And now for something completely different

This may look a litttle strange - my husband thought it was some kind of boat house.  Actually, it's the first floor of what is going to be a gate house. I've often seen photos of the gate house of a small English manor, and had been thinking of doing a version of it for quite some time. The  problem was that I wanted to have living quarters upstairs; and for a while, I couldn't decide how that room would be accessible from below without defeating the purpose of the gate house. (If they were outside, then anyone could just walk in.)

Recently, I found some more photos online that showed a door on the inside wall; it obviously led to a stairway.  The actual gate is in the middle of the structure, and when it's closed, the door is beind it. Now I had a solution to my problem, so it was time to build!  You can see the door toward the back on the right hand side. The stairway is enclosed, so it won't be visible when the next story is in place.