About the garage

I'm going to spend a pretty hefty chunk of change on a new garage. Apart from the original purchase of the house, it's the single most expensive thing I've ever bought.

My current garage is two cars wide and about three/fourths of a car deep. In other words, when I drive my car all the way into it, the back end is still out in the driveway. My garage was built for the Model A.

The roof leaks, and ants or termites have eaten deeply into at least one of the joists. The building has begun to lean - only a couple of degrees off plumb right now, but that will get worse as time goes by. Doors are already difficult to open, and the one window has fallen out of its sill.

The current garage has no insulation and no electricity. The concrete pad is cracked with one side sloping off level. That's probably why the building has started to lean.

My new garage will have a peaked roof instead of a flat one, a skylight and bigger windows. It will have electricity and perhaps plumbing. It will be ten feet deeper, so that I can fit my car into it and still have room for a work area. And in the corner that faces the back yard, I'm going to have large windows. I plan to put a wood-burning stove in that corner. On rainy and cold days, I'll be able to park a chair in that corner and watch the yard. I only wish Beasley were here to sit with me.

The work that's been done in my back yard has doubled my usable space. My yard, which four months ago was overgrown with weeds and underbrush, is now my preferred place to be when weather permits. The largest single unusable space on my property is now the garage, and I hope this upgrade gives me that space back as well.

I anticipate spending the rest of my life in this house, so I think it's appropriate to make it as livable and usable as possible.