Rooftop Secrets.(Column)

Byline: CORY FARLEY

If the garage project had stayed on schedule, I wouldn't have been stuck on the roof so much as poised there. I could have grasped the eaves with my powerful hands and gracefully curled down.

But that would have been during the Reagan administration. I wouldn't try the same move today without a riding mechanic in the ambulance.

In 1979, we bought a house with no garage but with a sturdy shed out back. I had plans while the real estate agent was still fumbling for the key: Rip out that hedge, put in a door; by fall, I'd be snug as a Penske mechanic. I got the season right but missed the year by 28.

The shrubs fell in November, exposing the house to the winter wind. In April, I wheelbarrowed in gravel and had a driveway though no place to drive into.

When my son was born, work slowed. Last spring, I realized the infant whose naps I hadn't wanted to disturb had a college degree, but I still didn't have a garage.

I attacked, cramming two or three hours of work into each weekend of planning, coffee stops en route to the Home Depot and weighing workbench options while watching the Speed channel. In weeks, I had my tools hung and ...