Write-minded
The garage divorce
  
by Dorri Alexander
January 6, 2010
The nicest thing I can say about the garage was that it came with the house.
As prospective Northeast homeowners, a garage was a feature we desired in our search for our first home.
Like the house we intended to purchase, the garage had issues. We thought we had the chutzpah to renovate a house and a garage. The previous owner had made some improvements already — our half had electric lighting, outlets and a phone line.
I say “our half” because it was a two-car garage, but our purchase only came with half of it.
Apparently, at one time the adjoining property owners collaborated on a plan to build a driveway and garage crossing the property line.
So, even though we hadn’t met the neighbors we’d be sharing with, or seen the other side of the garage, the sold sign went up. We moved our meager belongings into the house and garage and parked the car in the driveway.
Fast-forward 20 years. Neighbors have come and gone. Their house damaged in a fire, the original owners we shared with had it torn down and moved away. We missed our chance to purchase the land and become full owners of the driveway and garage — the neighbor on the other side of them purchased it instead. Later, they would sell the whole parcel to another buyer.
Other than attempting to paint the exterior and periodic cleanings, the garage remained languishingly useful. If you didn’t know what to do with something, it got moved out to the garage. Once it got too full, we’d haul stuff out, think about talking with the neighbors about fixing it up, and the process would start over again.
The problem was money and cooperation. Years ago it took money and cooperation to build the garage, and the same would have be needed to maintain it. Then, a year ago, the inevitable happened. After several days of heavy rain, the roof caved in on my neighbors’ side. We decided to leave the decision to repair or demolish up to them.
If I had to make the decision, I would have found the money to make the repairs. After 20 years, I was emotionally attached to that rotting, old structure. I knew its history — built by E. Mistle and M. Fisher in 1923 for a mere $100 — and for the past 20 years, I was also a part of its history. My kids had played in front of its mismatched paint job since they were toddling tots. Its crooked doors were the backdrop in so many snapshots and home videos.
I felt that I had betrayed the historic preservation mantra that I so firmly believe in. How would the removal of a structure that had been vital to our home and household affect the composure of our neighborhood?
With a heavy heart, I began dragging waterlogged, dirty belongings from the garage into salvageable piles. I realized that the last time I had really cleaned it out was when I got divorced. What I needed to do was divorce myself from the garage and make a clean start. Just like a divorce, it would be messy, but a good thing overall.
On a chilly day in November, the garage came down. It took longer than any of us imagined. Once we pulled down the center supporting wall, the rest of it came, too. When the Dumpster came and took it all away, 85 years of history was gone. Money and cooperation had worked again, to the opposite effect.
In May, we went to one of those big-box hardware stores and purchased a pre-fab shed. They installed it in one day on the very spot where the old garage stood. It’s neat, clean, doesn’t leak, and it pretty much holds everything we had in the old garage, though it’s smaller. That means I can’t haul junk out there anymore, and I don’t want to. And while it’s certainly not historic, its newness means that we are invested in our neighborhood, as vital now as it was 85 years ago.
Dorri has lived in the Historic Northeast for more than 20 years and has been writing for The Northeast News for 10 years. She welcomes your comments at uptil12am@yahoo.com.
2009 Write-minded archives:
September Summers just aren't what they used to be once you're grown up
July Mom's theory of relativity
2009 Midnight Confessions archives:
March Living dangerously on Gumball Avenue
February Holiday cookie hangover
January Into the darkness
2008 Midnight Confessions archives:
December Happy merry birthday Christmas
November Three boy week
October The fear of fear itself
September A cool place to hang
July A walking trip into the past
June The care and feeding of boys & Dad's town
April A matchless collection
March Jobs for tots & Sick & tired of winter
February A Valentine for Northeast
January A pie in the sky idea
2007 Midnight Confessions archives:
December Listening to Linus
November Good Smells from the Kitchen
October "Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood?"
September Traveling with Toddlers
July Conversation Two Years in the Making
May Mothers are people, too
March Dorri's Get Real Club
February Good-bye, Mr. Chips
January My House is "O.K."
2006 Midnight Confessions archives:
December I'm Getting Nuthin' for Christmas
November Little Binky and the Big "O"
September Sooooo Big!
August The Heat is On
July Under the Tickle Tree
May Gringo Lingo
April Saturday in the Park
March Cobwebs and Cathair
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