You might’ve insulated your garage door, but did you weatherize it? You can get decent weather stripping to go along all 4 edges of the door to block off the cracks. As far as insulating your garage ceiling, it’s something I’ve considered too, but one thing I don’t have an answer too is how that would affect the airflow or code compliance for my gas furnace and gas water heater, which are both in the garage.

Also, when we did an exterior remodel, we discovered there was no insulation in the exterior garage wall, only in the walls shared with the interior of the house, so you may be contending with that. We had that wall insulated when we did the renovation, and it made a noticeable difference. I’ve also planted trees to shade that garage wall, otherwise it gets blasted with afternoon sun.

If I had the energy and time, I would put batt insulation above the garage ceiling and also replace my attic stairs, which are old and poorly sealed. A mini split AC would also be pretty sweet.

You might be interested in watching videos by Matt Risinger on YouTube, he does a ton on insulation projects in 70s-80s builds in Texas

Improving the insulation barrier between your ceiling and attic will only serve to increase your home’s heat retention in the winter. When it’s cold outside, the sun heating your attic is not going to increase the heat in your home more than the cold ambient temperature in your attic is going to decrease it. Before you pay to have this work done I’d genuinely consider whether there are other projects that would be much more impactful you could do instead. Definitely get other opinions from contractors first (never just get one quote for any project, prices and recommendations can vary widely) and see if you can get a certified home performance contractor to take a look at your goals

What reason does your handyman give for needing a second fan in your attic? What’s going to be different for your house? I’m assuming your attic is a typical uninsulated attic in the US. I live in Texas, and as far as the eye can see there are houses with uninsulated, passively-ventilated attics. Almost no one has powered attic ventilation. I have a thick layer of blown-in insulation up there, and with the volume of air your handyman wants to move, I’d be concerned the insulation would move with it.

In an ideal world, all our attics would be inside the insulated envelope of our homes, but our building standards are not there. So where you can affect energy efficiency is in improving the impermeability of your insulation as it currently exists. If you’re going for energy efficiency, slightly lowering the ambient temperature of your attic in the summer heat is just not an effective solution. Spend that money instead on fully sealing all the holes around joints and fixtures that are currently leaking air between your living space ceiling and your attic, and improving the R value of your attic insulation.

I don’t know if what I’m talking about applies to your house, but if so, check out this Matt Risinger video for a lot more detail.

In my experience, lavender either suddenly dies within 3 months of planting, or thrives exceptionally for one or two seasons then suddenly dies. I’ve given up on it

Call your county’s master gardener helpline to ask this. Trust me, they live for questions like this. https://njaes.rutgers.edu/master-gardeners/helplines.php

I’d give you advice, but I live in Texas and know nothing about what would work in NJ.

Do you live in an area that requires permits? There are a ton of unpermitted garage conversions in my area that are not up to code, some of which have become serious headaches for the owner if code compliance comes knocking or when trying to sell.

Is your HVAC rated for the additional sq ft? Are there any ventilation concerns? (eg gas furnace or water heater)

Why does one need to connect everything like this? The only connected system (besides computers/entertainment ) I have in my entire house is a security system. What benefit is there to all that other stuff? Doesn’t it add quite a bit of cost?