for the new purchase. A pretty common scenario really.

Realtors wanting ideas to convince others to buy homes isn’t uncommon. But they usually convince the homeowner pay for a study and rendering.

I’m not sure why the comments about other houses. Is it not ok to have more than one post on Houzz?

" Is it not ok to have more than one post on Houzz? "

Its fine to have more than one on different houses and subjects. It just helps people offer advice more freely when people are open and upfront. If they suspect that you are using the free advice offered here for commercial purposes to help a realtor or flipper without them coming out and saying so it is not always appreciated.

Sometimes an OP is considering a home purchase so asks for options, but then changes mind on that one and moves on to a different contender, but hasn’t said so and people were still giving advice on a now- irrelevant post. Versus if one is actually working on several houses simultaneously. The reasons matter somewhat as to whether the renovations are for a specific family’s use and style, vs improvements for re-sale, vs merely “ hypothetical” changes, as mentioned above.

You can have a flat-roofed box that looks like a cheap, tacked-on addition. Or, if well done, you have a single-story addition with roof with a similar pitch to the existing roof, in which case, you have a problem with your windows on that side. Possibly, you could add a railing to the top of a flat box and make it look like a balcony. You'd need pretty elegant garage doors to pull that off.

I just saw that you said you bought the other one, the Garrison colonial. Congratulations, lovely house! So is this one no longer of interest to you?

Nothing wrong with more than one house under consideration. But the more relevant info you provide, the better the advice will be. For example, fixing up the Dutch colonial for sale is different from fixing it up because your family has grown. Nobody wants to put effort into providing advice that is not useful because we don't know basic information.

Why are you asking questions about so many different houses?

Wow I never would have imagined the negative comments on a seemingly professional forum. I am not a designer, nor a flipper. I am a homeowner looking for input on several projects. Nothing dishonest, nor underhanded. I am seeking advice, input or opinions. Thank you to those with positive input, I super appreciate it.

I’m not an architect, but it seems like a garage attached to the left of your main house would be more practical. Unless your kitchen is in the lower space, a side addition will be aesthetically pleasing.

I have lived with a lower level garage and I swore I would never buy a house like that again.