The toolshed in my yard is an old metal husk. It came with the house when I bought it many years ago and always intended to replace it, but never really had the time or energy, I guess.
Lately, the shed’s been falling apart since it’s rusted completely through. See:
As you can see, it’s got no doors, so I can’t lock my lawnmower up. It’s underneath that plastic tarp, chained to an old, broken lawnmower that I need to get rid of. The tarp, of course, is what keeps the mower dry since the shed’s roof fails completely in that purpose.
Today, I started to build a new shed. I based the design off of this plan, although I made mine shorter so that the rear of the shed is exactly six feet tall and won’t be visible over the 6′ privacy fence that I’m going to install this summer. (The new shed was a pre-requisite for the new fence.) Since mine is shorter, I also gave the roof a 1/4 slope instead of 1/2 to keep the front door from being knuckle-smashingly short. The lawnmower will fit in there beautifully and all my long-handled tools fit snugly against the back wall..
Here are two pictures of the shed taken after I finished the framing work.
After these pictures were taken, I installed plywood sheathing on the front and most of the rear, plus nailed in the roof sheathing and shingled it since it may rain tonight. Tomorrow, I’ll need to finish the sheathing, build and install the doors, and install the cedar trim. I’m not sure how I’m going to finish it, but I’m thinking of just painting the plywood yellow and staining the trim.
Once I get my fence in, my backyard’s going to be pretty boss. I’ll be keeping my grill on the slab where the old shed currently sits. (As you can see in those pictures, the new shed is in the side yard and will abut the fence and be completely out of the way.) My yards going to look a whole lot bigger, and I’ll be able to use the brick fireplace out there again. It’s going to be an excellent Summer and Fall. The sooner I get that fence in, the better.
Crap. Just found out it’s going to rain tomorrow and Tuesday. Stupid weather. Guess I won’t be able to get back on it until Wednesday. This is going to be a busy week.
The Next Day:
The weatherman was, thankfully, wrong. It sprinkled most of the morning and I worked in it, thinking that the heavy stuff would be coming later, using some plastic tarp to keep the saw and lumber dry. So I finished the sheathing and built the doors. Used some scrap material to build a little ramp that’s movable and usually stored inside the shed. All that’s left to do is slap on some paint:
You can see that my saw work on the left door wasn’t my finest moment, but it works great. I’m pleased with and proud of the work I did on that shed. I also tore down the old shed and cleaned off the concrete slab that it was sitting on. My backyard looks a whole lot better, aside from the pile of scrap metal and wood that I’ll need to take care of before the city cites me as a blight on the neighborhood.
As you can see, by the time I finished, the weather was spectacular. A little hot, even.
Let me point you to an excellent Memorial Day essay by Donald Sensing. (HT: Instapundit)
