.Seems to me that it would be great to keep the front garden separate

If council allows I would look to do a suspended slab carport from the front boundary, with either a short or full height wall across the rear. Leave enough space for a walkway and light between it and the existing garage that you could repurpose. replacing doors with windows.

if it's possible to move the layback and garage to the other end of the property you could close off the old layback and extend the front porch across the front of the house and create a deck in front of the master bedroom and add windows to the old garage to look out under the new deck to a terraced garden in the old driveway space ...no reason to fill in the old driveway as raised garden beds can be installed over the old concrete with proper drainage but all depends on the width and depth of the block, front and side setbacks and parking options in front of the house ..a site plan with dimensions would allow some suggestion but first check with council to clarify whats's allowed

As your budget is less than $50k I'd go with replacing existing retaining wall, new front fence and improving street appeal with paint, landscape, etc.. Anything else will be past your budget. If you sell in the future the new owners may have lower height vehicles anyhow....

A fence of rendered brick piers with horizontal infill panels would look good. Contrast ok against the face brick of house. Get a landscape designer to design a space.

Retaining walls with associated drainage, footings, etc. are expensive to do properly.

Thanks for the comments guys.

@bigreader unfortunately not a civil engineer. I haven't checked with the council yet - but a number of houses in my area have the automatic carport/garage door right on the boundary.

If cost wasn't a concern I also prefer option 3 - as it provides some separation between the carport and house. But I worry adding a separate structure will make the front yard seem smaller. My gut feel is that option 3 is also the most expensive.

Option 2 garage arrangement might tie in with the house better. Hmm still undecided.

@ siriuskey – thanks for the idea – I’ll draw it up and see.

We started considering different retaining wall options, as just replacing the wall with “like for like” doesn’t really increase the property value or liveability – recon that’s true?

@MB Design & Drafting - I don't mind spending more $$ - as long the money spent increased the property value by the equivalent amount. Plus I’d save some money by doing some of the work myself (fencing, pathways, landscaping) and leave the retaining wall/construction to the pros. We are at Everton Park QLD where the medium house price (4BD home) is 670k. So spending too much on the outside might be overcapitalising?

My computer with Windows XP is down so I can't draw anything for you but some possible inspiration, which way does the house face. You could possibly go all the way to the bedroom wall but you would need someone to do levels for you, the first is from Buildex Constructions in Sydney.

This is obviously not level

Yes you wouldn't want to overcapitalise when theres other areas needing work. Carports and garages can really add up if you need suspended slabs, masonry, etc...

However its better to do maintenance work first as this can halt future issues later on. You mentioned the retaining wall needs replacing so better to spend it and fix it otherwise you could de-value the property. I would do landscaping as well as this is the best value for money. Just keep it fairly simple.

Any repairs do need to be fixed, the retaining wall included so have a plan so that the new retaining wall will work with a suspended slab, it won't need to be as tall this time. The driveway and garage as it is even with smaller cars won't ever be any good, can't imagine how dreadful it would be backing out of the garage!!, and I consider myself quite a good driver.. Just doing the retaining wall and slab with a fence along one side would be great to start with until more money becomes available.

Did you end up coming with a solution? really intrested to hear what happend

Hi tate,

we went with a suspended carport over the top of the driveway. Original design was for a timber structure...but this was very expensive (was way over engineered). So after a bunch of back and forth with builders and the engineer - we settled on a suspended concrete slab. Between this, council approvals and the huge demand for builders we are still constructing the carport. The slab is poured (200mm bondek) and the roof is next. I've attached a screen shot of the design.

I will be nice when it's complete... but as others have said above suspended slab carports are pretty expensive.

We are looking to do the same for our house and would be interested to hear your thoughts on how you went about it, how turned out and overall lessons to be leaned

Hi do you have any photos of finished outcome. Also how much did it end up costing?

It's good that you're considering different options and have a budget in mind. Depending on the slope of your driveway, one option to consider could be grading and leveling the driveway to make it less steep. Companies like https://www.paveallohio.com/ can help you with that. Another option could be adding a carport or extending the garage to accommodate your vehicle. Adding a fence and improving street appeal can also enhance the look and feel of your property.

Mostly complete:

Thank you for sharing @randallh56. The end product looks really good! ...i can imagine the work involved to get the engineering drawings right. Below is the driveway I'm thinking of doing the same to..Was it difficult to track down a contractor to do the slab work and did you have to do anything special with the drainage or space underneath the slab?