Shrink Wrapping in Highlands, NJ

The harbor at the mouth of the Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers is what the town is built around, and sportfishing boats, center consoles and sailboats fill the yards and docks near it. Climb the hill above the harbor and the boats give way to ordinary houses with a trailer in the driveway instead.

Open bay wind hits the harbor differently than it hits a street a quarter mile up the hill, but the framing and venting built into a wrap doesn't change block to block — only the boat or item underneath it does.

Low-lying streets like Shore Drive and Bay Avenue sit right at harbor level, while the ridge crowned by the Twin Lights lifts homes well above it. That elevation change means a patio up top catches gusts off Sandy Hook, and a driveway down by Bay Avenue deals more with spray and standing water.

The ferry terminal near the harbor adds a different kind of traffic on a summer morning than a hillside street ever sees, but it doesn't change how we approach a job on either end of town.