NEWS YOU CAN USE: Peter Egan: Buying a new house? You only need to care about the garage. All of my houses have had good garages, but I’m not sure I agree with this. Then again, I’m not Peter Egan. “‘Barb would probably prefer not to have the liv­ing quarters above the garage,’ I added hastily. ‘The smell of arc welding on a race car trailer at night always wakes her out of a sound sleep because she thinks the house is on fire. She’s also sensitive to the sound of an air chisel, like when you’re trying to remove a rusted header pipe and muffler from an old cast iron exhaust manifold and the whole thing suddenly breaks loose and crashes to the floor. Paint fumes are another problem. Especially your acrylic enamels, which seem to kill the house plants.'”