serf2k

Floor space is about 25x40 feet in the garage. The house was originally a wartime Cape Cod cottage style house (probably a "kit", we found a label from the cedar siding which was for a kit home, and the siding pieces were numbered) with a separate single car garage. We took the roof/upper floor off with an excavator in sections without damaging anything...even removed the structure around the chimney without knocking it down (had to take it down anyway)
Our goal, like yours, was to make the end-product look like it belongs and is not an obvious addition. The picture of the backfilling does look like new construction, but the existing house was attached to the left (off camera).
Cheers!

AU1000S

Steve,
I've heard of remodeling but you boys up in Canada REMODEL big time. Good to see you're not wasting your time with cars or something like that......Phil Friday

serf2k

Thanks Phil! It truly is a big project, not one I'd want to tackle again in this lifetime. Poured the garage floor today - got into a big fight with the labourers about adding water....it almost came to blows. So far the tally is: 2 contractors walked off job (one while I was at Carlisle), one was fired, and I recently fired the bank for good measure....this is getting FUN!
Cheers!