okay guys, decision time.

Dilemma:? I currently have a 2 car garage in mediocre condition.? As in, ever since it got “fixed”, kinda like the leaning tower of Pisa.? Not bad bad, but not great — and really eventually needs to be repaired.*

Repair Guy said the garage design itself was flawed — as in, the garage only has 3 walls, instead of 3 plus a piece called a “return” (e.g. the thing next to the door that apparently you have, that I don’t).? On mine, the doors go all the way to the corners of the garage.? So when it started to lean, as garages sometimes do, there is really kinda nothing to hold it together, except for the roof.? (Ironically, the roof is the only part of the garage I built myself :} )

Soooo, Repair Guy said he can take out both garage doors, “straightenerup”, add a little return on each side, and stick one massive 16 foot door in the middle. For $2400, that is.**

But, I say to myself, the other side of the garage is just used to store crap like the lawnmower and yard tools… Do I really *need* a huge door?

So I ask Repair Guy what it would cost to just leave one regular garage door, and wall the sucker in with just a little “people” door?? He looked at me with that astonished look that repair guys get when someone else just came up with a good idea… wow, THEN it’d be sturdy!? (he whistles.) I’m never sure if whistling is a good thing or bad, so I shove my hands in my pockets, stick out my gut, and whistle with him.? Soooo, I nudge him… what would that cost?? $1500.? For everything?? Yeah, everything. Everything… *plus* labor? or… everything everything?? Everything.

I whistle.

Now, I’m sure that somewhere down the line someone will tell me how it would Improve My Home Value to have a “2-car garage” vs. a “2-car, 1-door garage”.? And that my house price will dramaticallydecrease or something if I do this.***? But right now, as I’m saving furiously for my impending “job change”, that extra thousand dollars is kind of important.? And though I totally believe in fixing things right and taking care of my home, somehow putting that extra money to fix a crappy garage doesn’t feel right.? Maybe it’s the “fix” + “crappy” + “garage” parts.? I mean, the garage isn’t going to get any less crappy if I do this; it will merely maintain its current state of crappiness.

Sooo… I’m going to do what anyone would do in my situation: I’m going to ask my Dad.

……………………….C.

* and by “eventually”, I mean “now”.

** discounted because I offer him coffee occasionally and let him blather on about politics and hunting.

*** for those of you not in the know, this pesky little “recession” thing pretty much took care of my home “value”.

p.s. Lest you think everything about my house is crappy, behold the New Blue Paint Job: