Houses with unbelievable garages

Houses with unbelievable garages - Homes with Unbelievable Garages. Jay Leno likes cars. That’s why he owns about 100 of them (plus about 90 motorcycles). To house his huge inventory, the ‘Tonight Show’ host bought two warehouses totaling 17,000 square feet. The Big Dog Garage even has its own website.

Leno is one auto enthusiast who has spared no expense on his sleek collection of four-wheeled and two-wheeled rides and the means to store them. But there are a number of homes currently for sale peddling amazing, outrageous garages as well. We whipped up a selection of some such properties, with the help of the folks at Realtor.com, Sotheby’s International Realty, Coldwell Banker Previews International, Prudential Douglas Elliman and others helped us compile the list. We included homes ranging in price from $625,000 up to $50 million.

Auto enthusiasts have been known to pour anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars into this area of the home. Southern California may be most famous for celebrities but it’s also quite the hot spot for car collectors. Montecito’s $20 million Glass Pavilion has a glass and walnut wood lined showroom capable of displaying up to 32 cars. To thoroughly protect the car collection in Malibu’s $44.5 million Cliffside Drive estate, a 7,000-square foot auto “museum” was built, equipped with sound absorbent walls, Micron level filtration and de-humidfication, and a thermally sealed envelope.

Many garages include hydraulic lifts. These are handy for storage in tight spaces, for maintenance work, and for hefting vehicles from one floor to another. A condo building in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood takes the lift a step further: a car elevator hauls your ride up the side of the building to your floor where a parking space just outside your apartment door awaits. The building’s penthouse palace is currently on the market, asking $16.5 million.

Jeff Sulkin and Leo Damian, the architect and designer duo behind Los Angeles, Calif.-based Calida Design Build, create and remodel homes in southern California and among their clients, top-notch car and motorcycle spaces are commonly sought after.

“There is also a type of garage that’s almost a man cave where men can show off their car to other men,” says Damian. “Man caves” tend to include kitchenettes, bar areas and seating areas, like the $2.1 million Cornelius, NC house whose auto showroom includes a kitchen with bar seating and a lounge area to sit, chat and observe the cars. Overstuffed couches, flat screen TVs, and billiards tables are common furniture choices for these types of spaces.

Garages can add thousands of dollars or more to the value of your home. And a clean, updated garage can give the illusion of more space, as is the case with other rooms in the house. But if you are debating whether to add a new garage, remember that it can run the risk costing more to build than it would be worth when the house is sold. According to Remodeling Magazine’s 2010-2011 Cost Versus Value Report, a garage addition has a 59.2% cost recoupment value. An upscale garage recoups even less – 53.6%.

Have an existing auto area you want to upgrade but lack the hefty funds to create “museums” and climate-controlled galleries? There are still some basic ways to spiff the space up without breaking the bank. “The garage is the ideal place to try some DIY,” suggests Lee Klancher, author of books that include How To Build Your Dream Garage and Dream Garages International, which hits shelves this December. “If you screw it up, it’s unlikely to cost a lot, and it doesn’t have to be perfect.” He suggests covering the floor in colored epoxy or even vinyl squares, a job that can cost as little as a few hundred dollars. Consider refinishing the walls in sheetrock, diamond plate metal or plain corrugated sheet metal. Integrate some cabinets and work benches into the space. Hang old car parts from the rafters or old posters to the walls to add personality too.

Here are five upscale homes with the most amazing car garages currently on the market:

Montecito's modernistic Glass Pavilion home touts a walnut wood-lined art gallery capable of housing and displaying up to 32 autos.

This "car aficionado's compound" boasts 9,500 square feet of living space, grounds hosting a bocce ball court, and an 8,000-square foot auto gallery capable of displaying more than 20 cars within its picture-bedecked walls.

via: yahoo