Garage be gone

I'm fairly positive that we are the only house of our size in neighbourhood with garage space for three cars. This isn't by choice.

When our humble house was built in the 40s, they built an equally humble detached, single-car garage. A very small garage by today's standards.

In October 2005, we built a new, two-car garage. We weren't in a hurry to tear-down the old garage because it was on different part of the backyard -- a portion of the backyard that we wouldn't need until we start the renovation. That would be NOW.

Our backyard is starting to look very much like, ummm, hmmm, (no easy way to say it), a dump. The old garage is in pretty rough shape. The new garage is rather large by comparison, but we decided not to finish it (inside or out) until we brought in the crew to complete the addition. May as well get them to do it all at once, rather than bringing them in twice.

The guys who built our new garage suggested that we advertise the old garage for sale in the Bargain Finder. They said that people who live out-of-town often buy them for sheds/storage. Saying that such people would just come by, hoist it off the pad and drive it away on the back of a large flatbed truck. I was skeptical, but considered that it would be nice to have someone pay to take it, rather than for us to pay to have it torn down and hauled away.

Well, now we are very close to having the excavation crew come and do their hole digging, and the old garage is in the way.

Given my skepticism I thought it would be just easier to have it torn down rather than go through the hassle of offering it up for sale. We changed our minds pretty damn quick when we got a quote of $4,500 to demolish and remove the rubble. Not bloody likely. Ring, Ring. "Hello? Bargain Finder? I have a garage for sale."

We didn't hear anything from potential buyers so I contemplated using the garage demolition as a bonding opportunity with the boy. He was pumped to get a sledgehammer and begin. Not so quick. We decided to get another quote -- $1,500. Much better! So much for bonding. The new-quote-guy tells us that he would come some day this past week to knock it down. No sooner do we make that deal, we get two calls from potential buyers. We tell them "too late" because the knock-down guy could come any day. Well, it's Friday night and we still have the old garage.

Note to self: don't let trades get away with giving a range of dates for an activity.