re: Anyone convert attached garage into living space?

You should also check your local zoning and building regulations before you do so.

In more urbanized areas like Jefferson Parish, for example, you need one legal (20 ft. deep, 10 ft. wide) parking space behind the required front yard setback (20 ft.).

The legal parking space can be a driveway alongside the house, under an attached or detached carport, or in a detached or attached garage under the same roof as the house.

The idea behind this is the average household has two cars, and one will park in the required parking space, and the other will be parked in the 20 ft. long driveway leading to it without blocking a sidewalk.

Enclosing an attached garage likely eliminates that required legal parking space and may not be allowed if you go to obtain a construction permit.

I think it's sort of an ineffective rule, because probably 3/4s of attached garages in Metairie are NOT used to park a car, but used to store bikes, boats, and tons of junk. And folks enclose attached garages all the time, often without the required legal permits.

Just sayin'...