Thanks, Patricia! I was actually able to figure it out using the Framing Editor. Don't know yet what kind of support we'll need. For now, we are thinking of "hanging" it two feet below the upstairs floor with 2x6's. These would be hanging from the 2x12 joists and the headers formed by the opening. While it might be structurally ok, it still sounds a bit "wobbly" to me. We have an alternative method to get into the garage attic if the mezzanine gets panned as a bad idea, but the alternative eats up 80 sq ft of garage space for a platform and stairs.

I have not been able to get the program (Platinum V10) to give a square foot measurement for the room I drew. The value it returns is 0. Any ideas on how I can get a proper measurement? More importantly, in an effort to try a download patch to fix the problem, I am now stuck with an estimator update that I didn't want. Worst of all is that when I try to access the program, the estimator update shows up everytime. And after I follow its directions it cancels itself and sends me back to the windows desktop. I've got drawings that I need to show a client right away. Please help.